One of the shelter rules is that you have to put in 15 hours per week of volunteer duties. It can be anything from working in the kitchen to doing laundry to cleaning communal bathrooms, mopping hallways, cleaning up the grounds. Well, like in most situations like this, a few people do most of the work while others sit on around and watch.
Families are asked to keep their rooms clean and are supposed to clean up after their children as well. Right now we have some huge families staying there (8+ children, your tax dollars at work) and most of their mothers have no control over them and they are running wild. The bad thing is even if children are well mannered when they get there, within a week they act just like the rest…..they seem to always find the lowest common denominator. While I used to enjoy being around children I am getting rather jaded in my attitude, I am so tired of having my feet stepped on, getting run into and having my coffee spilled down the front of me or having a football bounced of my head while walking through the parking lot.
When I worked in the kitchen a couple of Sundays ago, we had a community volunteer come in help prep and serve. She brought her 2 little girls, 5 and 9, they were there at 6AM and served breakfast, helped serve lunch at 11:30 and dinner which on the weekend is at 2:30PM. I was baking that day, stayed in my own area and really did not have a chance to work with the girls until we served dinner. The kids worked so hard and did such an excellent job. We serve quite a few dinners, usually over 200, because the shelter feeds street people at breakfast and dinner. These little girls somewhat restored my faith in the future, they were amazing. Especially the 5 year old, what a little trooper, putting in a10 hour day with no whining or complaining, working hard and doing a good job. She had to have been exhausted but never once faltered.
It was really nice to see a parent teach children values, ethics and moral fortitude along with acceptable behavior and manners and all without yelling or speaking harshly. It raises my hopes again; the human race might have a sustainable future after all.
children do seem to feed off of one another when they're in a group, especially if they're at loose ends. are there any organized activities for them at the shelter? i know what you mean about having hope for the future...actually i have been noticing a lot of kids that give me hope over the last decade. there really seem to be more of them than before, or maybe i'm just noticing them more.
ReplyDeleteThere are some activities and I know the shelter does the best they can with limited funds but it's not structured enough. Staff relies on parents to provide structure and so many are just not capable.
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