Select a volunteerism task that is worthwhile

despite the lack of organization. My fellow volunteers just seemed to instinctively know what to do (well, about 4 of those, which was enough) and directed the rest of us. I was in charge of the salad station and the dessert cart. We served about 120 kids, many of them with children, and they seemed to have a good time.

These are “kids,” adults really, who aged out of the foster home system and are trying to find their way.

We made the macaroni and cheese yesterday, and we will lug that, and 10 cans of cranberry jelly, to a church in Oakland to serve 200 kids from First Place for Youth. It’ll be their holiday dinner, and we don’t want them to go hungry.

This was such a shame, as it involved a lot of work to set up. But when the program depends on one person, and that one specific person alone (the cantor in this case), whaddya gonna do?

I’ve done all the publicity for it: online forums, Craig’s List, newspapers.

December 14, 2008: Singing to God, a program where our own cantor tells and shows us how songs evolve and what they mean in terms of a Shabbat service.

I’m on the outreach committee, and the first event of this year is this Sunday, an interfaith panel. Panel members who grew up in a Jewish-and-other-religion family talk about what worked, what didn’t. Should be interesting.

Our challenge is, well, many. (1) Get the word out, hopefully to get enough people there – all this is due to the fact that, during Temple Sinai’s remodeling, all events have been moved. It’s confusing to members. (2) Our classroom is not in the optimal spot, but is all the way across the Merritt College campus. We have to lead people over.

I’m bringing bagels. helping people find the bldg, signing people in. This was after I contacted all the local newspapers, posting it on Craig’s List, etc.

And we just produced a flyer for our very first program, “Growing Up in an Interfaith Home.” Pretty cool.

tomorrow night at the synagogue.

After the oneg, when hundreds of famished Jews fill up on delicious items brought by the congregants, I’ll be consolidating as they eat and throwing away trash, etc. (That also means I’ll visit every table and eat as I go…)

I think what happened is that I tried to be Super Volunteer, and I finally figured out I couldn’t do it. It was making me crazy.

So, much to my embarrassment, I told some people that I could only do a little, and backed down from my promise of doing a lot.

I guess I thought I could do it, I thought I could do things that my personality isn’t suited for. I learned a lot about myself these last few weeks.

and delivered it to the Women’s Cancer Resource Center (www.wcrc.org) in Oakland today.

A woman in north Berkeley had ripe fruit that she needed to get rid of, and I was happy to take it off her hands. It was about 7 pounds of fruit and vegetables, mostly plums.

I heard later that cancer survivors involved in groups that night really appreciated the bounty.

I sat down with the outreach director of the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, and she threw a lot of things at me. I’ll try some of them, and see which ones stick. A lot of it looks like fun, all of it looks worthwhile.

I will probably start immediately on creating a blog about cancer. I’m looking for a title…