Tarkblog

Yesterday, I took the day off to do a bit of volunteering. My volunteering task for the day was to deliver food baskets.

I’ve been getting emails from this organization for about a month now. They’ve been asking for volunteers to sort toys, stuff toy baskets, deliver toy baskets, and deliver food baskets. Since volunteers are in sorter supply during the week, I decided to help deliver the food baskets on a Tuesday (plus, I got a day off of work).

Last Saturday was toy basket delivery day. Therefore, there was an article in the local paper. Two things I noted from the article: the line to pick up your assignment was long and the start time was at 7:00 am. All of the emails had received also mentioned a 7:00 am start time.

Since it was my day off, 7:00 is early, and I wanted to avoid a bit of the long line, I showed up at 7:30. I maneuvered my car to the end of the line and waited. Just before 8:00 a volunteer walked by to let me know that there had been a misprint in the paper. The deliveries were supposed to begin at 8:00. What about all those emails I got that said 7:00? Luckily, I had a book to keep me busy while I was waiting.

Finally, around 8:30, my car was loaded down with 6 baskets (actually rather large boxes), I was off to my first delivery.

Unfortunately for me the delivery locations were just addresses. While I’m somewhat familiar with town, I don’t have an intimate knowledge of the lower income areas. Fortunately, I found the first address easily; unfortunately, no one was home so I left a note and headed on.

The second one wasn’t as easy to find. I head off to where I think the apartment is located. I think I find the correct address but I’m not sure because the street name appears to be spelled incorrect. I hop out of my car anyway and head into the building. None of the doors are marked. So I assume that this isn’t the right place. After driving around the apartment complex for a minute, I decide to try number 3.

The third food basket recipient was easy to find. Due to recent back surgery, I help her unload her box. One canned ham, two loaves of white bread, two boxes of Mac & cheese, a bag of potatoes, a couple of cans of veggies, and a package of generic Oreo cookies.

I head of in search of the next location. After about 10 minutes of searching I decide it’s time to consult the internet, so I give Celeb a call. He quickly finds one of the addresses but can’t find the other three.

I head off to the one house that I know I can fine. I deliver the food basket. This family has a big dog. Please explain to me how you can afford to feed a dog if you can’t feed your family?

As I’m leaving this house, I spot an apartment complex so I drive around. No luck, so I decide to head back to headquarters for a bit of help. Once I arrive, I’m directed to what appears to be command central. I hand command central my information, he looks up the recipients’ phone numbers and gives them a call. All three addresses are wrong. What? People don’t know there own address? Don’t you think you’d make sure you gave someone the correct address if you were getting free food for Christmas?

With the correct addresses in hand, I head out to deliver the last three food baskets.  I find the first one quickly since I been in the apartment complex before.  I’d actually driven past it…the applicant had written down the name of the apartment complex instead of the street name.  The second address, is in the same apartment complex, which I find easily.  This person had combined the name of the apartment complex and the street and then dropped a few letters.  The last address had a few letters missing from the middle.

Finally, three and a half hours after I started, I finished.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.