Event date: December 2, 2010

This was a crazy roller coaster of a day in general. It started off horribly. I slept through my alarm and missed a sales meeting in which the VP, in town from the corporate office, was presenting a new initiative.

Once arriving to work, I had to scramble at work to get caught up with everything I needed to do, then as I left for this event I learned that a couple volunteers unfortunately had to cancel.
So, given the way today started for me, I arrived at Cal Expo with storm clouds over my head for today’s volunteer event with The Salvation Army. I am a firm believer in the mantra “everything happens for a reason,” so little did I know I would learn a valuable lesson not only about myself, but about volunteering as well on this day.

I arrived in the parking lot and saw one of the volunteers, Diedra, a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a few years. My day was picking up already.

We headed into the same building I volunteered at last year, and we saw Volunteer Coordinator Ava Simpson. Her warm smile brought back fond memories of participating in last year’s Coats For Kids Drive.

I met a couple more volunteers, Barbara and Kristina, who were already inside. We signed in and Ava took us over to the area we’d be helping out. We got there at the right time, because the Salvation Army food truck had just arrived .

After a quick lunch (which was also breakfast because I hadn’t yet eaten) of some delicious carne asada tacos, beans, and rice, the final volunteer, another friend of mine Amber, joined us.

Today’s task was to pack food boxes for hungry people in our community. It was quite a production line. There were stacks of empty boxes resembling the skyscrapers in New York City on one end, with pallets of foodstuffs lining another side of the tented area we were working in.

I posted up at the canned yams next to Amber, who handled the canned corn. The boxes begun moving down the conveyor belt and we started filling the boxes. It was a streamlined process and I could feel myself working up a sweat early on.

But then, for some reason, the boxes slowed to an antagonizingly slow crawl. There were delays of too long, and I felt like I could make a difference. So I took the initiative and hopped to the front of the line, where I was now controlling the boxes that were put onto the conveyor belt. A man was delivering the boxes from the ‘skyscraper’ area to the front of the assembly line, and the woman who had been handling unstacking the boxes and placing them onto the conveyor belt was also helping with the stuffing.

She was doing two jobs, so I took the initiative and hopped in line to help things move a little more quickly.

One thing I’ve learned while volunteering is to go at 100% at all times. These causes need my help and it doesn’t do them any good to slack off. It frustrates me when I see volunteers sitting down or not taking an active role in helping out. Plus, if I were to not give it my all, it defeats the purpose of volunteering in the first place. Why go out there if I’m going to be lazy?

So there I was, at the front of the food box assembly line. I looked down the line and saw everyone working hard. But something deep within me gave me the mentality that I might be able to inspire us all to work a little bit harder.

So I took it upon myself to step up the output of the assembly line. Once I found a quick way to unstack the boxes, it WAS ON! I begun to add empty boxes to the line rather quickly. Like “Popeye after a Costco-sized can of spinach” quickly.

I attacked this chore with gusto, and it showed. A couple times, the people loading the cans had to tell me to slow down. I acknowledged their requests, but – unbeknownst to them – I didn’t really slow down. I took that as a compliment because our productivity meant that I was helping bring people out of their comfort zone.

The other volunteers were working rapid-fire. We were truly a well-oiled machine. The volunteers got into their rhythm. The plastic covers of the cases of food were flying. Box cutters were frantically opening boxes. The guy driving the forklift brought more pallets of yams. Diedra, at the end taping up boxes, wiped her brow and shot me a quasi-nasty glare for cranking the production up to a fever pitch.

We packed box after box. The forklift removed pallet after pallet. We packed more boxes after that. My hands were getting really dry and cracked from handling so much cardboard, but I forced myself to forge ahead. I made it a personal goal to get through all the stacks of cardboard boxes on this day.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t reach this goal, because after about two hours, Ava came by and put a halt to our operations. Not only was out time up, but they also had two more groups coming in the next day to pack food boxes.

I was a bit disappointed because we had great momentum, but I understood the logic behind it. I would guess that four minutes after we stopped and the last box had been taped shut, the exhaustion begin to set in.

After the final tally had been counted, I knew why I was so tired. The shift before ours that day had packed 1,270 boxes.

Our shift: 1,580 boxes! We had eclipsed their total by more than 300 boxes.

I couldn’t help but feel like I had a lot to do with that. I felt a rush of satisfaction. Not necessarily for me personally, but that I had been the catalyst behind pushing 15 or so people out of their comfort zones, all for a good cause.

Diedra said “I didn’t know exactly what we were going to do so I set the expectation of myself to talk to the other volunteers and workers and hear their story about how they came to volunteer. It brought a little piece of perspective to my life to think of all the people who have fallen on hard times; I have a bed to sleep in and food on my table, so why shouldn’t I take some time to do something for those who struggle everyday and most often go without?”

As we gathered our belongings and headed out, all the volunteers exuded a similar sense of exhausted accomplishment. Ava thanked all of us and gave me a big hug. I respected her immensely last year, but after being in her shoes as a volunteer coordinator I have an entire new level of respect for her – along with everyone who coordinates volunteers on a daily basis.

I also have an even greater sense of respect for the volunteers who joined me today. First, for even coming out to help a great cause, and secondly, for working so hard today. It was truly what volunteering was all about. It really turned my day around completely.

The Salvation Army is always looking for volunteers. There are plenty of volunteer events still available during this holiday season, along with opportunities throughout the year. Please take some time to volunteer with this great cause and meet Ava for yourself. Volunteer information is below.

Thank you again to Amber, Diedra, Barbara, and Kristina for joining me today and helping not only a great cause, but helping me as well.

Salvation Army of Sacramento
VOLUNTEERS.  PLEASE REGISTER ONLINE WITH HANDS ON!

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