Last Day

Today was my last day as an Americorps VISTA.



Bernice, my supervisor at the food bank, brought in a cake and card for a going away party, and fellow VISTA Amy brought Snickers ice cream bars, aww! Thanks guys!

Then all us VISTA girls went to Tony Packos for a working lunch/good-bye meal.

Mmmm Packo's Chili Mac

The end is bittersweet.

This year has been amazing. When I quit my job to move across the country and do a year of service, most people thought I was nuts. Even I wondered sometimes.

But while I miss the job I left (and occasionally its salary, even though it wasn't huge...) and I woke up with a scary little knot in my stomach this morning over not knowing what comes next, I have no regrets about joining Americorps.

Besides greatly improved public speaking skills and event planning, marketing, outreach and public relations experience, I have gained a much greater understanding of the issues of poverty and, perhaps more invaluably, have been able to personalize those issues with real stories and real faces.

It has also been a joy working alongside people whose idealism, community service, passion and compassion are as strong as my own.

I came from a career in journalism; this year made me comtemplate a career in social work. Either way, I can honestly say that my outlook in life, no matter what I end up doing next, will be informed by what I have learned and experienced this year.

I'm excited to move on to new challenges and satisfied with everything I've learned and done this year.

I taught 35 Ohio Benefit Bank counselor trainings, training a total of 174 people; planned five regional events; worked 11 tax clinics; helped 29 people file their taxes for free; filed 31 applications for other benefits; gave 87 presentations; and helped usher at least 20 community agencies into new OBB site-hood.

Whew!

And now I'm unemployed. Eeks!

This was what our desks looked like on my last day.



Not because I was leaving, but because the carpet happened to have been cleaned and everything was uprooted.

Saying goodbye to Michelle. For most of the year, our desks were squished into Michelle's tiny front office. When we were moved to another part of the food bank, we missed her company but not the outside-regulated office temps (cold in winter, hot in summer) :)

Bye girls! I'll miss working with you!

Plus, a big thanks to everyone who read this blog over the past year! You rock. Stay tuned for what's next...even I don't know :)

Fun, Free Ways To Fight Hungar

Do you want to give $50 of someone else's money toward helping feed America's families? Sure you do!



Feeding America has a 50-question quiz on its website. For each multiple-choice question answered correctly, Kraft Food Foundation will donate $1.(They let you keep guessing until you get all 50 right). So far Kraft has donated more than $50,000 in response to the quiz. Nice!

I enjoy trivia. Not to help you cheat, but I learned things like a camel's milk does not curdle, Corn Flakes were invented to improve the lives of hospital patients, and broccoli was invented by crossing cauliflower seeds with pea seeds. Who knew?

Click here to take the quiz.

DISCLAIMER: The site will ask you to enter your name and email address in order to submit.

Reminds me of another creative anti-hungar campaign, Free Rice, a nonprofit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Check it it out here.



Ten grains of rice are donated for each correctly defined word. Over 81 billion grains have been donated to date. Increase your vocabulary and fight hungar at the same time, all from the comfort of your home or office!

So next time you're bored (at work?), you can play these games and if anyone asks, just say you are doing your part to end world hungar.

It's a rough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Costa Rica

It's been a while since I posted. Sorry! Went to Costa Rica! Much-needed break. Not really sorry to say I didn't think about work or even the U.S. much at all :)



But as of tomorrow I will be unemployed, eeks!

Unison Health and Wellness Fair

Unison Health hosted a Health and Wellness Fair at the Erie Street Market in downtown Toledo today.





Amy and I manned the Ohio Benefit Bank table. We had some good conversations with some other agencies, several of whom were excited to learn more about OBB. So hopefully we have some presentations to schedule in our future!

Most people I talked to today seemed to already be receiving most of the benefits they were eligible for, but many took OBB information for friends or relatives.

One nurse we talked to said she knows of co-workers who pick up extra money on the side charging to fill out food stamps applications, etc. She disapproves of the practice, and said if she hears of anyone thinking about paying someone to do their application, she would send them to the OBB where they can do it for free.

I also spoke with a crazy lady, who told me she was 2,000 years old and the mother of Christ, as well as the mother of Michelle Obama and a whole host of others. (So does that mean Christ and the Anti-Christ are brothers-in-law? Kidding! Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

When we arrived, it was hard to find a parking spot because the weekly Farmers' Market was also going on, and, WOW, it was huge!



The last time I went it was early spring, at the very beginning of the growing season, and there were maybe four vendors there. Talk about a difference today.





Also, I'd long heard rumors but I verified today that the Farmers' Market does indeed accept food stamps as well as WIC coupons! Yay! The market is open 8am to 2pm Saturdays, and the EBT swipe machine is available on site until 1pm.

I myself purchased some fine, locally-grown produce. But, alas, not with food stamps, because it was past 1pm. Next time!

Reentry Resource Fair in Fremont

Tonya Bailey, Americorps VISTA Leader with the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks, talks with a Sandusky County inmate about community resources available to assist him in making the transition out of incarceration.

This morning, I journeyed east, to the lovely Fremont, Ohio, for a Reentry Community Resource Fair.

We checked eligibility for public benefits and did applications for recently released and soon-to-be-released Sandusky County inmates.

(Check out the cartoonish black-and-white striped jumpsuits. I didn't realize they still used those!)

We were also supposed to be helping with resumes and job searches, but, alas, no takers.



We, the Ohio Benefit Bank, were in our own little side room, but the main fair, above, was huge and had a nice turnout!

Here's an article about the fair from the Fremont News Messenger.

Hey! I'm CPR Certified Now!

Today Maureen and I were certified in CPR and First Aid by the American Heart Association during a free day-long class at the Lucas County Department of Health.



The last time I had any CPR training was in junior high, so the day was full of lots of good common-sense reminders as well as some new and updated information.

For example, did you know you are supposed to lean your head forward, not tilt back, when you have a nosebleed? Otherwise blood could trickle back and cause problems for your ear/nose/throat areas. Makes sense if you think about it, but I'd always thought you tilt back.

Or that a person having a heart attack loses 500 heart cells per SECOND? Wowzers. That's why ever second is crucial during CPR.

It was also probably good for me to practice being authoritative and taking control of a situation: "YOU! (pointing at someone) Call 911 and bring me that AED!"

Best of all, we got to watch the episode of The Office where Stanley has a heart attack so Michael makes everyone take CPR training at which Dwight tries to harvest the organs of the dummy.



SIDE STORY: Today was a little nuts.

First I couldn't find the health department building. Once I found it, I circled the area several times, navigating annoying one-way streets, trying to figure out which parking lot I was allowed to park in.

Once I got inside, I was told the class was on the 2nd floor. But that door was locked. Turns out it was actually in the basement, which was a huge creepy maze of boilers and dirty sinks and rusty metal cabinets.

Then, just as the class was starting, Bernice my supervisor called, having issues with her laptop/projector set-up during a training. None of the obvious problems I could think of over the phone were the issue, no one else was around to help and she was in front of a class right then, and she wanted me to come try to fix it. So I left the class and drove over to see what I could do.

Luckily I got it working.

But just finding her was rough. There was a sign on the main door saying the training was in an annex building. No clue where that was. No further signs. Went inside and asked. Found out it's a few houses down the street. Walked there. Door was locked. But I could hear voices so I knocked. Bernice let me in.

On the way back to my car, this pit bull/boxer escaped from its owner, ran across a street (in front of a truck) and started jumping all up on me and following me down the street.

Shook off the dog and made in back to the class without missing too much.

Then, over lunch, went with Maureen to the Government Building down the street, which has a cafe on the 13th floor. Sat down just in time to hear an annoucement that there was a fire drill planned -- for the 13th floor only.

Ohh craziness. Haha!

Visit to the Toledo Zoo

(Back: Sara, Caroline, Ina, Maureen, Sharon. Middle: Me, Andrea, Kylee, Amy, Sarah Grace, Sarah Grace's daughter. Front: Beth)

Friday was our last monthly VISTA meeting with three of our members whose years of service are up in July, so we incorporated one last group outing...to the Toledo Zoo!

Sarah Grace's daughter came along.

We rode the African Safari train.



Saw some giraffes from the train.

I touched a big snake.

Mo and I saw this huge ape.

This little one was active and super-entertaining!

Sitting in mud to cool off.

We'll miss you Sharon, Sarah Grace and Andrea! Good luck with all your upcoming plans!