So, I volunteered Wednesday at a place called Mission Waco. It's a toy
store for needy families. I never done any volunteer work before and I
didn't quite know what to expect. I arrive at the building around 9am and
look outside, the line is probably about 50 deep (50 separate families) I
go in,get introduced, shown what to do etc. They had people who could
work the cash register, wrap, and work the floor with the families. I
decided I was best suited to stay on the floor and help the families.
It was set up where each family had a voucher and the voucher had how many
children they had and they child's name and age. There was gifts for
infants to 17 year olds(although there was a lot more for the little
ones. It's easier to buy, cheaper) Each family could get two gifts per
child (some of the bigger gifts had yellow tags and you could only get one
present with a yellow tag total. So if you had 5 kids, only one yellow tag
period. Still each child could get two gifts) and two stocking stuffers. I
pretty much helped the family shop, show them what was around etc. They
had some nice things for real cheap. Had a few bikes for $10 bucks (most
expensive thing in the store) Had walk-mans for $2.25, Boom-boxes for
$4.00 bucks etc..a lot of stuff was a dollar. Barbies to hand held video
games to baby dolls to cars to board games. Everything was real real
cheap. We finished up around 12PM that day. When we were done, they said
it ended up be 90 families that showed up today (they had 150 last
Saturday and was theretill 4)
I wanted to give a bit of a background on
what I did. Now on to the best part...
This was really a eye opener. I felt sad when I first walked in, I enjoyed helping everyone, but couldn't
get it out of my mind how blessed and fortunate I was. I mean here I am a
few weeks ago complaining about not being able to get a new TV on sale for
$500.00 bucks, when they hardly have $50 to spend on five kids. It was a
dose of reality but one I enjoyed to swallow. Sure some of the people are
down, because it's their own faults ,but the children can't help it if
their parents work or not or support them how they should be. We take
things for granted and it felt good to help and give back ( we give money
each week at work that goes to things like this as well). it really put
things in perspective. I'm really lucky to have what I have. I don't even
know if I would consider myself middle class, but at least I have a decent
house, a decent job and I don't have to worry about a whole lot. I can
afford to buy my daughter almost anything she wants, I can do things a
lot of families are not able to do. I was touched and I came away
thinking, if anyone is touched after doing volunteering, they are probably
doing it for all the wrong reasons.
There is two more days this store will be open, Saturday and next Wednesday. I won't be able to make
Wednesday because others have signed up at work but you better believe ill
be there Saturday at 8:30 ready to help and plan on going back any time I
can. We has a meeting yesterday and I stood up and told everyone my
experience. I know for a fact by me telling everyone this story, at least
four more from my job will be going down there Saturday.
If you ever geta chance, try to
help just once. It's a wonderful experience.
store for needy families. I never done any volunteer work before and I
didn't quite know what to expect. I arrive at the building around 9am and
look outside, the line is probably about 50 deep (50 separate families) I
go in,get introduced, shown what to do etc. They had people who could
work the cash register, wrap, and work the floor with the families. I
decided I was best suited to stay on the floor and help the families.
It was set up where each family had a voucher and the voucher had how many
children they had and they child's name and age. There was gifts for
infants to 17 year olds(although there was a lot more for the little
ones. It's easier to buy, cheaper) Each family could get two gifts per
child (some of the bigger gifts had yellow tags and you could only get one
present with a yellow tag total. So if you had 5 kids, only one yellow tag
period. Still each child could get two gifts) and two stocking stuffers. I
pretty much helped the family shop, show them what was around etc. They
had some nice things for real cheap. Had a few bikes for $10 bucks (most
expensive thing in the store) Had walk-mans for $2.25, Boom-boxes for
$4.00 bucks etc..a lot of stuff was a dollar. Barbies to hand held video
games to baby dolls to cars to board games. Everything was real real
cheap. We finished up around 12PM that day. When we were done, they said
it ended up be 90 families that showed up today (they had 150 last
Saturday and was theretill 4)
I wanted to give a bit of a background on
what I did. Now on to the best part...
This was really a eye opener. I felt sad when I first walked in, I enjoyed helping everyone, but couldn't
get it out of my mind how blessed and fortunate I was. I mean here I am a
few weeks ago complaining about not being able to get a new TV on sale for
$500.00 bucks, when they hardly have $50 to spend on five kids. It was a
dose of reality but one I enjoyed to swallow. Sure some of the people are
down, because it's their own faults ,but the children can't help it if
their parents work or not or support them how they should be. We take
things for granted and it felt good to help and give back ( we give money
each week at work that goes to things like this as well). it really put
things in perspective. I'm really lucky to have what I have. I don't even
know if I would consider myself middle class, but at least I have a decent
house, a decent job and I don't have to worry about a whole lot. I can
afford to buy my daughter almost anything she wants, I can do things a
lot of families are not able to do. I was touched and I came away
thinking, if anyone is touched after doing volunteering, they are probably
doing it for all the wrong reasons.
There is two more days this store will be open, Saturday and next Wednesday. I won't be able to make
Wednesday because others have signed up at work but you better believe ill
be there Saturday at 8:30 ready to help and plan on going back any time I
can. We has a meeting yesterday and I stood up and told everyone my
experience. I know for a fact by me telling everyone this story, at least
four more from my job will be going down there Saturday.
If you ever geta chance, try to
help just once. It's a wonderful experience.
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