Last Saturday, a group from FastServers had the opportunity to team up with the Chicago Cares organization and be part of their Annual Serve-a-thon, the single largest day of service in the city. Geared toward companies in the area, we made up only a small percentage of the nearly 8,000 volunteers that gathered in Grant Park before being dispersed to schools and parks across Chicago.
I'll be the 1st to admit, anywhere outside of my bed is typically the last place you'll find me on Saturday morning. However, this wasn’t a typical Saturday and, as I fortunately discovered, Caribou Coffee is open at the crack 'o dawn even on weekends. With the help of the volunteers, over 50 schools and parks received a much needed face-lift. Our group helped make-over the classrooms and hallways of Edward Coles Elementary School and for the better part of a week had the purple, oil-based paint splattered arms to show for it.
A few personal highlights of the day...
• The look of approval on the barista’s face as I downed my 3 shots of espresso & a large iced coffee. OKAYEVERYONEWHO’SREADYTO GO?!
• The realization that painting the bottom trim of lockers for 4 hours straight is the equivalent of 1000 squats. (At least that’s what I told myself when I skipped the gym after.)
• Accidentally splattering paint on the girls who came in heels, 3” hoop earrings & Gucci purses to VOLUNTEER. Okay, I didn’t, but I really wanted to.
• Watching grown adults teeter-totter.
• Meeting the some of the youngsters whose school we were painting & explaining to them why there were 40 year olds on their teeter-totter.
We wrapped up the day together back @ Grant Park where an outdoor celebration was held. The overall consensus is that it was an extremely rewarding day for the schools and volunteers alike. Getting the chance to spend time with co-workers and their families outside the office, along with seeing thousands of others pitch in to accomplish so much in a single day was very cool thing.
On a related note: During our adventure, we saw some extremely dated machines in the classrooms. Keep your local schools in mind when phasing out 'old' computers. Non-obsolete equipment (typically less than 5 years old) can be donated to nonprofit and school-based recyclers who can redistribute the machines and monitors to organizations in need. Check out TechSoup.org to locate a nonprofit recycler in your area!
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