We miss Gus

5: The number of hours we spent on the food drive today.

Today Kaitlyn and I realized how much we rely on Gus the Bus.

Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, Gus the Bus was unavailable for food drive pick-ups today like we thought he would be. So we had to get out our ingenuity hats and work something out. We couldn't just forget about 11 food drive sites we had to retrieve barrels and boxes of food from!

So today Kaitlyn borrowed her fiance's Ford Explorer, I borrowed my mom's Hyundai Santa Fe, Martha volunteered to drive the pick-up truck (Kaitlyn and I can't drive a stick shift), and we got creative.

It was a lot easier than we thought it would be! We didn't even need the Santa Fe; the Ford could hold a couple of barrels and a ton of boxes at the same time. We did have to make a few more trips to Shared Harvest than we would have had to with Gus, but all in all it went rather smoothly. We lucked out that we didn't have to go anywhere that had overflow food, or more than a few barrels. Check out Kaitlyn's filled-up car below:



Well, they have told us from the very beginning that VISTA's had to be flexible! I can't wait to tell these stories in some job interviews eight months from now.

Food Drive Frolics

49: The percentage of all children in America who are on food stamps at some point by the age of twenty.


I have returned from In-Service Training/Refresher Tax Training in Columbus, and it feels good to be home. Kaitlyn and I wasted no time on Monday, and left pretty early in order to venture to 7 different food drive locations for pick-ups. Some of the places were holding on to their barrels for a little while longer to collect more food, so in those cases we needed to bring several boxes with us. That way we could pack up the contents in the barrels and leave them some room to bring plenty more non-perishables. We managed to fit 21 cardboard boxes on the dolly, and wheeled them out to Gus in just one trip! Check out our "Tetris" skills on the right.

And the boxes only fell once. Maybe twice.

We used the boxes to pick up food from two different Kroger stores and Showcase Cinemas in Springdale.

I'm glad Showcase is doing a food drive with us. They know their marketing. Every Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they are offering a free viewing of a holiday movie, as long as you bring in one non-perishable food item for their food drive. Now that's a smart idea! This Saturday, December 19, they're playing one of my favorites--"It's a Wonderful Life." Go see it! Bring some food with you!

The rest of the food drives were long and exhausting, as we had to pick up several barrels full of food at each stop. You'll see a picture of Gus the Bus in front of Seapine Software on the left. I really only included this picture because it seems kind of artsy and I was somewhat proud of it. The picture as well as the parking job.

I drove almost the whole time yesterday. I had a lot to make up for from when I was in crutches. I really don't mind driving Gus anymore. It's even kind of fun. And I'm going to miss doing food drives (somewhat) when it's over. We only have maybe a month left with Gus.

The picture below was taken at Bridgeport Elementary School. We had only taken out one of five barrels when the secretaries informed us that they were about to do a fire drill. We quickly lugged out one of the heavier barrels and got out of there. When we finished our unloading process for that barrel we just had to wait by the truck until the drill was over. What bad timing.

It was a long day yesterday, and very exhausting. We even got an hour of comp time out of it.

Here are the results of the food drives yesterday (that I know of):

Security National in Mason: 630 pounds

Seapine Software in Mason: 380 pounds

Atrium YMCA in Middletown: 150 pounds

Bridgeport Elementary School in Hamilton: ?

Kroger in Fairfield: ?

Kroger in Liberty Township:?

Showcase Cinemas: ?

We went out again today with Gus, but most of our locations were local so it only took us about an hour. Today was just a weird day. Almost every pick-up today was a little off.

Our first pick-up was at Cincinnati Christian school. This one actually went pretty smoothly, though I did have to have Kaitlyn get out of the truck and move a sign out from the middle of the road so we could get through. I'm not sure how illegal that was, but we put it back as soon as we got through. Cincinnati Christian collected 115 pounds of food.

Our second stop was at DNA Diagnostics Center. They had asked for two barrels, but one of them was filled with toys. And we cannot accept toys. We had to wheel the cart to the other side of the building, then they wanted us to wheel the barrel of toys to a room near the entrance. So we had to turn the cart sideways and lug both barrels on top of it, which is no easy feat. We had to empty the toys before we could handle the food.

I mean, really?

The DNA Diagnostics Center collected 200 pounds of food.

We then went to Meadowridge Apartment Complex, where Gus was introduced to speed bumps. No matter how slow I drove, the back of the truck was incredibly bumpy and scary over those death traps.

While Kaitlyn and I were loading the food into the truck, we noticed that they had put these stickers on every single item:

Okay....I really do appreciate that they did a food drive with us. It's great that they collected 145 pounds of food. But this is not an opportunity for free advertising. This is a food drive. And by the time all of this food is sorted out, it is going to be way past the holiday season. So these stickers don't make much sense at all.

Sorry if this came out a little moody. It was just a strange day.

Frenzy

10.1%: The unemployment rate in Ohio in September 2009 (ODJFS Press Release)

The last day of In-Service Training is tomorrow! The conference has been really interesting so far, and today was the infamous Community Action Poverty Simulation. I heard about this simulation months ago and have been looking forward to it ever since.

About 5o VISTAs, maybe more, gathered into a large conference room this morning and were each given a new identity. I was to play the role of Cindy Chen, a 39-year-old woman with a husband and three children (a 16-year-old who was two months pregnant played by a VISTA, a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy, each of whom were played by baby dolls).

The middle of the room was filled with small circles of chairs with each family's name on it, with one chair per family member. We were given large plastic envelopes containing some instructions, social security cards, one work ID card, a few resources and their worthn(cards that said MICROWAVE, TELEVISION, STEREO, and REFRIGERATOR, all valued at $100) and 6 transportation passes.

We would need these transportation passes to go to any resources in the room. Each pass, worth $1, represented a bus ticket, gasoline for the car, or the time and energy it takes to walk somewhere. Along the walls were moderator-run booths: Community Action, General Employer, Quik Cash & Transportation Passes, Interfaith Services/Homeless shelter, Child Care Center, Public School, Social Services, Mortgage & Realty/Utilities, Grocery Store, Juvenile Hall, Jail, Police Department and a Pawn Shop. There was another moderator (Sarah Brady), who played the role of the criminal, and stalked around the room trying to persuade people to buy or sell drugs. She also stole any money and resources people forgot to bring with them.

To make things even more interesting, yet another moderator (Dustin Speakman), strolled around handing out good fortune/bad fortune cards, to give us an idea of those little surprises that can come up in everyday life.

The hour and a half allotted for this simulation was broken up into four sets of 12 minutes, with small breaks inbetween each session. Twelve minutes represented one week in the life of a family living in poverty.

My family, the Chen family, started off okay. I was a full-time employee at the hospital as a receptionist, though my husband, Charles, had just been laid off from his job. Our 16-year-old pregnant daughter, Connie (I think that was her name), was irresponsible and would rather spend time with her boyfriend Franco Fuentes than watch over her younger siblings. But on the first day, I took our transportation passes to my job while the kids went off to school and the husband asked our neighbors if they had absolutely anything to spare.

The first day of work, which was spent sitting in a designated area reading about poverty, lasted about five minutes, then we each received our first week's pay. I went right next door to the bank, where a very long line was forming, so I could cash the check and buy more transportation passes. Unfortunately, the week ended before the line did, and I was forced to return home empty-handed, only to learn that our 16-year-old daughter had been suspended from school.

As SOON as week 2 began, I literally ran across the room to the bank and was forced to wait in another long line. By the time I had cashed my check and purchased 20 more transportation passes, my shift at work had ended, and I lost my job.

To make matters worse, my husband Charles had been dealt a "bad luck" card and had all of our money stolen.

Things pretty much went downhill from there.

Every VISTA in the room was in a frantic frenzy. Our family had no hope of paying off any of our bills, so we desperately went from Interfaith to Social Services to Community Action. We were able to acquire an Electronic Benefits Card (for food stamps) from Social Services, as well as a a voucher for clothes from Interfaith. I almost laughed when I went to Community Action and received $10 and a voucher for $30 off my $150 utility bill. It just wasn't enough for anything.

The only thing we were really able to do was buy food for the first three and a half weeks. By the end of the simulation, more than half of the chairs in the room had been turned upside down, symbolizing that those families had been evicted for not paying their mortgage. The homeless shelter was completely full and were turning people away. Our daughter got herself stuck in prison for stealing money to bail out her boyfriend. Other families had resorted to stealing from one another and accepting jobs as drug dealers. Everyone was so panicked and rushed, and there was just too much to keep track of. The criminal in the scenario (Sarah Brady) said she even stole someone's baby in the second week, and no one even noticed.

It was such an eye-opener. There are a lot of resources available for low-income people, but is it really ever enough? We can help someone get food stamps or medical coverage, but is that going to help them pay for their car or their home when they have no other income?

Poverty is a huge problem, and it's not one that can be solved with temporary solutions. In one of my sessions yesterday, Bridges Out of Poverty, we were told that wealthy people think more about their history, their past, and their traditions. Middle class people focus more on their futures, and what they can do to get ahead. But for people living in poverty, every day is a struggle. They live entirely in the present, because their most basic needs don't come as easily to those who are more fortunate.

I feel like I understand that better now. I was so frustrated during the simulation. By the end of week two I felt awful with myself, exhausted, and ready to give up. I was happy to get $5 for our $100 microwave at the pawn shop. It is hard to imagine living like that every day. And it can happen to anyone.

We Still Believe!

21: The number of days until Christmas!

After our meeting with Meredith and Jessica this afternoon (and the traditional burrito bols at Chipotle), the Southwest Regional VISTAs decided to make a quick stop over to Tri-County mall to visit Santa Claus. We even brought along our jammies to change into for the occasion. (And Kaitlyn brought her teddy bear, Koko).

Top row: Annen Stuckert, Michelle Lydenberg

Bottom row: Alex Moning, Kaitlyn Baker

Afterward, Santa gave us each a bell necklace. We put them on right away, so Kaitlyn and I jingle whenever we move.

It was such a fun day! We are SO COOL!

Just a Heads Up

4: The number of days I'll be in Columbus next week.

I'm going to be making another road trip next week to Columbus for a little something called IST, or In Service Training. I'm leaving on Tuesday morning and IST is over on Thursday. However, I have to stay an extra night because Friday we are having an updated Tax training, also held in Columbus.

I'll have my laptop when I'm in Columbus, but I don't know if I'll get around to blogging too much. I just didn't want anyone to think I was giving up on it.

Side note: I am also using comp time to take Monday off. Anna, one of my closest friends from college, is coming in from Newark, Ohio for a visit, and she only has Sundays and Mondays off. I'm really excited to see her!

Training and Therapy

44: The number of degrees it is in Dayton today. Brr!

I haven't had to do a training in about a month, but I'm back in the swing of things now. It's like riding a bike.

Right now I'm at the Vineyard Church in Dayton. The training was supposed to start at 8:00, so I got here at 7:30. However, no one was there to let me in. I called the contact guy, who said he was running a little late but that he would be here. So I sat in my car until he let us in at about 8:15.

It was only a minor hiccup, though. Four out of six people found their way here, and we aren't really behind. Another polite class today.

I had to dress up for the training today, so my air cast was shoved into my nice black flats. I took my right shoe off as soon as I got settled and explained to the trainees that I was not being lazy or unprofessional, I just have a sprained ankle.

Speaking of which, my physical therapy session made me realize just how bad that sprain was. I did not enjoy it at all. My therapist had me put my feet up, then he stuck two little tabs on my ankle that were connected to some machine. Then he wrapped it in ice, then gauze, then a towel.

Me: You're not going to shock me are you? Hahaha.
Him: Yep, we sure are.
Me: ....But the--adda--wibba...

It didn't really hurt. It was just very tingly, like my foot was falling asleep. And the last time my foot fell asleep, I ended up falling and spraining my ankle. So I might have been overcome with nervous giggles for the first several minutes, but I got over it. I had to shock myself for about 12 minutes. All I could think about was the Milgram experiment.

Anywho, the rest of this week shouldn't be too bad. I have a holiday basket meeting tomorrow (as well as my second physical therapy session), then we have a regional VISTA meeting Friday at Panera Bread. I really like those meetings. I get to drink hot chocolate.

Until next time, loyal readers!

New York Times

The day has finally arrived!

Jason DeParle, the New York Times reporter who visited us at Shared Harvest so many weeks ago, has published his first two of three articles regarding hunger.

Article 1
Article 2

The second article focuses on Southwest Ohio and includes a quote from Tina!

The third and final installment should be coming soon. I'll keep you posted.

Right now it's 9:00, and in about a half hour Kaitlyn and I will be driving to the city of Hamilton for a six-hour long regional VISTA meeting. Immediately after that, I'll be going to my very first physical therapy session. As I spent most of my extended weekend recuperating from the severe ankle pain Black Friday caused, I am not looking forward to irritating the sprain any more than I already have. Wish me luck!

I'm alive!

6: The number of days since my last blog post.

I know I haven't been blogging lately, but to be honest there wasn't very much going on! My last two trainings were canceled because so few people signed up. I wasn't able to do much or go anywhere because of my ankle, so I was mostly sitting in the office making phone calls and staring blankly at spreadsheets.

But things have been picking up lately, and now I feel like I have a ton of stuff to say! I'll start with the best news ever--I no longer need my crutches! I went to the doctor this morning and he said I could start weaning off the crutches. Which means I can walk around, but keep the crutches close by. I managed to fit my foot with the cast in my gym shoe, but not without effort. I had to wrap the foot/ankle in gauze, then put on a small sock, then put on the air cast as high up as it will go, then I had to untie my shoe and stretch it out as much as I could. So I am wearing two shoes for the first time in almost a month.

The doc also said I could shop on Black Friday, so I am a happy girl.

Moving on, yesterday was a crazy busy day. Kaitlyn and I were out doing food drive stuff all morning and all afternoon. Our first stop was to Springboro Area Small Business Network. Kaitlyn had packed her new GPS, General Paulette, but she couldn't find the address in her system. So we had to rely on Map Quest.

The address we eventually found after driving back and forth a few times was a quaint yellow house in the middle of nowhere. We were extremely confused, so we called our contact person. The call went a little something like this:

Me: Hi, this is Alex Moning from Shared Harvest Foodbank, and we're not really sure--

Her: Oh, is that you in my driveway?

Me: ...Is it the yellow house?

Her: Yep!

Me: Well then, yes we are.

She helped Kaitlyn carry the bags out to the car (they hadn't requested a barrel). I was still on crutches, so I put a bag of paper towels around my arm. Yay, I helped! They collected 180 pounds of food!

Next we went to Summit Academy School. where the kids were more than happy to help carry the bags (and barrels!) out to Gus.

We still had bags in the truck from our first stop, so we just had them put the bags on the ground. Here they are proudly standing next to their donations:

And here they are goofily standing next to their donations:

They would have been happy to help us out some more, but Kaitlyn and I had some organizing to do! We sorted all of the food from Springboro into boxes, then constructed several more boxes so we had a place to put the overflow food from Summit Academy. We were in that parking lot for a lonnnng time. They had collected 655 pounds of food. Wow!

Our last stop was for Catnip N Carrots (I have no idea). We were a little worried, because Gus was getting filled up fast and this place had 9 barrels. Fortunately, we were able to put our Tetris skills to use. Most of the barrels were a little less than half full, so we just combined them and stacked them and managed to make it work. They collected 370 pounds of food!

Below you'll see a picture of Kaitlyn with a very full Gus, and a picture of Kaitlyn filling Gus with gasoline. See any similarities?

Anyway, after a very quick stop to the PNC bank in Tri-County, we went to Sacred Heart Elementary for their pick-up. We didn't think it would take too long, because they only had three barrels. We didn't realize how much overflow there would be (see below).

Uh-oh.

This pick-up took many, many hours to complete. Kaitlyn wheeled out the three barrels while I constructed more boxes (my hands are really, really dry). We emptied the barrels into the boxes until we could lift the barrels into Gus, then we emptied the boxes back into the barrels. We really need a ramp on that truck.

That took a long time to do. When we finished that, we went into the church with our boxes and began filling them with the overflow food. To make it all fit better, we had to empty each plastic before putting the food into the boxes.

Needless to say, this took FOREVER. I was at least able to sit down while filling up boxes (remember, I was still on crutches at this point), then Kaitlyn would wheel them out to the truck and load them in.

Finally -FINALLY- we had packed all of the food and loaded all of the boxes. They ended up collecting 1166 pounds of food. Woohoo!

See me below holding my tape dispenser in a very James Bond-esque manner.

As you can see, Gus was very full at this point and we still had one more pick-up to do. But when we got to PetLand, they hadn't collected any food at all, and the manager said that they wanted to hold on to the barrel for another week or so to see what they could do.

That was a relief. We might have had to stick the barrel in the front seat with us. So after a quick look at the puppies, we went back to a dark and almost-empty Shared Harvest and got out of there at about 4:30.

Well that very, very long blog post ought to make up for my abandonment over the past week or so.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. Be careful on Black Friday--last year someone ran over my mom with a shopping cart.

No Regrets

39: The number of miles in my car before I run out of gas (But don't tell my dad)

Yes, I made the mistake of driving to Vandalia today without filling up my gas tank. But it could have been worse. And I'm going straight to Kroger after work.

Anyway, I went to Vandalia for this Medicare conference/resource fair at the Dayton Airport Hotel. Have you ever hobbled across a large parking lot in the rain on crutches carrying a laptop and a large tote bag? It is not a pleasant experience.

I finally made it inside and found the room where all the other vendors were. Meredith had called some people in Columbus to reserve our spot, but I guess they never got around to calling them? It worked out, though, because they had one extra table.

Normally I would have brought a tri-fold with me, as well as a bowl of candy, but it was hard enough getting my bag and laptop in the door. So my booth was a little lame. Still, I had my laptop for Quick Checks and Site Finders, and tons of flyers about the Benefit Bank to give away. Turns out I didn't really need them. There were only about 30-35 people there, and many of them didn't even come into the resource room. Set up was at 8 a.m., people started trickling in at 8:30, there was a presentation in another room from 9-10, and a few individuals came back in on their way out. So for most of the day, the resource room looked like this:

But of course, it was not a waste of time. It never is.

Although I didn't do any Quick Checks for anyone, I did do a site locator for a woman whose son has been struggling. A lot of people at least picked up some flyers and pamphlets. And when I told one woman what the Benefit Bank was, she was so excited that she wasted no time filling out a "Yes card" so she can get started on becoming a site.

The best news of all -- there just so happened to be a Friendly's two miles away from the Dayton Airport Hotel. So at 11 a.m. I drove over there, went straight for the counter and asked if I could get food to go.

"You sure can! You want to order breakfast?"

"No...don't judge me, but I just want ice cream."

That's right, I wasn't kidding when I said I'd just skip the lunch and go straight for the sundae the next time I found a Friendly's. She even helped me carry it to my car.

And I have no regrets.

Ode to Crutches (and Kaitlyn)

974: The number of pounds we (and by we I mean mostly Kaitlyn) delievered to Shared Harvest.

Something I realized on our food drive pick-ups yesterday: When you're on crutches, more people offer to help load the truck.

Our first job was to drop off four barrels to Security National, which happens to be located on Cintas Blvd. You may remember that street name from "The Adventures of Gus the Bus: The Missing Cintas Distribution Center." Same street, different building.

Determined not to be dead weight, I hobbled inside while Kaitlyn parked Gus so I could talk to the lady behind the counter and ask for some help carrying in the barrels. She quickly sent out two or three helpers, and we were done in no time!

By the way, Kaitlyn is a real gem. She drove the entire way, and handled all the barrels and boxes. I owe this girl big time.

Our next stop was a food drive pick-up from Siemans Motion Control to pick up two barrels as well as about ten boxes of food. I think these guys would have helped us out even if I weren't on crutches. They were really enthusiastic and more than happy to lift the boxes into Gus.



They ended up collecting 510 pounds of food. Woohoo!

Our final stop was at Hi-Tek Manufacturing Incorporated. Their food drive is still going on, but their barrels were getting really full. So we left the barrels there, but loaded up their many, many boxes into Gus. I was actually able to help out with this one using the system Kaitlyn and I created on our last food drive. Kaitlyn (and a few more volunteers) wheeled out the boxes on a dolly and got up into the truck, I handed her bags of food, and she loaded them into an empty barrel. So far, they have collected 464 pounds of food!

There was nowhere to turn Gus around once we were finished, so Kaitlyn had to back up into the grass a little to get out of there. First she had to move a random picnic table out of the way, though. We've learned our lesson about that. It was hilarious, in a deja vu kind of way.




Meredith suggested that I use the crutches even after my ankle is healed, so that people continue to sympathize and help us out. It worked out pretty well yesterday! Still, I will be incredibly happy when I'm able to take this air cast off and ditch the crutches. All it takes is physical therapy twice a week for four weeks.

...Yay.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Too many to count: The number of phone calls I've made today.


Remember lava lamps? The slow-moving, oddly-shaped blobs of wax that drift up and down in a tight clear container?


That is what my brain feels like right now.


Today has consisted of phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls. Kaitlyn and I have been calling:

• Soon-to-be Benefit Bank sites who still need to turn in their site user agreements or attend pre-training orientation


• Potential food drive sites


• Benefit Bank sites to see if they want to hold tax clinics


• Benefit Bank sites who still have to renew their organizational agreement and site profile


• Potential Benefit Bank sites in each of our seven counties.

And we are calling all of these people every other day.

Needless to say, we leave a lot of voicemails. And on the rare occasion that someone actually returns our call, things can get a little confusing.


I have put together a little skit to give you an idea of a typical phone call.


**DRAMATIZATION**

Cell phone: Ring! Ring!

Me: This is Alex.

Caller: Hi, this is John Smith from NonProfit Anonymous! I'm returning a phone call.

Me: Oh, okay, great. Thanks for calling back. Let me just...find your file... so you're interested in becoming a Benefit Bank site?

Caller: No....we're already a site.

Me: Oh, okay. *opens another spreadsheet* So did you recently become a tax site?

Caller: No...we just do benefits.

Me: Oh, sorry. Um...is this about the food drive?

Caller: Food drive?

Me: Crap.

I know that it says "Dramatization" at the top...but it's really not. I have actually had that very phone call, minus the "crap" at the end.

Tomorrow we are out of the office for food drive stuff, so it'll be nice to be away from our spreadsheets and folders. Phone calls can be so exhausting.

Slow week

22.25: The number of comp time hours I have built up.

This is actually shaping up to be a pretty slow week.

TODAY: Aside from a few phone calls, I don't have much going on today. Kaitlyn and I were going to do a food drive drop-off this afternoon, but it's only one barrel and it's not far, so Kaitlyn is going to stick a barrel in the backseat of her car, and like ten banana boxes in her trunk. I sincerely hope she gets pictures of this.

TUESDAY: I'm taking a sick day tomorrow because I have several doctor's appointments to go to. I really hope they don't make me move my ankle around just yet.

WEDNESDAY: I originally had a training to do this day, but no one signed up so it was cancelled. Kaitlyn, however, still has her training in Dayton, so I might be a little lonely in the office.

THURSDAY: Kaitlyn and I have a few food drive tasks to take care of in the morning. I think I'm mostly going to be the rearview mirror. I can't do a lot of heavy lifting while leaning on crutches. I mean some, sure, but not a lot.

FRIDAY: Another blank column in my Google calendar.

So yes, a slow week. Prepare yourself for some truly dull blog posts.

Annoying/Fearless

1: The number of functional legs I have.

Well I went to the doctor last night and it turns out my ankle is indeed sprained. They wrapped it up in gauze, put me in an air cast, and instructed that I stay on crutches for "a few weeks." Okay, if I am able to sprain my ankle while standing still, what do they think is going to happen when they put me on stilts?

I have to do all these follow-up appointments and go through some physical therapy, so it's a long process. They also said that because I've sprained my ankle once, it's going to be easy to sprain it again because it's all stretched out.

So basically I just became annoying. I do not do well on crutches, so people have to open my doors and carry my bags.

On the bright side I am still able to drive. The air cast gives me enough mobility to go from gas to brake without a problem. And hopefully I'll be okay by Thanksgiving. Because I can't do Black Friday in crutches.

Kaitlyn and I were in Gus yesterday and we were talking about how much more assertive we've gotten since becoming VISTAs. I used to hate talking on the phone. Even to my friends. I would make other people order pizza. And now -- Well I'm still not crazy about the phone, but I can do it easily. The fear for that is gone. I also never thought I'd be driving around a truck as big as Gus, and now it's just like any other car. I don't even notice the size of it, really. And if someone had told me a year ago that I would be training people all day, I would have laughed (or curled up into the fetal position and hidden in a corner). And now those trainings are second nature!

Kaitlyn and I are very proud of ourselves. We're FEARLESS!

Betting on Barrels

1,606: The pounds of food Kaitlyn and I delivered to Shared Harvest today.

I used up some of my building comp time to take the day off yesterday. I was looking forward to sleeping in, watching bad TV, and playing with my cat Albert.

I ended up waking up at 7:30 in the morning, anyway. And while I did spend most of my day watching movies and doing jigsaw puzzles, it might have been safer to have just gone in to work. My doorbell rang in the middle of "Juno," so I pushed away my makeshift puzzle table and stood up only to fall at a really awkward angle. My legs had fallen asleep at some point during the movie and weren't functioning properly. I basically landed on the right side of my ankle.

I don't think it's broken, but it might be sprained or something. I can walk on it--I just have to do so carefully. Moving it to the side the tiniest bit is painful.

So I was a little worried about all of the food drive pick-ups Kaitlyn and I were scheduled to do today. I usually like picking up barrels from food drives--it gives us the warm and fuzzies to know that a struggling family is going to get that extra help. I just didn't know how helpful I was going to be on the day I can barely support the weight of my right leg, let alone hundreds of pounds of food.

Our first stop was Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual in Fairfield. This place was awesome. Not only did they have six FULL barrels of food to contribute, they also had a loading dock that could lower itself to the height of Gus! They even offered to back Gus up to the dock and load the barrels. Fine with us!

I was more than happy to stand aside while they put the heavy barrels of food into Gus!

There was no more room in Gus after that excursion, so we drove back to Shared Harvest to empty and weigh the food. To make the day a little more interesting, Kaitlyn suggested we bet each other on how many pounds of food we had collected from Liberty Mutual Fairfield, without going over. It turned out that we had gotten 938 pounds of food (WOW!). I won the bet, so Kaitlyn had to drive to our next destination: Staples!

The guys from the warehouse help us get the barrels out of Gus

We didn't have any problems with Staples. They had eight barrels, but half of them were empty.

We did come up with a great system for loading the food into the truck, though. Gus doesn't have a ramp and we don't always have fancy machinery for easy lifting, so we have to get creative. We use the dolly to carry the full barrels out to the truck, then I take out the food and hand them up to Kaitlyn, who puts them into an empty (or almost empty) barrel that's already in the truck. When the barrel on the ground is light enough, we lift it into the truck and use that one to add food to for the next full barrel.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for coming up with that system! It all went very smoothly.

Staples had collected 246 pounds of food. I won that bet, too, so Kaitlyn had to give me two mini-Reeses Cups.

We had to drop the food off at Shared Harvest again, then after a quick lunch we went to our last destination: The Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual office in Hamilton!

A lone barrel sits in front of Ohio Casualty Liberty Mutual

This place had done a fantastic job in their food drive, and they were really helpful in getting it all together. They had collected 422 pounds of food (I won that one, too, by the way, but that's neither here nor there). They took the dolly off our hands and brought down all of the barrels for us, and they were really excited about their food drive.

All in all, we brought back 1,606 pounds of food to Shared Harvest--amazing! My ankle hurts from walking on it all day, but I was able to find a few places to rest throughout the afternoon...

Friendly's

3: The number of days in my weekend (yay!)

Happy Halloween!

I'm at Miami Hamilton right now for my first tax training. All the counselors-to-be are working on their second scenario. I'm feeling pretty good. It's going really well. I found a great way to avoid questions I don't have answers to. I let everyone know that no one expects them to be tax experts and that there are reference pages in the backs of their books. I also gave everyone a slip of paper in their folders that had the link to the "Link and Learn" that we had to complete before going to tax training in Columbus. I think having all of those extra places to go for help eased everyone's minds. So going through the Tax and FAFSA guide was pretty smooth.

I'm so glad it's almost the weekend, and that I took Monday off. I so need to sleep in.

I did promise to blog about it if something interesting happened during my training in Troy Wednesday, so here it is:

I don't know my way around Troy at all, so when it was time for lunch I searched for "restaurants" in my GPS and guess what popped up?

FRIENDLY'S!!

I used to go to this place all the time when I was a kid, until they closed all of them in the Cincinnati area. For those who have never had the pleasure of dining at Friendly's, they have your typical burgers and chicken fingers, and the most incredible Reeses Cup peanut butter sundaes in the world.

I hadn't been to a Friendly's since I visited my brother in Albany, New York last summer. So I sped on over and got chicken tenders and my sundae. Of course the fingers filled me up too much, and I wasn't even able to finish the ice cream. They give you a lot. But it was so worth it.

Next time I have a training in Troy, I may just get the sundae. And I don't care if you judge me.

To find a Friendly's near you, click here!

Long drives and pretty roads

12: The number of hours I worked yesterday.

Long. That's the only word I can come up with for my road trip to Portsmouth yesterday.

I left my house at 6 a.m., equipped with two tote bags stuffed with benefit and software guides, my laptop, and two bottles of water. I set the address in Rita, my trusty GPS, and set off.

I think I would have enjoyed the drive more if the sun were up. Once it did rise, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. It's a great time for a drive down a country road--the pretty leaves will be gone in a matter of weeks. Take the time to enjoy Autumn!

Anyway, it took almost two and a half hours to get to the training site, and I had plenty of time to set up. We only had two people missing, and they had called in ahead of time to say they couldn't make it.

The five people who were there were great. All very respectful and excited about the program. We went through the training without a hitch. (Well, there are always a few hiccups. I don't know why, but whenever people hear the phrase "WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORD--YOU WILL NEED IT LATER!" they go temporarily deaf. One of life's greatest mysteries).

After the training I put my home address into Rita, who turned out to be not so trusty in Portsmouth. She kept telling me to turn onto streets that were not actually there. Then she made me drive around in a circle a few times. I was getting really frustrated, so I eventually just found a highway and started driving. Unfortunately, this meant taking the long way home. Rita finally got her act together and I had to take windy, curvy, back roads for like an hour and a half before I found 32. The good news: Another pretty drive. I might have stopped the car for pictures if it weren't raining. The bad news: I just wanted to go home and put my jammies on. But I got home at about 6:00 and all was well.

Right now I'm at a training in Troy. It's going well so far, but if anything exciting happens you know I'll update.

Tomorrow is my day off, and by that I mean I don't have a training to do and will just go to Shared Harvest. I have my first tax training on Friday, then it will be the glorious weekend. I have already told Meredith that I need to use some of my growing comp time on Monday. It is high time for a vacay.

A crazy, busy, exhausting week

3: The number of trainings I have to do this week.

This week is going to be insane.

Right now I'm at Warren County United Way, waiting for someone to call me back about a success story. Even though it's my last day here, I am going to have to leave a couple of hours early to go to Shared Harvest.

My supervisor, Meredith, called me about an hour ago.

"Hey, Alex, it's Meredith."

"Oh, hi!"

"Um... are you feeling alright?"

"Yes....why?

"Oh, thank God."

It turns out that my fellow VISTA, Michelle, is really sick and will be most likely be unable to make it to her training tomorrow. Because of various circumstances with the other VISTAs in this region, I am pretty much the only one who was going to be able to make it to this training. I'm leaving United Way early today so I can go back to Shared Harvest and pick up some supplies for tomorrow (and Wednesday!). So tomorrow I'll be driving out to Portsmouth for another benefits training.

...Did I mention that Portsmouth is a 2 hour and 15 minute drive?

Hooray for comp time and expenses!

I have another training on Wednesday in Troy, again for benefits, and my first tax training in Dayton on Friday. So my week just got a little more interesting!

I just have to power through. Just keep swimming, and all that motivational stuff.

In other news, I went to the Lighthouse Food Pantry in Hamilton on Saturday for Make a Difference Day. Everyone was really friendly and literally welcomed me with open arms. My job was to make sure certain items, like breads, sweets and cheeses, were fully stocked as more and more people came in for their monthly shopping trip. I was also in charge of flattening boxes, which I didn't mind doing at all. There's something oddly satisfying about ripping apart cardboard. My hands got pretty dry, but I did okay.

I was supposed to stay there from 9:30-12:30, but I ended up staying a little longer because it was a lot busier than they had anticipated. They kept me moving the whole time I was there, so it passed by pretty quickly.

Social note: I saw "Paranormal Activity" on Friday. I haven't had a good night's sleep since Thursday night.

Back from C-Bus

7: The number of hours until the weekend.

I have returned from my overnighter in Columbus, and really, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We actually had a lot of downtime that we were able to spend catching up with the other VISTAs, and it's always nice to share stories with people who are in the same boat as you.

The taxes themselves...well let's just say I'm not a fan of doing taxes by hand. I may actually strive to maintain a job that will keep my household income less than $56,000 a year so I can just use The Benefit Bank forever.

It wasn't really difficult to do the taxes by hand, but it was frustrating. It didn't take long for the people at my table to create a mess of pencils, tax reference packets and calculators. Check out that clutter.

The only really frustrating part of it was not having a lot of room to work. And occasionally not understanding what a particular question was asking for. The tax manual that was given to us was about 100 pages, (see Kaitlyn holding it up with a look of amusing frustration) and we often struggled to find the answers we needed to fill out the 1040. The worst part was when we only had a few questions left and we'd get stuck on line 67b or whatever, and have to spend fifteen minutes figuring out a single question. Very frustrating. But the next day we were able to practice with the Benefit Bank software. We finished two scenarios in the time it took us to fill out one tax form by hand. Much better.

Kaitlyn is hard at work!

I am already nervous about my first tax training, even though I don't have one until October 30.

Wait...that's just next week.

...Crap.

P.S. Sorry about the spacing on this blog. I tried to figure out how to fix it, but all Blogger had to say about it was, "Yeah...kind of sucks, doesn't it?"

Leaving on a Ford Taurus

105.48: The number of miles from my house to downtown Columbus

This post is mostly just an FYI. Tomorrow I'm off to Columbus for Community Trainer Tax Training. It's another over-nighter so I won't be posting until Friday at the earliest.

It's also known as "Train the Trainer." We're being trained to train people to use the Benefit Bank for taxes. Did I get that right? Here's our schedule:

WEDNESDAY, October 21
9:30 a.m. -- Arrival and continental breakfast
10-Noon -- Reviewing the Tax Guide
Noon-1 -- Lunch and tax season overview
1-5 -- Taxes by hand, Janis Hayes scenario WAIT, taxes by hand?! I promise--I PROMISE--I understand how wonderfully easy-to-use the Benefit Bank is. If something requires a calculator, I can say with complete confidence that I am going to screw up.

THURSDAY, October 22
8:30 a.m. -- Continental breakfast I may pretend this says 8:45.
9-noon -- Software practice -- Plena and Hayes Family Scenarios I just might strain my eyes from all this computer practice.
Noon-1 -- Lunch I can already tell you what this is going to be. Cold cut sandwiches, bowl of fruit, assorted chips, cookies. They do treat us well! We can't go to an event without getting free food. But I digress.
1-3 -- Software practice -- Advanced scenario Wait, advanced scenario? What does that mean?
3-4 -- Final Questions

So that's where I'll be for the next few days.

Right now I'm at Warren County United Way. Today someone sent in an e-mail with a success story idea. There's this little boy in the second grade named Brenden who saw a program about charitable work, focusing on the homeless, and he was so affected by it that he told his parents he wanted to donate blankets and do whatever he could to help. So he's volunteering at the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Warren County right now and starting up food and clothing drives.

The woman at Interfaith is going to contact the family to make sure it's OK for me to interview them, and I'll give them a call next week.

My heart pretty much melted when I heard this story. What a sweet kid. If only everyone were a little more like Brenden.

Things that go bump on the road

11: The number of years Shared Harvest has owned Gus the Bus.

Today I got to use my skills as a certified Benefit Bank counselor! A woman came into Shared Harvest wanting to apply for HEAP, and I wasn't too busy so she came back to our office and I went through the application with her. The good news is that she had already used the Benefit Bank before, so a lot of her information was already in the system and it only took about 20 minutes. Still, it was nice to be able to do a little direct service. My counselor certification on the bulletin board isn't just there for decoration (though it does make me feel rather important).

Kaitlyn and I took Gus the Bus out for another spin today. There was a little confusion at first about where we needed to go, because people have been extending their food drive or already had their barrels picked up, etc. But we eventually figured out that we had to drop off two barrels and posters to a place called Siemens in Mason, and drop off two barrels and posters at Indiana Wesleyan University in West Chester. Kaitlyn was going to drive first this time, then we'd do the traditional "rock paper scissors" to see who had to drive to our next destination (I lost this time), and I would drive home. Once we loaded all of our supplies and clamored into the truck, Kaitlyn began to carefully back out of the parking spot, only to be greeted with an unfamiliar noise that sounded a little something like this:

"GGGHHARRRRRRRRNNNNNNNGGGHH."

We looked at each other with identical masks of horror before I peeked out the window and discovered that Kaitlyn had had a little run-in with the picnic table for the warehouse employees. (See below)

I quickly got out of the truck and surveyed the damage. When it was clear that both Gus and the picnic table were still in perfect condition, we let the giggles take over for a few minutes before I dragged the table to a safer location. We backed up the truck again, heard this noise (Gnnnnghghghg), turned off the emergency brake, and finally made it out of Shared Harvest.

Other than that minor glitch, the deliveries went just fine. We're getting pretty good at this.

Something exciting you may have read on Kaitlyn's blog is that today Jason DeParle, a reporter from The New York Times, is checking out Shared Harvest. He's doing a series on food stamps, and because Tina started the first food stamp outreach program in the country, this is a pretty good place for him to be. I'm pretty sure he's looking at how Shared Harvest's outreach program and the Ohio Benefit Bank increase access to food stamps. He also seems interested in our roles as AmeriCorps*VISTAS, so he asked Kaitlyn and me if he could put a link to our blogs on the Times' Web site.

Hmm...yes. Yes, you may.

So it has been pretty intense around here! Tina is organizing a dinner tonight for Jason and the people of Shared Harvest. She said to feel free to bring significant others, so my boyfriend Kyle is driving up as well. We're all pretty excited. Stay tuned for a posting about that!

3 more very important things to mention:

1. TINA TURNED THE HEAT ON TODAY! (Although she turned it right back off as soon as the church ladies left).

2. I can't seem to stop eating these Mellowcreme Pumpkins.

3. Look for Gus TheBus on Facebook!

The Holiday Basket Project

63: The guess-timated number of applicants for Holiday Baskets I saw yesterday.

Part of my VAD (Vista Assignment Description) is for me to work on the Holiday Basket Project, which basically recruits volunteers to put together baskets of food for low-income families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as toys and other gifts for the holiday season. I had just been attending meetings every two weeks, and making my cell number available to the organizations who are involved in the project. A few weeks ago, though, Family Services of Middletown sent me an e-mail asking if I would be willing to go down there and help people register for baskets of food and gifts. So yesterday I drove the half hour to Middletown, having no clue what to expect.

As soon as I walked in the building I knew it would be a busy day. It was packed with people who had wandered in and wanted to register. It took me longer than necessary to walk the twenty or so feet to the back of the building, where I met with Connie, who was helping to organize the project. She handed me a sheet of paper, said "These people came in on Tuesday and might come back today with their missing paperwork. Make sure they have this, this, this and this, thanks so much for the help, sit right here!" and was ushered away by more people with more questions.

I was overwhelmed at first, ("Wait, so ...if there...should I...wha?") but I got the hang of it quickly enough. People started streaming in with missing paperwork, and I was soon given the responsibility of helping new clients fill in whole new applications (I guess you could call them applications).

It was kind of a downer day, though. Apparently some people have taken advantage of the program in the past, or are asking for assistance from several organizations, so they have to make sure that the people coming in for help really do need the help. So I had to ask for documentation for just about everything: Birth certificates for everyone in the household, food stamp verification, leasing agreements, utility bills, pay stubs. And if they were missing documents, I was supposed to send them away and ask them to come back. Which meant having them go home, rummage around for these documents, come back and wait in line all over again. I could only imagine the frustration that they had to go through. And all they were asking for was a basket of food for their family for the holidays.

I just do not like the fact that it is still so hard for some people to get assistance. Hopefully that will change.

Leave a message at the beep!

18: The number of sites who still need to sign up for Pre-Training Orientation or turn in their Site User Agreement.

I don't really have a lot to report today, but I haven't updated my blog in a long time, so I feel like this is necessary.

Yesterday was my first ever solo training. And while I was a little anxious about it, I was also excited to lead a class all by myself. The training was at the Wesley Center in Dayton, which is about an hour drive. I had already been there for a training, so at least I had a faint idea of where I was going.

And it went well. It really did. Everyone understood the program, they asked smart questions and were respectful. We did have a few issues with the computers, but none of them completely crashed, at least. Six people were scheduled to show up, and for the first time I had a training with perfect attendance! I was so proud of everyone. Everyone finished up pretty early and I got home at about 4:20.

I have spent most of today making phone calls. We have folders upon folders of organizations that would like to be benefit bank sites, but haven't yet completed PTO (Pre-Training Orientation) or turned in their SUA (Site User Agreement). The sad thing is that I called like 20 different places and wasn't able to sign up a single site for PTO. I mostly got voicemails. And one place said they were no longer interested in becoming a site. But at least we got an answer out of them.

It's still pretty early in the day, though, so I might take some time to call potential food drive sites. I only wish it weren't so cold in here. Two of the walls in this office are just windows, so there's not a lot of insulation. I am wearing a t-shirt, a hoodie, and my winter coat. But my fingers are slowly becoming numb.

The Adventures of Gus the Bus: The Missing Cintas Distribution Center

6: The number of buildings on Cintas Blvd.

What a beautiful, albeit rainy, day for a barrel drop-off with Gus the Bus!

How do I describe yesterday... it definitely had its ups and downs. Early in the morning there was a HUGE spider in our little office, which is not what you want to find in a room with four ladies. Meredith, my supervisor, was able to identify it as a wolf spider. She was also able to smush it with her shoe. If she hadn't been in the office , I'm pretty sure Martha, Kaitlyn and I would still have our feet up on our office chairs.

But soon after that, Tina came into our office with some good news. Kaitlyn and I were each given our expense checks, which have been missing since August! So that was really exciting. We were both practically singing when we realized that everything was in the correct amount and all we had to do was go to the bank.

After that high wore off, it was time for Kaitlyn and me to take out Gus the Bus. We had to drive out to Mason to MedPlus and the Cintas Distribution center. We decided that I would drive Gus to MedPlus, we would "rock paper scissors" to see who had to drive to Cintas, and Kaitlyn would drive us back. I won, so I got to relax in the front seat while Kaitlyn unintentionally drove over a few curbs in the parking lot.

Things were going pretty smoothly. We got to MedPlus alright, and we found Cintas easily. Okay, that's not altogether true. We found the general area where Cintas was supposed to be. Our MapQuest directions told us to turn right on Cintas Blvd. and that the address we were looking for would be on the left. Well, there are several buildings on this street, all of which are labeled "CINTAS." So we maneuvered our way down each random driveway, hoping to find an address (which we didn't).

Where do we go?!

We had some time to kill anyway, because we were told that no one would be able to find us and the barrels between 12:30 and 1:00. So we parked Gus across four empty parking spaces, turned on the radio, had a little jam session in the truck and took some picturesque fall photos of our favorite van/truck/bus.

When one o'clock rolled around, we had some decisions to make. We were in the largest parking lot for the biggest building at the very end of the drive. So we drove around, making a tight circle around the building, until we found what looked like a main entrance. We went in and were told by the lady at the front desk to take the barrels "down by the docks."

"Down by the docks?"

"Yes, down by the docks."

"Do you have a dock number for us or something? There are like 20 docks."

"No, just head down there. Like, around the building."

"..."

When we got back to Gus, we called our contact person for Cintas, who told us to meet her by dock 16. Finally, a straight answer! Of course we hung up with her before we discovered that dock 16 was located behind a security gate. Fortunately, we were able to sit there speechless long enough that another truck came by, entered the code, and entered through the gate. So we just followed him in. I hope we didn't make anybody anxious with that.

So we finally made it to dock 16, and we unloaded the two barrels from the back and lugged them up the steps to the one door we saw. Someone was there to greet us and lead us halfway across the building to their cafeteria. (Well, it seemed like that far. It's hard to measure distance when you're carrying a huge barrel). We dropped off the barrels, and their posters for the barrels, and navigated our way out of there. We were able to tailgate another semi out of the fenced-in dock area, and we headed back to Shared Harvest.

We have decided that we will probably never be completely used to driving Gus the Bus. Every time I climb up to the driver's seat I start having heart palpitations. Still, it gets a little easier every day!

Technical Difficulties

26: The number of pennies in my change purse.

Today Kaitlyn and I had presentations in Montgomery and Greene counties. They were a little close together timewise, though, so to be safe Kaitlyn went to Montgomery at 8 a.m. and I headed out to Greene at 10:30.

Greene County is about an hour drive away, and I had never been out there before. Fortunately I had my GPS, Rita, with me, and I didn't get lost.

After an hour drive, consisting mostly of searching for a station that wasn't playing Miley Cyrus, I pulled into the Greene County Public Library. It was hard to find a place to park. I ended up parking on the street, which of course happened to be right next to the county jail, and which of course had a parking meter that only accepted quarters, of which I only had one.

I was only able to buy a half hour of parking time. So after I got all set up in the meeting room, I spoke with the librarian and exchanged two dimes and a nickel for another quarter. Unfortunately those were the only coins I had, aside from a handful of pennies, and I was just going to have to risk parking there for what was for sure going to be longer than 52 minutes.

So I headed back up to the meeting room and had someone come in to help me set up their projector, which I for some reason couldn't figure out for the life of me. And neither could they. They said that Acer computers for some reason always have trouble with their projector. I ended up putting my OBB presentation on a USB and transferring it over to one of their computers. At least it was working now.

By this point I was ten minutes behind schedule and two people had already shown up. So I went through the presentation, showed them the Quick Check program, answered their questions, etc. I hope they didn't notice the anxiety behind my voice. I wasn't nervous about presenting; I was nervous about getting a parking ticket.

The presentation took about an hour. When I finally had everything packed up I practically ran back to my car. The fates were with me -- my car was still there, not a single ticket in sight.

I decided to pull a Preble County and search around for more potential sites, but this day was not so successful. I couldn't find one of the places I wanted to check out, and I was only able to leave some information at the next one. It was raining, I was out of homemade business cards, and it looked like some of the places on my list required street parking (which required quarters, of which of course I had none). So I picked up some lunch and headed back to Shared Harvest.

It was a tiring day.

Spontaneous Walking Tour

0: The number of people who showed up to our Benefit Bank presentation in Preble County.

You read that correctly.

Kaitlyn and I have been giving presentations to our counties in the southwest region of Ohio. We sent out letters to other nonprofit sites that we hoped would want to become a Benefit Bank site, giving them a brief overview of the program. So far we haven't had much luck. So for Preble County, for which we only sent out 20 lettes, we followed up the letters with a phone call, reminding them of the presentation. We drove 45 minutes out there, got all set up, and waited 20 minutes before we decided no one was going to show up.

But we didn't drive all the way out there for nothing, so Kaitlyn looked up some of the sites we had invited, wrote down the addresses, and got back in the car. We figured if they weren't going to come to us, then we were going to go to them!

We weren't sure how people were going to react to us, so we were a little anxious at first. We didn't want people to think we were trying to sell them something, or carrying around the book of Mormon. But people were very receptive to us, all very polite, and our spontaneous drive around Preble County turned out to be pretty successful. No one had heard of the Benefit Bank before, and we got to sit down and talk with people at two organizations about it. They were really ecstatic about the program, which made us want to skip around the parking lot. (But we didn't).

We also learned that a lot of the information we have in our spreadsheets is no longer accurate. A few of the buildings we drove by looked completely vacant, so we may have to do some research to figure out where these agencies disappeared to.

We did a lot of walking, because a lot of the nonprofits were on the same street as one another. It was a pretty fun way to spend the day!

The Importance of Internet Access

54: The number of minutes I spent on the phone with IT people during the resource fair yesterday.

I like resource fairs. It's nice to get out of the office for a while, and it's always satisfying to work directly with people who are looking for help. They're a lot of fun.

Let me clarify.

I usually like resource fairs. When everything goes smoothly, it can be a lot of fun.

And now I'll explain.

Kaitlyn and I were scheduled to do a resource fair in Dayton from 12-5 yesterday, so at about 10:15 we loaded up my car with the usual candies, literature, tri-fold and laptops and drove out there. And while we drove, we became more aware of the fact that this particular resource fair is being held at the Dayton Dragons baseball field. Outside.

This is when we start to get a little anxious. We were already cold just from walking from Shared Harvest to my car in the parking lot. Here are some of the things that were said on the drive:

"I am so glad I brought my jacket."
"What if it rains on our laptops?"
"Oh crap, we only get two chairs per booth. ... I guess people can just stand."
"I'm still not sure where to park. If I get a ticket, can I expense that?"

Finding the stadium was no problem. Figuring out where to park took a couple of drives around the same block, but we got there eventually. We also learned that we wouldn't be on the baseball field itself; we would be in that area where they sell hot dogs and baseball caps and whatnot. So at least we wouldn't get drenched if it rained. (Which it didn't!)

BUT when I went to set up my laptop (after Kaitlyn asked around for an extension cord), my broadband card would not allow me to connect to the internet. And even though we were there 30 minutes before the resource fair was set to start, people were already lining up at the booths. Poor Kaitlyn had to manage everyone who came to our booth, which was definitely one of the most popular booths there, while I spent nearly an hour talking to different people working in IT. It turns out my registration number doesn't match the serial number. It's all a great big complicated technological wiry mess.

Eventually we gave up on my computer and did whatever we could to make the process easier with only one laptop. I never realized how dependent I am to Internet access. I felt completely helpless. I fielded as many questiosn as I could and Kaitlyn did Quick Checks and Site Finders. I also grabbed a few YES cards and went around to some of the other nonprofit organizations who had booths there and asked them if they were interested in becoming a Benefit Bank site (which was actually pretty successful, woohoo!). But the whole ordeal would have been so much easier had we had two functioning laptops.

By the way, I meant to take pictures. I even had my hand on my camera at one point, but then a new wave of people came in and I completely forgot. I was simply too busy. And forgetful. But anyway.

All in all, it was completely worth it. It always is. We had a lot of people coming in who had just been laid off and had no idea where to go for help. We directed several to different Benefit Banks around Dayton. And almost no one had ever even heard of the program, so we're getting the word out.

And yes, it was cold and windy and our fingers were getting pretty numb. But we powered through.

And we'll bring gloves next time.

And maybe a thermos of hot chocolate.

The Dreaded Tax Season

147 million: The number of dollars the Benefit Bank has returned to Ohio's economy

I wasn't in the office all last week, which is why I am finally getting around to updating my blog. It has been pretty busy around here.

The dreaded tax season is upon us, so last week us Vistas went into Cincinnati to observe Meredith doing a tax training class. It was actually kind of relaxing to be on the student side of the training for once. No public speaking necessary. Take a look at the room where we were trained. ... We all felt like we were in the U.N.



We all felt pretty important sitting at those fancy round tables.

I have not been looking forward to doing these tax trainings AT ALL. My knowledge on taxes is pretty limited. But I feel like I was more prepared to sit in on this training than I was for the benefits one I did back in July. All I can remember from observing Meredith do the benefits trainng is that I was incredibly confused and overwhelmed. And now I am completely confident when it comes to training counselors about benefits.

I feel like this whole tax training thing is going to go along that path. I'm overwhelmed right now, but I'll get the hang of it. It just takes patience and preparation. Lots of patience. Lots of preparation.

So what the Benefit Bank does for taxes -- If you have a household income of $56,000 or less, you can file your income taxes for free. Or we can do it for you, at no charge. The Benefit Bank screens for different tax credits that often go unclaimed, unlike some other tax programs. And our clients can e-file directly to the IRS. Thing is, we get really busy during tax season. So hopefully people don't wait until the last minute.

I don't think it will be too difficult. As long as people remember to bring in all of their W2s and whatever else. I'm hanging in there! :)

Frustrating Trainings

2: The number of people in attendance at my most exhausting training yet.

I'm really tired.

I feel like I have gotten used to speaking in front of people at the trainings (I'm on a break for my third one right now). But that doesn't keep me from feeling completely drained by the time I begin the drive home.

These trainings can be really frustrating at times, and I feel like my patience is getting an extreme workout. I haven't snapped at anyone or anything like that, and I don't think I ever will. I am generally an easygoing person who tends to bottle up trivial things like frustration, anger and impatience. Writing is always a good outlet. Plus, I am literally too introverted to draw attention to myself by using a harsh voice. But anyway.

While these trainings are rewarding in the long run, knowing that I am helping people helping others, I tend to get a little frustrated with no-shows, rude counselors and those people who are completely computer-illiterate. So far I have never had a training with perfect attendance. There were supposed to be seven people in today's training. Three had the good grace to call or e-mail ahead of time to let me or Meredith know that they wouldn't be able to come. Two just didn't show up. So a class of seven turned into a class of two.

Which, really, is fine. As long as there is one person who wants to learn the program, I am more than willing to show them how to use it. But they are having a little trouble today. One of them forgot her glasses, so she can't really read the benefit guide. The other one isn't computer literate. He's the type of person who needs to look down at each individual key on the keyboard before pressing it. Needless to say, the training is going very slowly today.

In my training last week, I had to deal with a couple of rude individuals who seemed to think I was the person to blame for not rounding up and arresting illegal immigrants. They thought I was at fault, too, for giving incarcerated individuals the opportunity to apply for benefit programs. I think I handled that well, though. I just told them, "That's just the way it is," and Meredith was there to back me up.

Oh, the life of a community trainer. So many obstacles, so little recognition. Hopefully, so very rewarding at the end of the year.

First training

5: The number of people who came to my very first training.
11: The number of people who will be at my second training tomorrow!

Yesterday was my first training! I have to admit, I was realllly nervous the night before. There is so much information to learn. I felt like I had all the information I needed, but none of it was organized. I therefore spent most of Tuesday preparing what I was going to say.

There were six people who were supposed to be in my class, but only five people showed up, which I've heard is not very unusual. The training goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and in that time I explain to everyone what the benefit bank is, we practice the Quick Check program a couple of times, we go through a booklet of all of the different types of benefits the OBB offers, and we practice using the benefit bank program. Everyone has an additional booklet that introduces Alice Nelson, a woman living with her grandson who wants to apply for some benefit programs. All of her information is listed in the book, and the trainees can go through the program step by step so they have a feel for it.

There were a couple of people who weren't quite as computer literate as I would have liked, but everyone made it through the training. Afterward, Meredith gave me some great tips that I'm going to be sure to use tomorrow for training #2. I have already printed off my own schedule, like a little mini-script for myself, so I know exactly where I am and what I still need to cover at all times. I feel better with a cheat sheet.

P.S. I've added pictures to previous blog posts "Quick Checking" and "Painting by Numbers"! Check them out!

Success Stories

500,000: The number of Ohioans eligible for, but not receiving, food assistance.

Part of my Vista Assignment Description (VAD) is to drive to Warren County United Way in Lebanon once a week to help them with their marketing campaign. I am supposed to be over there at 9:00, but I start at Shared Harvest at 7:30. It is about a forty-five minute drive, so yesterday I showed up at Shared Harvest, started up my laptop, printed off directions, shut down my laptop, and headed over to Lebanon.

There wasn't too much for me to do on my first day, but I'm really excited to get started. Sandy, the communication/marketing director, told me that the success stories presented on the United Way Web site are really outdated and asked me to find some new stories among the agencies that United Way financially supports. This is the job for me. I did a lot of writing in college for my school newspaper, The Post. I've been missing journalism a lot, and I don't want to get rusty, so I figure this will be good practice.

I sent out an e-mail to all of the agency directors and staff asking them to either write a success story of their own or just send me some basic information so I can put it together. I figure if I don't hear back from anyone by next week, I can start calling them and conducting brief interviews. I just wanted to plant it in their minds so they can start thinking of some good success stories.

Tomorrow is my very first training -- eep! I am a little nervous, but I have all of the necessary materials packed up and I have scribbled countless notes to myself in my benefit and software guidebooks. Plus my supervisor, Meredith, will be there to make sure I stay on the right track and to respond to any questions I'm not sure how to answer.

Social note: So how about that Kanye West? Sheesh.

Quick Checking

35: The number of Quick Checks performed at the resource fair this weekend.

Saturday morning found Kaitlyn and me at my first resource fair at the Evangel Church of God in Dayton. At first I was a little annoyed to have to wake up early on a Saturday, but I actually slept in a little compared to my usual bedtime routine. Ever since I started this job I have had trouble waking up past 8 a.m. Maybe this means I've truly entered adulthood. But I digress.

This fair was designed to be a one-stop place for struggling families to find support and resources within their community. Needless to say, the Ohio Benefit Bank program fits this description perfectly. Kaitlyn and I were eager to bring in as many people as possible to use the Quick Check program, so in the week preceding the event we put together a colorful tri-fold, packed up as many informational leaflets as we could carry, and bought plenty of candy, the better to lure people to our booth. Check out our homemade trifold below!

I made the two middle posters myself!

By the way, the Quick Check program is a Web-based tool that tells you what your potential eligibility is for benefit programs such as food stamps, child care assistance, medical assistance, HEAP, etc. It asks for some really basic information and only takes about five minutes to complete. After doing that, we would ask for our client's address so we could find a benefit bank site near him or her so they could work on their application, which is also really easy to do through the Benefit Bank. So if you want to check out what YOUR eligibility is, go to http://www.governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx?alias=www.governor.ohio.gov/obb and click on "Check on your potential eligibility for supports," the link on the righthand side. Moving on.

The fair itself looked awesome, though we didn't spend much time outside. Our booth was inside, because we needed to use our laptops. I think it worked out well because we would be asking people personal financial questions, and it might have been more difficult for them to open up if they were surrounded by people and balloons. But we could definitely hear someone shouting out numbers to Bingo cards, and there was a lot of music (inconviently located, I might add. I sometimes had to shout to my clients to be heard above the noise). I think they also had pony rides, but don't quote me on that. Pictured below is Kaitlyn at our booth:

The church's event planner, Pam, was incredibly helpful. About once every hour, she announced what we did and where our booth was, so we had a lot of people coming in. Also, she brought us lunch so we didn't have to leave our booth, which was really thoughtful of her.

We had about 35 people come in to use the Quick Check program, and almost all of them were eligible for at least one benefit. A lot of people had absolutely no idea that they would qualify. One woman nearly cried with relief when I told her she didn't have to pay school fees if her kids were on free lunch. It felt amazing to be able to help people like that.

It was, without a doubt, the best day I have had this year as a Vista. I feel like I really did make a difference.

Definitely worth waking up early on a Saturday.

Painting by Numbers

8: The number of years since September 11, 2001.

Because yesterday was the anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, Kaitlyn and I drove up to Columbus to meet up with the other Ohio Vistas and participate in a different kind of service. We have a lot of Vistas and only one site with which to work, so we were separated into two groups of about 30 people. Group A would begin the job and group B would try to finish it. Kaitlyn and I were in group A, so we met at a building that was once used as a convent. Our job was to paint and touch up some of the rooms so we could turn the building into a shelter for women and refugees. True, our painting supplies were somewhat meager -- we are a nonprofit organization, after all -- but everyone made up for it with enthusiastic optimism.

Our painting supplies

I was actually pretty impressed with the whole building. It was pretty well maintained, and had a certain charm about it. Kaitlyn and I were assigned to a small bedroom/sewing room. Check it out:

The "Before" shot

We eventually referred to this room as "the magical wishing room." Before we set to work we heard the sounds of a stray cat outside, and we both wished aloud that we wished the cat was with us, for more company. Less than five minutes later, the friendly cat found its way into our room! It didn't stay very long, but it was absolutely precious.

There wasn't much room to move around, but we shoved the furniture to the center of the room and taped around the light switches and the sink (Yes, this room had a sink). We found ourselves wishing we had something to step on so we could tape around the ceilings; the only chair in the room didn't look very durable. And what do you know -- a step stool appeared in the closet. Another wish granted by the Miracle Room. Finally, we were ready to paint!

We were told that the painting supplies were downstairs, but when we got there there were only a few more cans available: Gray, white, and green. We were also told that, because of our low resources, we would have to paint two walls one color and the other two walls a different color. We chose white and green and set to work.

After we touched up the paint around the taped areas of the room, we went in search of rollers and those whatchacallits (the pan you put the paint in? I'm blanking). Anyway, we quickly found that there were none available. Wanting to make the most of our two-hour drive, we painted as much of the room as we could with regular paintbrushes, anyway. We didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but another group of Vistas was on their way, and we did do a fantastic job with what we were able to paint (as far as we know).

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip. It was nice to do some direct service, but I wish we could have stayed in our own communities. There are places all around Ohio that need assistance, and I feel like we could have accomplished more by saving ourselves the four hours of driving time. I did like seeing some of the other Vistas, but we were separated into two groups and therefore didn't really have the opportunity to socialize with everyone.

Today Kaitlyn and I are at a resource fair in Dayton, but stories about today are going to have to wait until later.