Thursday, July 4, 2019

Volunteering = satisfaction

Hello,



Once again, Leroy and I handed out water at the 4th of July race in our city. With the temperature warm/hot and humidity high, it was a very necessary task. Even with the early morning start some people were starting to be a bit stressed by the exertion combined with the heat, water was necessary for life. It is great to do some volunteering that feels so important. When we were first asked to help about four years ago, I did not think it would feel so seriously needed, but I find that it is indeed. We fill paper cups ahead of time, hold cups on the flat of our hand so they can be grabbed easily, dash to the supply table get a refill, hold, dash, hold dash, and pick up cups that are on the ground as most runners just drop them. Some put them in my stack of cups as I was picking them up, obviously they are not serious about making time, however I still felt that they did not need to do that.



There was a policeman standing at our corner. When most of the runners had done the trip out, but not the trip back, a car came up the non full of runners side. When they pulled up to the intersection, the policeman stopped them and directed them to another street.



Later, I went over and thanked him for doing that, telling him, “When I saw that, I thought, what are they doing?”



With a laugh he said, “I thought the same thing.”



“I was glad to see you direct them away. I was not comfortable saying anything. Thank you.” I added.



“That is why I am here.” he said.



I suspect about 20 people helped with this water effort. We shared a little brunch afterwards. That is nice too. I now know a man who is an even more serious recycler than I am. He came prepared to recycle almost everything that was used. Glad to meet people like that.



Paula

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