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.