Volunteering outdoors

Well, the garden didn't get started off so well. All my seeds and little seedlings gave way to weeds. But Tara (garden next to mine) filled me in on how to do it a bit better. Spent about 8 hours last weekend and a few this week and it is up and running. And as one older woman said, "Some people spend $100s on these gardens for $10 worth of produce."

I hit my nephew's last Bam Bam baseball game last weekend and then made my way down to the new Miracle League Ballpark (http://www.kiwanismiracleleague.org/) to sign up to help out during a few games. That should be a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, I've been sending out press releases for the June 13 Walk Now for Autism (http://www.walknowforautism.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=289038). My office is donating the last 6 months of our internal fundraising money to the Southeast Polk team. We're going to make our fundraising goal! On the other hand, I have yet to figure out a time to be able to volunteer onsite much less do the walk as Koda needs to have a laser in the a.m. Also looking into at least one time to volunteer at the Des Moines Arts Festival (http://www.desmoinesartsfestival.org/). I'm thinking either monitoring the Sculpture Park or Nurturing a Student's Vision. This year's festival has a lot of interactive stuff going on. Very hands on.

And one last thing...I'm going to add this to the 40 for 40 list even though it's a bit indirect. My next door neighbor endured about 3 months of hell -- his wife walked out and took everything with her and about 6 weeks later his father, though ill, died unexpectedly. (The divorce thing is still going on and grieving takes awhile.) Anyway, after 3.5 years of living there actually talked to him more than an occasional hello. He was really bumming -- feeling lost and hopeless about what to do with his time and how to develop a new social network (and not a virtual one as he is more include to do). We got to talking about one area that I knew had a soft spot ... kids. I mentioned that he should sign up for Big Brothers Big Sisters (http://www.bigbrothersbigsistersofiowa.org/) and he lit up! Now, it's one thing to mention it but I've checked back in with him every few days to see how it's going because becoming an approved volunteer with BB/BS is no easy task...as it should be. But he's carried it all the way out. Even had his niece and mom help him in cleaning up the house, fixing up his back yard, etc. He's totally excited and there's something like 300 kids on the BB/BS waiting list in Des Moines alone. He'll be great, he's just eager to get started. AND I think he'll meet some of the other volunteers through the program and voila...some new peer-aged friends too.

I should also mention the Boys and Girls Club to him too. Hmmm...I might have to look into it too. (http://www.bgcci.org/volunteeropportunities.php)

Until next time!