I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Putting myself at the mercy of the good people at the Granite United Way, I offered up my services for the annual Day of Caring last Wednesday. With volunteer jobs set up all over the city, there were so many possibilities.
So when I got the email that I was being placed at the new spot for Girls Inc., (the former Eastman School on Shawmut Street if you didn’t know) the jobs seemed right up my alley. It’s almost as if they knew what my limited skill set included.
No, they didn’t want me to write a press release, edit an email for parents or steal food from other people’s lunch boxes, instead they needed touchup painting, bulb planting in the garden and organizing – lots of organizing. At least that’s what the list said.
So I wore crappy old clothes in case I was selected for painting or gardening duty. And if you’ve seen my desk, nobody wants me anywhere near an organization station.
I kind of viewed myself as the celebrity volunteer. You know, the one who acts the part but doesn’t really do anything. Boy, was I wrong.
After a tour of the building to familiarize with the program and the increased space available to Girls Inc., I was put right to work.
This job wasn’t on the list, but did it ever need to be done. I was charged with washing each window in the place. And I’m not talking about those cute little windows you see in your house, I mean big honkin’ windows that probably hadn’t been cleaned since, well before the school closed down in 2012.
So armed with a roll of paper towel and a bottle of good ol’ Windex, I began to tackle the windows that required a chair and some Dikembe Mutombo-type reach to actually clean the top of.
Now you can all relate to the fact that while cleaning windows might be on the top of your to do list every summer, it usually is the last thing to get done. For some reason, it’s just not a favorite of mine, like going to work, eating brussels sprouts or exercising. But for a good organization like Girls Inc., I guess making an exception is the right thing to do. It just means it will be another year before I clean the windows in my house, but I’m sure my wife will understand. Don’t you think?
So I spent a little over an hour and a half taking off tape, removing little spots of dried paint, clearing cobwebs and using a good portion of that bottle of Windex to remove the dirt and grime that comes with years of children touching the glass.
But I was just one little part of the morning session at Girls Inc. There were four volunteers from Lincoln Financial, who had a total of 115 for the day spread across Merrimack County, and another from The Provident Bank in Bedford.
They organized the library, weeded the reading garden, put out scarecrows, painted the front awning a nifty shade of red and like I said before, organized. So judging by all of that and considering the fact that others also helped with the windows, I guess I didn’t do all that much work. Looks like I took that celebrity status to heart.
In case you didn’t know, Girls Inc. is a nonprofit that provides after school programs and summer camps to girls ages 5 to 15. They currently have 47 students taking part in the after school activities, but for a staff of just two full-timers and four in a part-time capacity, it’s hard to get some of the more time consuming projects done. That’s where we came in.
It’s been a little over seven months since the organization moved from the Green Street Community Center to the much larger space and a lot has been done in that time to make it their own. “We” just did our part to help further it along.
