United Way Day Of Caring

(suggested music pairing:  That's The Way Of The World; Earth Wind and Fire)

So I participated for the first time in the annual United Way’s Day of Caring. I believe it is a Rochester event, but not national. Local news coverage:  Rochester D&C: United Way Day Of Caring I had heard about it before, but this is the first year the department I work in, as a whole, decided to pick an opportunity to complete. Because of the schizophrenic weather that exists, we picked an opportunity that had both indoor and outdoor needs listed to we could pick our preference. The opportunity we picked was to do some work for the Southwest (Rochester) YMCA.  

Weather-wise, today was about as perfect as possible…bright sun, no clouds, temps in the 60’s, no wind. This particular YMCA is a smaller YMCA, and in a predominately black city neighborhood which I’d say is middle of the road, but you can definitely tell there is some neighborhood pride. We started our tasks at 9AM…first, we spread new mulch in the kids play area, did some weeding, and cleaned the outdoor playground equipment. We weeded and planted flowers in the flower beds along the street sidewalk in front of the Y, and we swept out a fenced-in basketball half-court. That all took about two hours; at that point we went inside to the different kids program rooms to clean and sanitize the plastic toys and mats. The Y staff had planned on providing lunch, which they did by ordering some pizza and wings from a local pizzeria.  

So, first of all, the staff and some of the patrons were very, very appreciative. Glowingly appreciative, even. (Just as a side note, being born and raised in the Philly area almost all of my life, I have always been amazed and impressed at how friendly and nice people in general are in upstate NY, especially compared to Philly.)  I actually wasn’t prepared for how appreciative they would be and it was very moving and inspiring.  And it was especially nice to see that from the patrons. This YMCA seemed to serve as a true community center. There were some seniors that had just come down to hang out and visit. There definitely was some gym equipment and there was what looked like a low impact aerobics class happening. There were also different day care rooms. The kids were excited to see the playground cleaned up.  My cynical side would think what I’m writing is a little corny but days like today completely erase my cynicism.  

It felt good to give back. In the black culture, there is a big deal made about giving back, or who doesn’t give back. This is heard a lot when discussing pro athletes, and is also said as “not forgetting where you came from.” I never avoided volunteer work but I never actively looked for it.  But this definitely felt good; it felt good to do an honest morning’s work, physical work, and be rewarded by the appreciation and happiness of those who make that YMCA their home, their social life, or their career.  

In my very first blog, in writing basically off the top of my head as I sometimes do, I wrote the following:

“I firmly believe we are uplifted when we talk, when we share. We teach and we’re taught, we validate and become validated, we connect and become connected. If more people looked outward instead of selfishly focusing inward, a lot of the worries have in our society would not be as widespread. We all have a responsibility to each other. Our friendships, our community, our society, and I’ll extend this all the way out to the human race, rely on that responsibility in order to achieve happiness at all those levels.”

Today was one of those days where I felt truly successful.