All I could think about during volunteering was how much I missed elementary school. During our time at the clinic, Vania and I had to remove crayons from ziplog bags and place them into another box full of crayons, according to color. So after we had all the crayons in one place, we began to create little ziplog packages for the children who come to the clinic. This included placing three cryaons in each bag along with a cut out of either a butterfly or a lady bug (all of which Vania and I cut out individually) along with tongue dispenser so that the kids could create a puppet. The packages were to be given to the children while they sat in the waiting room.
Cutting out what seemed like a million pieces of clipart, made me miss my days in elementary school. I have always loved anything to do with arts and craft so I enjoyed putting together these little packages. I know that as a child, I would have loved to work on something when waiting at the doctors office. So it made me happy knowing that these packages would bring a smile to a child's face. And as usual, the whole process was very relaxing because Vania and I talked about everything under the sun, as usual.
So after we had assembled these packages, we then unwrapped books that were given to the clinic during Christmas time. It was like Christmas morning all over again - wrapping paper and bows filled the area in which we were working. What I enjoyed even more was seeing the books that I had grown up reading. I have always loved reading, even as a child, so it was not surprising that every cover I recognized brought back a lot of memories.
Overall, this volunteering experience was great. It was a wonderful walk down memory lane. The experience allowed me to get in touch with my childish side and I loved every minute of it. From arranging the crayons according to color, to cutting out the images, to opening the wrapped books, the entire two hours was a blast. And I can't wait to go back to see what they have in store for me the next time :)
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Day 2
Day 2 was great - mainly becuase I knew exactly how to get to the San Jose Clinic!! Once I got there, I found out that Sam, the volunteer director, was not there. So I met another staff member, Jeff. By this time, Vania met up with us.
Our first project of the day was to make tags for the pieces of art that would be auctioned at their upcoming event in May. As usual, Vania and I created an assembly line: I would tape the edges of the notecards and punch holes in them, while Vania put the wires through. Before we knew it, we had finished almost 200 notecards.
So we called Jeff who then told us to set up some computers in this office. So we took out all these cables from a box and somehow figured out where everything was supposed to be. And voila! When we were done, the computer turned on!! Mission Accomplished.
After completing this, we went back to Jeff (who by this time, was kind of frusterated that he had to constantly find us new things to do). But either way, he led Vania and me to their storage room. He then told us to move everything from one area to another. So there we were doing manual labor - yay! We moved several pieces of art (I think these will be used at the auction in May), there were also a lot of random things. But Vania and I worked really fast and within 15 minutes, we were done once again! Everything was neatly arranged in the new area. But now that we were done, we were hesitant to go to Jeff again and reveal the "bad news". Despite our reluctance, we approached Jeff once again.
Jeff then told us to create an excel sheet for a list of the doctors that were a part of the clinic. Vania decided to type the names while I read them out loud. Within less than five minutes, the spreadsheet was complete. Thankfully, Jeff popped his head in right then. We told him we were done and he told us that we had done everything they had planned for us so we could leave for the day.
At the end of the day, I did a lot of random stuff at the clinic. But the bottom line is that all those things needed to be taken care of and I was more than happy to help out. I am looking forward to the next time I go. It is kind of fun not knowing what I will be doing. I hope some good things are in store for me!!
Our first project of the day was to make tags for the pieces of art that would be auctioned at their upcoming event in May. As usual, Vania and I created an assembly line: I would tape the edges of the notecards and punch holes in them, while Vania put the wires through. Before we knew it, we had finished almost 200 notecards.
So we called Jeff who then told us to set up some computers in this office. So we took out all these cables from a box and somehow figured out where everything was supposed to be. And voila! When we were done, the computer turned on!! Mission Accomplished.
After completing this, we went back to Jeff (who by this time, was kind of frusterated that he had to constantly find us new things to do). But either way, he led Vania and me to their storage room. He then told us to move everything from one area to another. So there we were doing manual labor - yay! We moved several pieces of art (I think these will be used at the auction in May), there were also a lot of random things. But Vania and I worked really fast and within 15 minutes, we were done once again! Everything was neatly arranged in the new area. But now that we were done, we were hesitant to go to Jeff again and reveal the "bad news". Despite our reluctance, we approached Jeff once again.
Jeff then told us to create an excel sheet for a list of the doctors that were a part of the clinic. Vania decided to type the names while I read them out loud. Within less than five minutes, the spreadsheet was complete. Thankfully, Jeff popped his head in right then. We told him we were done and he told us that we had done everything they had planned for us so we could leave for the day.
At the end of the day, I did a lot of random stuff at the clinic. But the bottom line is that all those things needed to be taken care of and I was more than happy to help out. I am looking forward to the next time I go. It is kind of fun not knowing what I will be doing. I hope some good things are in store for me!!
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