It's been over a year since I last posted and I find that impossible to believe. I'm still volunteering on a somewhat regular basis, but I'm not sure that's the direction this blog will continue in since I have a new focus.
Here are some highlights from the past year:
In March 2012, I finished up volunteering at the Emergency Winter Shelter for the season. I went in around 5am on the last day it was open to help serve a special meal that included IHOP pancakes. I love IHOP! I went back in the fall and was happy to see that some of the regulars from last winter weren't there anymore. Two of them are men I had seen at the County's Employment Center when cutting through on the way up to my office. I hope they are living a comfortable life with a home they love and a rewarding job.
I also volunteered for the 3rd year with Family Ice Skate Night with Therapeutic Recreation. I am not an ice skater, but when you put on a brave face and act like you know what you're doing, it's pretty fun! (My last blog post has more on that.)
In April, I was elected to the Board of Directors for GiveArlington, a philanthropic giving circle for young Arlingtonians. I'm just about to finish my term as Financial Director. In December 2012, we awarded a grant to Edu-Futuro, an Arlington based non-profit that empowers Latino youth (youth empowerment was our area of focus for this giving cycle). Giving money to a pretty cool nonprofit + cake at the celebration = successful experience.
It seems like May was the end of some of my long-time volunteer projects. I volunteered at the Arlington Traditional School garden when I was about 7 1/2 months pregnant. My biggest task was putting together a very unstable arch that seems to be still standing almost a year later. I did some planting too, but it wasn't all that fun to crawl around in the dirt and it was nearly impossible to get up.
That month, I also volunteered for The Reading Connection's Read Aloud program for the last time (for a while at least). It was a little crazy seeing all the kids running around like happy maniacs and knowing that my quiet time at home was quickly running out.
It was also my last Family Fun Night with the Therapeutic Recreation Department, which is good because it's hard to run around (like those energetic kids from the Read Aloud) when you're getting bigger by the day!
In June, I had to present the annual budget at my neighborhood's Annual Meeting. Being the Board Treasurer has been pretty cool because I get to see where our condo fees are going and I can ensure that they are never raised too much. That meeting was not the first time I was asked if asked if the baby would arrive right then an there. Lucky for them, that did not happen.
Unrelated to volunteering, my best friend Tara visited in late-June and the power went out for a few days. I've never been so hot in my life, but we had a good time.
Looking back at July, I cannot believe I had so much energy, nor can I believe how big I was. About a week before Emily made her early arrival into the world, I volunteered with two of my friends for the Shirlington Jazz Festival to benefit the Arlington Food Assistance Center. In the past, I picked events like this because they are close to home, there's live entertainment, and you can drink for free! While my friends sampled the wine on the 100 degree evening and we gave out very generous tastes, I chugged water and secretly wished I could stand in the ice buckets we were using to keep the wine cool. I really enjoy moscato and was so happy when my friend Meredith brought me a bottle of the moscato that we had been pouring to the hospital!
Also in July, planning for the Arlington County Fair was all-consuming, though I rack up a ton of volunteer hours for that all year long. The evening before I headed to the hospital, I had a meeting about the fair, a Fair Board meeting, a televised interview about the fair (that I still haven't seen), and a really late dinner to discuss the fair.
In August, I had a new baby and she went to the fair. Yep, 10 days old on the fair grounds. I actually kept her pretty well contained and she didn't go outside, but it counts for the experience. As a volunteer and a leader of a small group of people, it's pretty amazing to watch everything come together. I'm pretty proud of all of us.
In September, I was a little more focused and helped with a special event for The Reading Connection and went back to my condo board meetings. Now Emily tends to go with me and she's generally pretty quiet. It's nice that I can take her places with me! She also started going to Fair Board meetings in September. She's such an active little citizen.
Our volunteering in October was pretty low key and it's the first time I did things in my capacity as a mom. I baked cookies for a bake sale hosted by the Moms Club and I helped set up for the Halloween party. That's about as much as I could handle at the time.
In November, I volunteered with Community Residences to do yard work. It's the first time I've used hedge clippers and I was nervous. Meredith (from the wine event and who also volunteers at the shelter with me and on the Fair Board) and I got a lot of compliments on how well the shrubs looked when we were done. We've been doing this cleanup annual since 2008 so we're pretty much pros now.
In December, I became even more of a "mom" volunteer. I took over as coordinator of the non-mobile playgroup and made sure all of the little babies and new mommies had a place to "play" each week. It was nice to meet more moms and it forced me to actually take Emily to playgroups, instead of saying "next week" over and over again.
That month, I also volunteered with Offender Aid and Restoration's Project Christmas Angel, a very fun event that I've done (with Meredith) since 2008. You get to pick out gifts for kids whose parents are incarcerated, wrap them, and attach a gift tag that the parent filled out. It's our annual tradition to compete to see who can wrap the best oddly shaped object, like a basketball or a set that has 3 balls, with tape that isn't very strong and thin wrapping paper. We don't really keep score, but we're probably tied.
So far this year has been much the same as last year -- volunteering for the fair, in my neighborhood, at the shelter, with Therapeutic Recreation, and with my mom's group -- and there aren't really any extra special stories. I bring Emily with me whenever I can and hope that when she's old enough, she'll understand the concept of helping others and that she will also want to give back to the community.
If I can find some good volunteer opportunities that are family-friendly, I will write about them. If not, I might write more about being a mom and then add in volunteering when I can. Hopefully it won't take another year for me to figure that out :)
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