Volunteering

Hey Folks!

Yesterday was a glorious day in Kansas: mid-50's and sunny! I also hosted a Tastefully Simple party and stuffed myself with tasty appetizers (my favorite meal!). This morning I made a kickboxing class and then I was off for some volunteering!

In Beloit, I am the president of the Cassiopeia Club, a women's only social philanthropic organization. We do fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for various clubs, but we've never really "rolled up our sleeves" to help out in the community, and that was a goal of the officers this year.

Enter Perdue House:

This big, old, beautiful house has been sitting empty for almost 40 years and it's located right beside the hospital. We have a hospital foundation that raises money for various things the hospital does. The foundation bought this house with the idea of grants and the community to help fix it up so they could move their office into it, but also have 3 rooms available for out-of-town family to people who have to stay in the hospital. Great idea, right? Well, it's very old....and out dated! The Foundation recently invited the community to help with two different wall-paper-take-down days, and today was one of them! Cassiopeia, along with other various volunteers and organizations in town, were there to help!

I've never taken down wallpaper before. And boy, did the owner's of this house ever wallpaper this house TO DEATH! Layers after layers, plus some paint, and then MORE LAYERS of wallpaper were plastered onto every room in this house! BUT, it was actually a neat experience! I got to hang out in this neat, old house's kitchen with some friends and we chatted and overworked our right shoulders!

This is the wall I worked on for 2 HOURS! It was finally complete by the time I went home!

It was really interesting to explore this big house! You can definitely tell where the servant quarters were (a secret passage way from the back of the kitchen up to a very tiny room). Some other notable rooms:

One of the rooms upstairs that will be converted for hospital patient's out-of-town family to stay.

The gorgeous staircase leading upstairs!

My question to you is: Do you volunteer? If so, what have you done? If not, why don't you?

I'm am by no means a regular volunteer! In fact, I rarely do it. I do try to go to fundraisers to raise money for various causes, but after today, it made me think-Why don't I volunteer more often?

I have some theories on this:

*I'm not much of a "get dirty" type of person. I'm so ashamed, but I'm a little more prissy than I am from about 15 years ago when I used to camp and shoot muzzleloaders with my Dad. I definitely like to be clean and pretty;) I will get dirty if I have to though...I just take a shower immediately afterwards:)

*I'm not passionate about the project. This is something I don't like about myself, but I'm not passionate about a lot of things. So to take up my precious time that I could be spending doing something I enjoy takes a lot!

*Am I really making a difference? A "thanks" goes a long ways! I want to feel appreciated for the work I'm putting into it, so if there are 50 people helping, am I going to get lost in the shuffle? Or am I gonna know what the heck I'm supposed to do? (This did NOT happen today! We were very much thanked!)

What I learned from my volunteering today:

*It doesn't take that much time. Even though the wallpaper event was all day, I broke up Cassiopeia member's efforts into 2 hour increments, so we didn't have to spend the whole day away from our families and precious Saturday's to do this event. However, the organizer of the volunteers was more than thankful for any help we could bring. So even though we only stayed in 2 hours increments, she thanked us tremendously for the help!

*It makes you feel good! The hospital foundation doesn't have the funds to fix up this outdated house, but it is going to be a huge asset to the community. Plus, it's great the community gets to keep this historic house and put it to use! So to help out the community by just spending a few hours taking down some wallpaper makes you feel all warm and gushy inside!

*It was kinda fun! I like to think that I could make anything fun, but in this case we had friends working side-by-side to make this house better! We chatted and laughed and caught up on our lives! Plus, you can always learn a few new things about the skills of taking down wallpaper! (HINT: Don't put up wallpaper!)

Overall, I'm really glad our club could help out this great cause! What keeps you from volunteering? What have you learned from volunteering?

****

In other news....It's the Sunflower Showdown (KU vs. K-State in basketball) today, peeps!

Rock Chalk, Jayhawks!

GO KU!



Desserted Tip of the Day: Do you eat enough fruits and veggies? It's amazing what they can do to fill you up, give you energy and prevent you from eating the other junky junk you crave! Try getting 5 total, and then eventually 5 veggies and 3 fruits. Plus, it will make you look purty;)