Sabbatical help for hunger

As I've said many times, one of the aspects of PT that I'm proudest of is our sabbatical program and its charity work component.  Another PT staffer recently returned from her sabbatical, during which she worked at the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina (and PT donated $5,000 to the Food Bank because she worked there). As part of our sabbatical program, we also make a video of each person who does charity work and let the charity use the video for free.

Here's the story of this most recent sabbatical charity work.



I'm proud of Sharon and all the other PT folks who donate their time to charities.

How I came to own a $500 ukulele

I certainly didn't plan to do it.  I mean, who would?  No, several factors converged to lead me to this fateful purchase.

I'd been thinking for a while about making a donation to a charity as Christmas approaches.  I wanted to give more.

On the way to the Delta Rae concert, Kyle was opining that the most efficient way to help a food bank was to give it money to buy food.

Near the end of their show, the Delta Rae folks encouraged us to hit the merch table and noted that on that very table was a ukulele they had used in the show--one they had both used and signed.  All the money from whomever bought the instrument would go to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

I've long wanted to teach myself how to play a ukulele, though that desire had never reached a tipping point--until that night.

So, there I am, at the merch table, picking up a Christmas ornament, and suddenly I find that I'm telling the folks there that I'll buy that uke if I can do so quickly and leave, because the crowds were getting to me.

The merch team makes it happen.

People notice and applaud.  I try to hide and fail, so I just leave as quickly as I can, feeling a bit embarrassed.  I had imagined I could sneak out with no one noticing.

It didn't help, of course, that I was carrying a Delta Rae ukulele case.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Inside, sure enough, is one signed uke.

And that's how I came to own a $500 ukulele.

Working at the Food Bank

As anyone who knows me at all well can tell you, I am not a morning person.  I have nothing against the morning; I just prefer to see it on my way to bed.  Despite that strong preference, however, today, on a Saturday, when I normally sleep for most of the day, I arose after three and a half hours of sleep to head to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.  PT was having a volunteering day, and I wanted to participate.

After an hour of standing and listening to two folks train us, we went to work.  Our group included some folks from PT, some family members of PT staff, and many more people from other volunteer groups.  We collectively numbered over 30. Our job was relatively simple:  to convert boxes of donated food into boxes of food sorted by type (e.g., water, other beverages, dry packaged food, and so on).

Click the image to see a larger version.

We started with many pallets of unsorted donations, and we ended with many pallets of sorted food ready to go to groups to feed people, as well as a lot of trash.  A lot of trash.  I made only two trash runs, and I dumped well over 400 pounds of garbage.

I started as one of the people who was sorting food, but in less than five minutes I had become a runner, someone who moves full boxes from a work table to a pallet.  I spent a bit over two hours moving full boxes, taking out trash, and, near the end, picking up and stacking empty pallets.

When you look the way I do, people always end up asking you to lift things.  I have a peasant build, and I spent a lot of my teen years doing jobs that involved lots of lifting and carrying.

When we finished a little more than three hours after our start, we had assembled about 10,500 pounds of food ready to go to people.  The Food Bank folks said that would translate to over 8,500 meals.

That's pretty cool.  Helping feed people is a good thing.

I'm glad I did it.  I'm also glad for the reminder of why I went to college and why I am always happy that I am fortunate enough to work in air-conditioned offices.