This years Beverly Hills/Greater L.A. Association of Realtors president Robin Greenberg launched the C.A.R.E project. C.A.R.E. stands for “compassion-acceptance-respect-empowerment”, The goal is to focus on the needs and efforts of a different charity each month. And the idea is that by providing compassion, acceptance and respect we can empower the less fortunate to overcome the obstacles they may face. June’s charity was the OPCC, also know as the “Ocean Park Community Center” in Santa Monica, CA. (http://bhglaar.com/pdf/OPCC.pdf)
Our newest Marketing Rep, Carrie, joined me and we went to lend our hands as volunteers for the morning of June 24th. Some folks prepped lunches, some gave out clothing from the donation closet, and some checked in lunch recipients.
We arrived around 9am and Carrie was put to work making sack lunches, while I was charged with the job of checking in lunch recipients and giving them a lunch ticket. I asked the folks in line a series of questions; Full name, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, how long they had been homeless in Santa Monica, where they were originally from, and whether they were on disability and/or were a veteran. This was an interesteing exercise. I’ve done quite a bit of volunteer work with the homeless in Los Angeles but rarely found out so much personal information about so many of them in such a short time. There were all ages, ethnicities, and types of folks. Many on disability, many with mental illnesses, and although many of them had not been homeless for very long, there were some who had been homeless for dozens of years. As a humanitarian, it was of interest to learn a little about the people we were serving to, rather than just slap food on their plates.
Once the line slowed to a crawl I went into a kitchen in another area of the community center. This was where the residents of the center ate. We prepared lunch for the residents. Another volunteer (Angel Moser) and I cut up apples, oranges, bananas, and plums and mixed them with canned pineapples for a fruit salad. Then a group of us made tuna sandwiches. Everything was fresh and looked quite tasty. We served the lunch to the residents at noon with a big scoop of ice-cream for each as well.
The best part about this particular volunteer experience was the gratitude that the residents showed us when we were done. A woman who lived there exlaimed how grateful they were for us volunteers and said thank you, followed by a chorus of thank you’s and a large round of applause. It caught me off guard as it’s very unusual to recieve that sort of acknowledgement. It was truly one of the most wonderful volunteer experiences I’ve had.
laroccainspect 