Give & Get Open Forum

For those who don’t know, last week I hosted a Pantry Party to benefit City Harvest’s Feed the Kids food drive. I think everyone had a good time, judging by the number of Pickle Back shots I saw delivered to our tables. Best of all, I received almost three times the amount of donations I had expected; the final tally came to over 150lbs! All of the donations were picked up by City Harvest and will help to feed thousands of NYC kids who don’t always have enough to eat, especially in the upcoming summer months.  Thanks again to everyone who came out and donated, and a special thanks to Rob at Whiskey Tavern for hosting the event and hooking us up with some great discounts!

Fun and Somewhat Relevant Facts:

-Vienna Sausages were the most frequently donated item of the night.

-The world’s largest can of fruit cocktail resides in Sunnyvale, CA and stands at 25′ h by 15′w, 150′ in the air.

-Beans were another popular donation, and luckily, our British friend Paul wasn’t in town that night to steal them. Apparently, those Brits love their beans: In 2009, 800 million tins were eaten in the UK. Considering that the second most prolific country was Australia, who ate a measly 60 million cans, it’s clear that our beans would have been in jeopardy had Paul been able to attend.

-A Pickle Back shot is a shot of Jameson whiskey, followed by a shot of pickle juice. Sound gross? Don’t knock it til’ you try it-they’re surprisingly delicious.

-The world’s largest canned-food structure consisted of 45,725 cans carefully stacked and arranged in approximately 280 hours (and of course, it was all donated to a good cause afterwards)

This event was the first of many that Give & Get NYC will be hosting in the coming months. I want to provide young professionals in NYC a way to get together for a few drinks and a good cause without breaking the bank. If you have any suggestions for venues or donations, please comment or email me-I’m always open to new ideas. Be on the look-out for another party invite coming in mid-August!

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If you missed the party but still want to donate to City Harvest, visit their website to find out how.

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What: Organizing supplies and general ‘housecleaning’

Where: Materials for the Arts, Long Island City

When: 6-8pm, 1st Wednesday of every month through  New York Cares

Inside of this very unassuming building lies the Materials for the Arts warehouse; a treasure trove of paints, office supplies, fabrics, paper, zippers, and more. For over 30 years, this program -part of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and funded by DCLA, the DSNY (Dept of Sanitation and the DOE (Dept of Education)- has provided thousands of New York City’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community arts programs with the supplies they need to run and expand their programs. In doing this, they are also reducing waste by promoting the reuse of these materials, keeping these supplies out of landfills and putting them into hands that need them.

When I got off the subway in Long Island City, it took a second for me to figure out where I was and which direction to walk. And by ’second’, I mean I was 15 minutes late due to my complete lack of directional sense. So when I finally arrived on the third floor, where MFTA is located, no one was there to great me except for a sign that read “New York Cares Volunteers—>”. I followed the sign around the corner, through a doorway or two, and found myself entering a very large space that felt like the back storage of a Target or other large superstore. Tall shelving units filled with bins of donations organized by category (Office Supplies, Crafts, etc.). I found my group by the Trim and Notion section, and was happy to know I wasn’t alone.

There was an assembly line of sorts happening, with 4 volunteers washing, rinsing and drying the yellow bins that store the various wares available. The warehouse gathers a LOT of dust and grime, so the bins could use a good cleaning, and that’s what we were there for. I started out drying bins, but then got moved to the ‘organization’ group. There was a row of bins that had not yet been completely sorted; it was also in the craft section, where things are hard to identify and probably get moved around a lot when people are picking through for what they want. I was told to pick a  bin and find a place for everything in it. Easier said than done, for me at least.

Word of advice: If you have any obsessive compulsive tendencies, you may want to avoid volunteering here, or bring a sleeping bag because you’ll be in for a long night. For artists and creative people, who can see beauty and art in many things and find use for these items in future projects, this warehouse is a dream come true. A place to go for anything, even stuff you may not know you need or normally can’t afford, and that’s the whole point of this place. However, I found myself perpetually distracted by the disorganization I saw and had a hard time not being able to fix it. I would pick out a few buttons from my bin, and set out to the ‘Trim and Notion’ section to find their place. When I found a bin of miscellaneous buttons, I thought that it would be nice if all of THOSE buttons were organized by color. When I found some Christmas cards and went to put them in a ‘paper’ bin, I really wished I had time to empty the bin on the floor, and re-sort into ‘holiday and non-holiday’ paper. But alas, Rome wasn’t built in a day and I surely wasn’t going to reorganize an entire warehouse in two hours. After I got over that, things went much smoother; if I found a polaroid of a stuffed animal sitting with a plate of cookies (which I did), I found it a home. When I found a few model airplane kits for small children, I found a bin with similar items and tossed them in. By the end of the night, we had managed to put a dent in the bins, emptying out and condensing about 10-15 of them and reorganizing others. A few minutes before 8, we took the clean bins and swapped them with dirty ones, which will get washed next time the volunteers come to help.

For a creative mind, this is a goldmine of inspiration waiting to be picked apart and sifted for gems, which can be different for each person that walks in. I can imagine it being a great source of supplies for the teachers and organizations that take advantage of this service. It allows them to provide their clients, students, what have you, with more than they could have previously. Since a lot of the donations come from corporations or large organizations, it isnt uncommon to find a large amount of items lumped together, for example, there were two bins of burnt umber concentrated paint in the section I was working in. That could easily be used to complete a huge project or a lot of smaller projects. Basically, this place is awesome for people who can plan ahead and see a purpose for a variety of items.

If you can’t make it to the New York Cares volunteer project, don’t fret: you can volunteer directly with MFTA for a few hours based on your availability, helping to sort and fold fabric, label paint cans, straighten up framing supplies or make small repairs on furniture. Contact their volunteer coordinator at volunteer@mfta.nyc.gov for more information. Other things to know:

- Projects vary, but expect to be bending over, picking things up or just generally moving things. Dress for this, and keep in mind that there are paints and dust and other things that may get on your clothes.

- I wasn’t kidding about the OCD. If you’re the type of person that lines up soda cans in the fridge so the labels are all facing the same way, or you organize your book collection by color and size, this may not be the best place to volunteer. There won’t be enough time to organize everything, and it may frustrate you. OR, maybe you SHOULD volunteer here… I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist.

- I found some stuff that gave me a chuckle or made me wonder where it came from. For example, who got this Autobiography of Terry, the dog from the Wizard of Oz, and why in the world did they give it away? I’ll never know. This intrigues me. There are a lot of intriguing things here, and if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy finding these little treasures and imagining the person who owned it last (In this case, my vision was an old theater matron ala The Producers who drank martinis and wore lots of fur).

- Do you qualify to shop here? Possibly, if you are a not-for-profit arts and cultural group; NYC Department of Education art teacher; Social service, health, and environmental organization with an ongoing art program; or government agency, you might. Click here to find out more about becoming a recipient.

- There’s a whole lot more than supplies going on here. MFTA also offers workshops and other activities; visit their website to learn more.

On April 24th, I’ll be volunteering for Hands On New York Day, beautifying a park in Flushing, Queens. What will you be doing during National Volunteer Week?

What: sort through donated clothing, through New York Cares

Where: Room to Grow, East Midtown

When: Tuesday, 5:30-7:30pm

Room to Grow is a Manhattan-based non-profit supporting babies in poverty throughout their first three years of life, providing parents with one-on-one parenting support and essential baby items throughout their children’s critical stages of development. As such, they receive a LOT of donations from the generous public, large corporations, and retail stores; someone needs to go through everything and separate the good from the bad, and definitely get rid of the ugly. That’s where you come in, new volunteer!

When you first arrive at Room to Grow, you’ll take a seat on the couch and listen to some simple instructions. Since they have so many different offerings there (toys, clothing, books,etc), your instructions may be different than mine but the idea is the same: keep anything that looks new, get rid of anything you wouldn’t buy in a store yourself. Our task for the night was to do a preliminary sorting of clothing donations, separating everything by age and taking out anything that wasn’t wearable. It wasn’t difficult, and the time flew by as I picked through bag after bag of adorable baby clothing. Anything that I was unsure of, I held up and waited for one of the staff or head volunteers to give a thumbs up or thumbs down. The simple, repetitive task was actually one of the most calming activities I’ve participated in after a long day of work, second only to my brownie-stuffing experience at God’s Love We Deliver. My foot falling asleep every 5 minutes was the only reminder that I was, in fact, still conscious- otherwise, it was quite meditative.

The place itself was immaculate (get a 3D tour here), and I think I’d actually prefer to shop for clothing here than in a retail store; its a relaxed, organized environment with everything one would need to outfit a baby for a few years, all in one room. Also, its free (which is a pretty amazing deal). They are also VERY thorough; after our initial sort, the next group will give everything a second look before putting it on the rack. Anything that doesn’t make the cut moves further down the donation chain; Good Will and the Salvation Army for the less than perfect items, and those that can’t be salvaged? Their fate is to become insulation for houses. Other things to know:

- Be prepared to sit on the floor for two hours, or at the very least, be hunched over a pile of donations for an extended period of time (read: bad back or bad knees-> call before going to see what the day’s project is).

- If you’ve got baby fever but aren’t ready to have a baby, do not volunteer here. The power of tiny outfits on a woman is bizarre and the enigmatic force thrives here, so beware. I mean, have you seen how tiny those shoes are?!

- If you donate, know that anything you give will in some way be used, by someone, or something. However, if your kid has a propensity for spaghetti flinging and drooling uncontrollably (pretty much sums up my childhood…and college), and now you’re looking to get rid of their “gently used” vomit-covered onesies, give it to someone else. Room to Grow only uses like-new donations, and for good reason.

- This isn’t just a place for poverty-stricken women to pick out cute outfits; it’s a lot more than that. Its a support system made up social workers, providing information and necessities to parents who have been referred by a selected group of prenatal programs in the city. For more information, visit their website. And of course, you can volunteer directly with them.

What: work on educational art projects with kids, through New York Cares

Where: El Faro Beacon School, East Harlem

When: Saturdays, 11:30am-3:30pm

When you first get to the Beacon School, you’ll sign in and head downstairs to the basement cafeteria. Besides that one detail, I’m pretty sure what awaits you will be different every time you volunteer with the Creative Arts Workshop Saturday Art Works program. The project we had for the day I was volunteering was to make a giant-sized puppet of an iconic African-American, in honor of Black History Month. The volunteers spent the first 45 minutes or so sorting through scraps of fabric, markers, crayons, and putting together the wood bases that would serve as a skeleton of sorts for the puppet. We then got a brief introduction to the program and some guidelines on working with children (don’t go anywhere alone with a child, ask for help from a program staffer if a child is being difficult, etc.). While this was going on, about 30 kids filed in and waiting for the program to begin.

Averaging about 8 years old, the kids gathered in a circle to hear about the project for the day. We then broke into groups to read about 10 different historical figures from Black History. After this, each group had to pick one person to turn into a giant puppet; our group chose Frederick Douglass and got to work making the best-dressed puppet in the place, thanks an imaginative 7 year old with fashion sense beyond his years. At around 2:30, everyone gathered again in a circle to present their characters and put on a brief play using the knowledge they learned from the books we read earlier in the day.

According to their website, “CAW is a nonprofit organization that utilizes the visual and performing arts to teach life skills to children and teens while enriching communities.” Though I volunteered through New York Cares, you can volunteer directly with CAW, who offer the workshops three Saturdays out of every month in East Harlem and Washington Heights. The workshops use the arts to promote creativity through a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, montage, sculpture, dance, singing/rap, theater, music, reading, writing, gardening and any other practices that allow for creation and self-expression. They also have a number of other programs that serve the community and it’s children: Summer Art Works, After School Art Works, and the Giraffe Path, which is an annual arts project taking place this June. For more information about the Creative Arts Workshops for Kids, visit their website.

When the day started, I was slightly nervous about being able to mentor a child and display a certain level of intelligence. For some reason, I find the honesty of children extremely intimidating; the disapproval or ridicule of a 9 year old I’ve never met has almost the same affect on me as the disapproval of my own parents.  I know its probably an unwarranted, ridiculous fear, but one I have none the less. And I’ve got to be honest: Black History is not a topic I’m an expert on. How do I teach kids about something I know nothing about? The books we read to them had some popular names of course, whose history I’m well aware of, but I wasn’t going to pretend that I knew where Frederick Douglass was born. If there was a quiz at the beginning of the day I would have undoubtedly failed with flying colors. But i digress…. As with every other time I volunteer with kids, it only takes about 5 minutes for me to realize that they are there to learn and have fun, and anything you do can only help them achieve that. They’re not nearly as judgmental as adults, which is a nice departure from reality if only for a few hours. One of the great things about mentoring kids is that you can both pick up a book and learn along side each other. Some other things to know:

- Eat a big breakfast. You’ll be here for a while, and although you’re given the option of taking a juice-box and small snack,  6 mini pretzel sticks won’t cut it as a lunch for me personally, since I’m no longer 3 feet tall and 30 lbs.

- The projects vary, but there’s a good chance markers, glue and/or paint will be involved. You’ll also be sitting on the floor and moving around a lot. Dress appropriately.

- The Creative Arts Workshops students and volunteers have painted some pretty cool murals around Harlem in the past few years. After the project, take a stroll down 124th Street and see if you can find some; if you don’t  have time, check out the pictures I took above or head to the their online gallery.

- This project seems to attract a lot of artistic volunteers; including myself, the group of volunteers I worked with were all employed in graphic design. It’s not a surprising fact- the project is called Creative Arts Workshop. I’m just saying…this is a good activity for artsy-fartsy volunteers like myself.

- For those now wondering, Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland.

January is National Mentoring Month, a time to recognize those who give generously of themselves by mentoring young Americans, and a time to focus the nation’s attention towards the cause in the hopes of gaining new mentors for our nation’s children in need. This month was officially proclaimed so by President Barack Obama earlier this week, as seen here on the White House website. Mentoring a child not only enriches their life, but your own as well. Regardless of whether you coach, teach, or just spend time hanging out, you’re exemplifying (hopefully) how to be a responsible adult and become a role model for kids who may not have an adult in their life to look up to.

On the Serve.gov website, they state that “Together, the Harvard School of Public Health, MENTOR, and the Corporation for National and Community Service are working to focus national attention on the need for mentors. If we – individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities and nonprofits – can work together to increase the number of mentors, we assure brighter futures for our young people.”

If you need convincing on how impactful mentoring a child can be, take a look at some of the tributes written on the Harvard Mentoring Project website. The sixth annual ‘Thank Your Mentor Day’ is January 22nd, but the tributes have already begun pouring in from around the country from former and current mentees, young and old, expressing their gratitude.

In order to help you get started mentoring a child, I’ve listed some resources below that should help those in New York trying to find the right opportunity:

The Mentoring Partnership of Long Island (Hauppauge) – (631) 761-7800

The Mentoring Partnership of New York (New York) – (212) 953-0945

iMentor (NYC-focused online mentoring with weekly email correspondence and in-person meetings and events throughout the school year)

Administration for Children’s Services (NYC Gov. Site; includes links to Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mentoring USA, MPNY)

In2Books (online mentoring program that involves reading and discussion)

You should know that most mentoring programs require a background check and training, and then you will be paired with an appropriate mentee that perhaps shares some of the same interests as you. It is also a big commitment to make, as you are promising your time to child; don’t make the decision hastily or if you’re unsure of how much time you’ll be able to give on a regular basis. If you’re unsure of how you’ll be a one-on-one situation with a child, it may be a good idea to attend one of the many projects New York Cares offers that involve spending time reading with children or teaching them computer skills. It’s a great way to get your feet wet and see if this is something you really want to do. The online mentoring programs are a great alternative to the traditional programs (such as Big Brothers Big Sisters) for busy professionals, as they tend to involve significantly less time committal and little to no travel.

If you are an organization that has mentoring opportunities available, please email me or comment below to list them on this site!

lkj

Last Saturday I was able to help out at the Inner City Scholarship Fund’s Christmas Party, put together every year by the Junior Committee. From the outside, Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Elementary School in East Harlem didn’t look too festive, but once I went inside and down to the basement, I immediately found the Christmas cheer. The basement had been transformed into a child’s wonderland, with tables covered in red and green, each one a different arts and crafts station. Towards the back of the room, I saw a big comfy chair surrounded by presents and decorations, clearly for Santa, which got me (and the kids) pretty excited.

Before the party got started, volunteers and members of the ICSF Junior Committee set up each table with a different activity: cookie and cupcake decorating, ornament making, decorations, and jewelry making. We also had to put together goodie bags for the kids (1st and 2nd graders) to take home after the party, which included coloring books, crayons, Radio City key chains, necklaces and pencils (all of which were generously donated).

As soon as the kids came in, it was every man and woman for themselves. The only thing us volunteers really had to do was have fun with the kids and help them if they had problems with any of the projects. Luckily, the projects were easy to explain and age-appropriate, so we mostly just got to have fun. The jewelry-making tables were a big hit with the girls, who made tons of cute bracelets for themselves and to give as presents. I started off at one of the ornament-making tables, where I helped some of the boys put together and paint miniature wooden sleds. I kept getting distracted by the giggles at the adjacent table, which was covered in candy. I hadn’t realized how much stuff was on the cookie decorating table: gum drops, swedish fish, sprinkles, icing, cookies, cupcakes. What kid wouldn’t want to sit at a table and do whatever they want with that stuff? I could hardly control myself and I’m 26.

After about two hours of crafts and sugar rushes, it was time to entice Santa with some carols. The Junior Committee made caroling books and everyone sang together until we heard the jingle bells: Santa and two elves made their way towards the kids, who were screaming and jumping and hugging each other. As an adult, somehow, I’ve never been in a room full of children when Santa arrives; it gave me chills (the good kind) to see how happy they were. Pure joy. Just by seeing a guy in a red suit. Ahh, to be young again.

After everyone calmed down, Santa sat in his chair and read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, which is amazing considering how many cookies those kids ate. After the story, everyone lined up to take their picture with Santa and make their Christmas wishes. However, I feel I should mention that one girl chose not to take her picture with this particular Santa, because she knew he was a fake; no, she declared, she would be going to Sears to see the REAL Santa later that week. Kids…they say the darndest things…

Throughout the morning I heard more than one child say “this is the best day of my life”. I must admit-I may have had more fun than some of the kids. I love crafting. And cookies. The ICSF Junior Committee did a great job putting this together, sparing no details, and I can safely assume that everyone who showed up -young or old- left with a lot more holiday cheer than they came with. They were nice enough to share their photos from the day, taken by photographer Chris La Putt:

Photos courtesy of Chris La Putt

The Junior Committee supports ICSF students by organizing a variety of programs, including monthly trips to NYC cultural institutions, tutoring and athletics programs, annual parties and community-service initiatives. For more information about the programs and how to get involved, click here.

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