525,600 Minutes: Measuring a Year as a Vista

The End

2010-08-20T11:49:00.002-04:00

0: Speeding or parking tickets (woohoo!)
1: Sprained ankle
5: Tax clinics
6: Resource fairs
12: Trips to Columbus
34: Tax and benefit clients served
37: Lunches at Chipotle**
173: Counselors trained
12,109: Miles I put on my car
49,510: Pounds of food collected from the Holiday Food Drive
77,182: Pounds of food collected from Stamp Out Hunger
525,600: Minutes I served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA

**Number has been guesstimated

Well, the time has come. This is my last day as a VISTA, and I'm feeling bittersweet right now.

It really has been an incredible year. I've grown so much more confident in myself.
Now I can quite comfortably:
-Drive by myself in an unfamiliar area
-Give presentations to dozens of people without hyperventilating
-Make phone calls to strangers without prepping what I'm going to say for ten minutes
-Drive a large truck around with fond feelings

Thanks so much to everyone at Shared Harvest, to all my fellow VISTAs, and especially to everyone who kept up with my blog all year. Your encouraging comments really kept me going on those rough days.

But hey, this doesn't have to be goodbye! I have started up a new blog. If you're as curious as I am about where my life is headed, please feel free to check it out here.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Day 364

2010-08-19T13:52:00.004-04:00

1: Day left until my VISTA term is complete

Today is my second-to-last day at the Shared Harvest Foodbank, and as an Americorps*VISTA member. Tina took Martha and me out to lunch to celebrate this afternoon (Acapulco's...nom nom nom), and Martha got a cake from Jungle Jim's!

Isn't it pretty? Thanks again, Martha!

Wow, what a year it's been. When I graduated from college I remember lingering over my regrets. I never ate at the Burrito Buggy. I never joined an intramural sports team. There was this newspaper vending machine I used to pass all the time on Court Street. The paper was called "Graffiti." I always wanted to spray paint the word "Okay" right on the machine. But I never got around to it.

Of course, I never would have done it. I have too much respect for newspapers (and the law).

My point is, I don't have any regrets about my VISTA year. I mean sure, it has definitely had its ups and downs. I was often frustrated with computer illiteracy. Callers nearly brought me to tears when they told me their devastating stories. I was physically and mentally exhausted this winter juggling my many, many projects.

But I'm so glad I stuck with it until the end. I've learned so much this year. And even though it didn't seem like it at the time, I really feel like I made a difference.

And now we'll take a break from the sentiment to focus on our parking lot. Check it out! LINES!

And this prohibits people from parking too close to the loading dock! Hooray!

Until tomorrow, kids. I plan on having a link to my new blog sometime soon. I still need a title for it. I'm not really sure what it's going to be about yet, but I know I want to start off each blog post with a quote instead of a number. Any suggestions?

Finals Week

2010-08-16T07:45:00.005-04:00

1: The number of weeks I have left in Americorps.

And so the final countdown begins. This is my very last Monday as an Americorps VISTA member, and my very last week. I don't think it's sunk in yet. I've been looking through some of my older blog posts lately, and it's hard to tell if this year flew by or not. Driving Gus the Bus around seems like a million years ago, but it also feels just like yesterday. Does that make sense?
Anyway, it'll be nice to have some time off for a while. Hopefully not too long of a break, though, because those student loans aren't gonna pay for themselves, kids.

Personal note: Went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky over the weekend and had a fantastic time. Came back with a cold. Boo.

The ceiling near "Frozen Niagra" at Mammoth Cave.

ALSO: The parking lot at Shared Harvest is finished! YAY!

Potholes

2010-08-11T07:52:00.005-04:00

4: The number of hours I spent driving Monday.

Krupa and I ventured to Columbus a couple of days ago for the PIPP Plus training. By the way, PIPP stands for Percentage of Income Payment Plan. It's an energy assistance program that allows low-income families pay their gas and electric bills based on their own income, rather than the actual cost.

Anyway, they recently redeveloped the program and made it PIPP Plus. There are a lot of changes that will hopefully make it more simple and beneficial for applicants.

It was interesting to hear about the program, but to be honest it was sometimes hard to keep up. There was a lot of new information, and I didn't know too much about the program to begin with. We don't offer the PIPP application through the Ohio Benefit Bank; we just refer clients to their local Community Action Agency. And seeing as I have eight days left as a VISTA, I don't think I need to worry about it too much.

And now for some Shared Harvest news! I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but the driveway at our friendly neighborhood foodbank is ridiculously dangerous. It's full of cracks and potholes and random chunks of blacktop all strewn about. We've had delivery trucks get stuck on the hill on more than one occasion in the snowy months, and I admit that I've driven straight into a foot-deep pothole, splattering my car with mud.

This week was the beginning of a beautiful thing. Tina finally broke down and decided it was time to splurge on a new driveway and parking lot!

While this is wonderful news and everyone is pretty much thrilled about it, it does create some parking problems until they are finished with Project Pavement. Check out my story-telling pics:

Ready to leave for our Columbus trip. What a mess!

I don't think I've had a picture of Krupa yet! And that silver car behind her is my Dexter.

Some employees check out the progress of our beloved parking lot.

Splendiforous!

I'm excited for the parking lot to be all pretty. Too bad I won't be able to park on it for long!

Back to School event

2010-08-09T07:43:00.003-04:00

21: The guesstimated number of Quick Checks Krupa and I performed at the Back to School event Saturday.

Krupa and I took a trip to Dayton on Saturday for a Back to School event that the Faith Deliverance Church was conducting. It was sponsored by their Urban Awareness Youth Group, and Krupa and I were really impressed with how smoothly everything ran. There were about 400 kids who showed up to collect backpacks, pencils, notebooks and other school supplies. Most of the booths for hot dogs and ice cream and such were outside in the church's parking lot, but Krupa and I asked to set up inside the church.

We figured we'd have more privacy indoors. I don't think anyone would feel completely at ease answering personal questions about their income and expenses out in a crowded festival-like setting. We also had a laptop with us for Quick Checks, so we needed an outlet

It went really well. A lot of people came by to talk to us about the Benefit Bank and take some brochures, and we helped more than 20 people by telling them what they were eligible for through the Quick Check program. Well, I think it was more than 20. We started off keeping a tally, but we got so busy that we lost track of how many people had stopped by.

The only problem we had was that Nickelodeon was playing in the church for the kids waiting for their school supplies, and it was incredibly loud. Then a few student groups came to the front of the church with their musical talents (see left). It was really cool and everything, but when the break dancing music came on, I literally had to scream at my client so he could hear what I was talking about. Fortunately, things settled down after that.

The best part was that we got to leave early. The event was scheduled to go until 6 p.m., or whenever all of the supplies had been handed out. It was so well-organized that we were able to pack up our stuff at a little after 2.

It was a really nice event, and Krupa and I had a good time. The women who helped plan it out thanked us profusely for coming out, and I'm sure the OBB will again play a part the next time they have a resource fair.

Of course, I will most likely not be there, because I have 10 days until the end of my VISTA year. Crazy!

Krupa and I are going to Columbus this morning for an updated training on PIPP (Percentage of Income Payment Plan), so I will try to remember to take pictures. Stay tuned!

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

2010-08-02T08:56:00.003-04:00

14: The number of potential OBB sites Krupa and I visited.

Krupa and I ventured to Middletown Thursday for some Butler County site recruitment action. It went a lot better than our Greene County adventures, for which we could not find half of potential sites we had in mind. We went through our spreadsheets this time and Googled each place to make sure we had the correct address.

It did pay off, for the most part! We still couldn't find one or two sites, so maybe those places are gone for good or haven't gotten around to updating their websites yet. Anyway, we actually got to sit down with several people this time around, and it felt great. Our favorite experience by far was Lifeskills, a place that helps young adults get their high school diplomas.

The people we met with were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Their enthusiasm was contagious. We sat down with the principal as well as the family advocate, who is like a guidance counselor at Lifeskills. The family advocate actually had a stack of benefit applications with her, and said she already worked with the students there to help get them on food assistance. She was really excited about the OBB, because it is going to make that process so much easier!

Is this a perfect match or what? I'm really glad we were able to talk with them. They're going to be a great fit with the OBB, and I'm sure they'll actually use it. We were even able to show them the training site and the Quick Check program, and they just got more excited about it the more we talked. Success!

Bad Computers, Good Computers

2010-07-27T08:09:00.004-04:00

25: My days left as an Americorps VISTA.

I'm typing away on a different laptop than I am used to today. Whenever I turn my own on, it freezes up as soon as I log in. Even after restarting it fifteen times and making many a phone call to IT.

I'm guessing my old laptop is sensing that our year together is almost complete, and has decided to retire early. You couldn't wait another three weeks, Bob the Laptop?

Anyway, Bob decided to quit on me Friday when Krupa and I were in Dayton for a Smart Money event--a resource fair, if you will. I hadn't gone to a resource fair in ages, and I really do enjoy them. We weren't able to do Quick Checks for anyone, on account of Bob's poor work ethic, but we did talk to 40 people about the Benefit Bank and 50 people took OBB pamphlets and flyers. Yes, that's right. We kept a tally.

We should have kept track of all the people who came by just to eat some candy but alas, we did not.

So the resource fair went really well. It was long--we had to leave at 6:30 a.m. and I didn't get home until a little after 4:00. But I feel like we really got the word out and helped a lot of people realize what kind of help is out there.

Moving on, I had a benefit training Thursday in Lebanon. It was at a new training location--The Warren County Career Center. And I will start by saying that the people who helped set this up were incredibly helpful and amazing.

The career center was a lot bigger than I was anticipating. There were several buildings to choose from, and I couldn't find the tech center for a long time. Eventually I went into a small office building and a woman kindly pointed out where to go. I was worried people would get lost--the tech center was down a long private drive and literally looked like a ranch house. But everyone made it there fine, and the computer lab was faaaaantastic. No internet issues at all. It was actually a pleasant experience.

Well, except for one guy, who kept crossing his arms and leaning back during the scenarios, asking me when the next question was going to pop up. I had to remind him to click the "next" button more than once.

I was going to have a training tomorrow in Dayton, but the computers at our training location are down so we have to reschedule.

Personal note: Our AC is broken. The lowest high this week is going to be 86. Woo.

Vacation Relaxation

2010-07-21T08:36:00.003-04:00

6: The number of personal days I used over the past couple of weeks.

I'm back from my extended mostly-at-home vacation. And while I'm feeling nice and relaxed, it was definitely not easy waking up at 6:30 this morning when I had just gotten used to waking up at 9:00. Good news, though--no sprained ankles.

There's a lot to catch up on at work (not just my blog, you sillies), but fortunately I've been checking my work e-mail periodically to make sure I didn't miss anything too significant. I have a training in Franklin tomorrow and a resource fair in Dayton on Friday (for which we must leave at about 6:30---hoo boy), and aside from returning a few phone calls, I don't feel too far behind at this point.

Is anyone as surprised as I am to find out that in just over four weeks my year as an AmeriCorps VISTA will come to an end? How did that happen?

P.S. Just helped a client fill out her 2009 taxes (a bit late, but meh). She had SIX W2s! Hopefully I am completely done with taxes now.

Knock-knock!

2010-07-08T12:34:00.003-04:00

8: The number of times I had to restart my computer today until it stopped freezing.

Last week, Krupa and I sent out letters to various organizations around Greene County letting them know that we were going to be in their area to talk to them about the OBB. So after our conference call Tuesday, we grabbed some marketing materials, our directions courtesy of google maps, and my trusty GPS Rita and headed north.

Site recruitment is exhausting no matter how you go about doing it. Being in a car for that long really takes a toll after a few hours of driving, especially if you don't have some breaks to stretch your legs. And unfortunately, we didn't spend much time out of the car.

We couldn't find a lot of the sites from our spreadsheets. My GPS led us to dead-end drives, abandoned buildings and residential homes. We left information at a few places, but were not able to actually speak with anyone about the program. It was a long, somewhat frustrating day. But it was fun to spend some time on the open road with Krupa!

We didn't want to have to go through a day like that again, though, without having recruited any OBB sites, so we spent most of Wednesday updating the contact information on our spreadsheets. Tedious, yes, but it must be done.

P.S. The title of my blog post today reminds me of a joke my brother, Zach, told me:

Knock-knock!
Who's there?
To!
To who?
To WHOM.

Hehehe!

Time, Time, Time

2010-07-05T08:41:00.003-04:00

5.5: The hours of sleep I got last night (on account of the fireworks). (Happy 4th, by the way).

I only have seven more weeks as an Americorps VISTA, as well as three days of sick time, eight days of personal time and a little more than six days of comp time. I'm taking seven glorious days of vacation next week (woohoo!) and I have trips coming up for the next several weekends to visit various friends around Ohio.

I'm glad Krupa is here so my last couple of months at Shared Harvest aren't lonely. I think she'll make a great VISTA! Last Thursday we went to an OBB event in Troy and collected several cards from interested people wanting to become sites. Which means we'll be making a lot of phone calls in the next couple of days. We're also planning to go out to Greene County later this week to do site recruitment, and I'm sure that will spark some interesting blog posts!

Speaking of blog posts, Krupa started her very own blog already! Check it out here!

Also speaking of blogs, I briefly considered changing the background of my site, but seeing as I am only going to be posting (to this one) for another seven weeks, it seemed kind of silly.

Krupa has her first training this week, and she's pretty nervous about it (even though I know she is going to rock). We spent most of this morning going over the benefits guide. It's a funny feeling to watch someone go through the same anxieties and experiences I went through about a year ago. It's an odd way to wrap up my own VISTA year.

I'm been doing a lot of reflecting lately. It's making me all sentimental.

Welcome, Krupa!

2010-06-24T13:44:00.003-04:00

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

Our new VISTA has arrived! Her name is Krupa. She's really nice and she seems to like it here so far.

I remember my first day at Shared Harvest. I was pretty nervous about starting my AmeriCorps year and had no idea what to expect. I remember hearing everyone in the office casually throwing out acronyms to programs I didn't even know existed. I'm glad Kaitlyn was there to show me the ropes and help me out with everything. Hopefully I can do the same for Krupa. The first few days at any job can be incredibly overwhelming.

I think next week we're going to start on site recruitment in Greene and rural Montgomery. I wanted to give her a few days to settle in before we get started on a big project!

In other news, I still have 17 days of comp, personal and sick time to take before my term ends August 20. I am therefore taking a much-needed week-long vacay in July.

Kaitlyn's Last Day

2010-06-21T08:29:00.007-04:00

1: The number of VISTAs at the Shared Harvest Foodbank.

Friday was Kaitlyn's last day as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, which makes today my first day going solo at Shared Harvest. Tina treated everyone to a great lunch at A Taste of Julia's, and Martha brought in a cake from Jungle Jim's. It was a really nice day. Kaitlyn got to talk about all of the high and low points of our many many projects, which I think was a great way to wrap up her year.

I'm going to miss having Kaitlyn around! I might be a little lonely until our new VISTA comes in.

On the plus side, I may be switching over to this side of the table. I don't think it squeaks as much, and it has a window! Hello, outside world!

Wild About Americorps

2010-06-18T08:36:00.016-04:00

More than 500: The number of animals at the Cincinnati Zoo.

This post is going to consist of several photos of our trip to the zoo! Please enjoy.

By the way, I tend to speak several octaves higher than my regular voice when I see cute animals. Let's just say be thankful that this is not a video blog.

Sand cat! So preshy-presh. The cat house is one of my favorite things at the zoo.

There happened to be a bunny in this exhibit, and my friend Amanda was pretty excited about it. I was like, "You do realize we're standing mere feet away from a giraffe, right?"

This is Amanda, one of my closest friends from high school! She is being a wilderness explorer.

White tiger. I've always found them really pretty.

Tigers! Kyle and I went to the zoo last summer to see the baby tigers. These are the very same kittens; they already look fully grown.

Amanda, with Jomo the Gorilla in the background. The gorilla exhibit is another one of my favorite things at the zoo. If you go during their feeding time, they come out and you can get some great shots.

See? This is Jomo, the silverback gorilla. I've taken a ton of pictures of him this summer. I feel like we've become good buddies.

Bonobo! Seen in the Jungle Trails. He's chillaxin'.

A crazy bird whose name I do not remember. But he's taking a sip of water.

White lion waking up from a nice long nap. He's all tuckered out.

We all had a fantastic time at the zoo, as you can probably tell. I hope everyone enjoyed my pictures. Comments are much appreciated!

By the way, my car wouldn't start when we were trying to leave. I'd like to take this moment to send a shout out to my dad, who came to our rescue and jump started my car for me. Thank you, Dad!

Ups and Downs

2010-06-16T13:26:00.002-04:00

85: The temperature outside right now (+humidity).

Tomorrow is the day we have all been waiting for. It may very well be the most important day that I will have experienced in my year as an Americorps VISTA member. It is a day that forces us out of our cozy offices and into a whole new wide world of adventure.

Yes... We are so going to the Cincinnati Zoo.

I am going to take an insane number of pictures while I'm there in order to create a fun, glorious, colorful blog post later. Our VISTA leader, Martha, said we were welcome to invite friends and family to come along, so one of my very closest friends, Amanda, will be joining me.

I'm really excited to just take a relaxing day with my fellow VISTAs and reflect on everything we've accomplished so far (while looking at gorillas and elephants). Thank you again, Martha!

On the other side of the spectrum, I'm feeling really bummed about Kaitlyn's term ending on Friday. It's just not going to be the same. But our new VISTA is going to be taking her place next week, and I'm excited to meet her and show her the ropes at Shared Harvest. Kaitlyn and I have pretty much finished our binder. We started from scratch when we began our VISTA terms. I definitely didn't have a clue what the Ohio Benefit Bank was until I was a week or two into my year of service. Oh, the things you can learn in a single year.

A Year in Review

2010-06-11T13:26:00.003-04:00

1: The number of weeks until Kaitlyn's last day :(

A couple of days ago, Kaitlyn and I went to a fellow VISTA's presentation about her year with AmeriCorps. It was called "A Year in Review," and was put on by Jessica Reading, who is the VISTA at Miami Hamilton's campus. It was a really impressive presentation, and it made the binder we're putting together seem kind of lame. Not very lame, though. Just kind of.

We did have the opportunity to talk to Jessica after her presentation for a while, and VISTAs are never wasteful of golden photo opportunities.

Kaitlyn, Alex and Jessica doing a Rosie the Riveter-ish stance for AmeriCorps!

Last night I went to a presentation by Shannon Teague, the director of the Benefit Bank, in Hamilton. She basically went over what the OBB is and talked about the advantages of using the program. Even though there weren't a lot of people there, those who did attend were very interested in implementing the Benefit Bank in their organizations, and I gave out a lot of business cards and marketing materials. Which is a ginormous success in my books, ladies and gents.

I've been thinking about the end of my service coming up in August. And I think I'll really miss being a VISTA. It's been a crazy year filled with good friends, crazy clients and incredible experiences.

And I'm going to miss my blog! I've really loved having a blog this year, and having an actual theme to work with. I might even create a new, more personal blog once I finish my VISTA year. Hopefully my life won't be so terribly dull that I have nothing to write about. Which may very well happen if I don't find a job.

Speaking of which, if anyone happens to find a journalism/communications job in the Cincinnati area, do not hesitate to let me know.

Learning

2010-06-05T10:28:00.002-04:00

6: The number of people at my Saturday training.

At a training in Mason. Someone just said, "See, now I made a typo here. I guess I can't go back and fix it?"

Lesson 1: The backspace key.

Might post more today, depending on the funny things I hear.

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

2010-06-03T10:05:00.005-04:00

11: The number of weeks until my VISTA term ends

Less than three months to go now, and it is starting to feel a bit strange. I also feel like, as it is summer, I should be lounging around at home drinking lemonade and playing cornhole. I drove by a middle school on my way to work today and no one was there. And all of a sudden, I started experiencing strong feelings of dislike toward all those people who still get summers off. Yes, even the children.

They're mocking me.

Anyway, the sad thing about me only having 11 weeks to go as a VISTA is that Kaitlyn only has two weeks to go as a VISTA. So when she leaves I might not update in a while, seeing as I will most likely be crying in a corner somewhere.

Not too much has been going on here lately. I have started putting together a guidebook for the next VISTA who comes in, filled with tips and suggestions for how to handle their goals on their VAD (VISTA Assignment Description). I've just finished up the section for food drives and Gus the Bus. It brought back all kinds of fond memories. I even included some pictures. It's actually kind of fun to put together. I feel like Rick Steves.

Moving on, our regional VISTA meeting with our fearless leader Martha is coming up soon (June 17th). We usually have these meetings in a board room at United Way, but this time Martha pulled some strings and we're all going to the Cincinnati Zoo instead. Believe me, I am going to miss that stuffy board room with the uncomfortable chairs, but I will try to enjoy eating a picnic lunch and looking at polar bears instead.

By the way, if you've never been the Cincinnati Zoo...you should go.

Speaking of things you need to do, see that "follow" button? On the left hand side of my blog? Right above a bunch of photo icons? No, scroll down a little...yes, there it is. Click it. Thanks.

Nightmare at Hillcrest Baptist Church

2010-05-21T13:16:00.003-04:00

2: The number of days I've missed work this week.

This is on account of I am ill with some mysterious new sickness that turns all my bones into rubber, my muscles into Jell-O, and places what feels like double-edged sandpaper down my throat, therefore making it incredibly painful to swallow. I've been exhausted all week, and spent most of the last two days buried under my comforter while entire seasons of "Friends" played on my computer.

But we're going to put all of that aside, because I did promise everyone an explanation of that little side note on my last blog post about my rage subsiding over an incident I had at the beginning of this month. I know it has been intriguing all ye invisible readers since I mentioned it, so here it goes. Nightmare at Hillcrest Baptist Church (In Carlisle, Ohio).

Kaitlyn and I have been doing site recruitment; that is, we've been going out to our seven counties and knocking on doors to places we feel might make good Benefit Bank sites. This includes foodbanks, churches, whathaveyou, any place that reaches out to promote available resources for struggling families.

Which brought us to Hillcrest Baptist Church. We went in and asked for the name on our contact sheet, who was the person who mostly worked with food distribution and whatnot. She wasn't in, but the man there (we assumed he was the pastor) and his secretary or assistant or whoever, offered to sit down and talk with us anyway.

So at first Kaitlyn and I thought that this was a nice guy, because we don't come across a lot of people who are willing to take time from their schedules to sit down with strangers (even though we send out letters ahead of time). The first thing he asked us was "Is this a government program, or is this faith-based?"

"Well, actually it's a little of both. See, the Ohio Benefit Bank was implemented through a public-private partnership of--"

"I don't want to be involved in any governmental program."

"...Okay, well with the Ohio Be--"

"Let me repeat myself, are you hearing what I'm saying? I don't want to be involved in any governmental program."

It turns out that Hillcrest used to be a partner of Shared Harvest. Used to be, because once they realized they couldn't distribute God-fearing pamphlets in addition to the bags of food, they cut all ties (it's USDA government food). Hm...Who Would Jesus Feed? Well, no one apparently, because they shut down the whole thing.

We tried to convince this guy that we were there that day to represent the Ohio Benefit Bank, which does not deal at all with food distribution, but it was hard to get two words in. It turned into this whiney little wannabe pity-party, in which he and the woman with him complained about a couple of people who had come in to ask for help and either hadn't said "Thank you" or had continued to come in for years. Okay, sir, well a bag of food isn't gonna get a family through a few years, it's going to get them through a few days. These government programs help with actual sustainability.

But again, he just would not hear us out. They had too many judgments about people living in poverty, which is just incredibly disappointing. Because he's probably feeding that stigma to everyone who comes through those doors. After about a half hour of this, Kaitlyn said something along the lines of, "This is what we do, we find new sites to use the Benefit Bank so people are aware of what help is available wherever they go to eat, work or pray--" and Mr. High and Mighty said, "Oh, your job today, that's pretty easy."

This guy has no clue. We were so incredibly offended. We finally grabbed our stuff, told them we could tell they weren't interested and not to expect a follow-up call, and left.

So that's the story about the Hillcrest Baptist Church that still has me fuming. I did realize that if this had happened to me several years ago, I don't think I'd be as fired up as I am now. I mean, I would still be incredibly annoyed and offended, but I don't know if I'd feel as passionate about it as I do now. That's what a year in Americorps will do to you. And I'm glad it did.

Americorps Appreciation

2010-05-17T09:46:00.004-04:00

11: About the number of hours of sleep I got Friday and Saturday nights.

Being an Americorps VISTA can sometimes be a thankless job. Not a lot of people understand what it is we do, and some don't even know we exist. We put in a lot of hours without a lot of pay. We come in at night and on the weekends and are still considered to have an "easy job." (This is actually a long story that I have been avoiding while my rage subsides. I'll try to write about it in the next couple of days).

I try not to let it bother me, and honestly, it usually doesn't. I feel like the point in being a VISTA isn't to get recognition or applause. The point is to help as many people as I can.

Still, appreciation is much appreciated. Last week was National Americorps Appreciation week, and Friday morning the VISTAs from all around the state of Ohio met up in Columbus to work together on a different kind of service project. Some people sorted clothes at homeless shelters, some promoted the VISTA program to local high schools, some planted gardens. Kaitlyn and I were each assigned to pick up trash in the town of Linden, which is one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in Ohio. We split up into groups of four or five and were given a supply of work gloves, trash bags, and those handy litter-picker-uppers (I'm pretty sure that's the technical name).

The day went by pretty fast. My group had a lot of fun getting to know one another and trying to find the most interesting piece of litter (I won't get into some of the things we found. Let's just say I'm glad we had gloves). And once we finished our block in the neighborhood, it really did look much nicer.

After about two and a half hours of cleaning up the neighborhood, all the VISTAs met at a movie theater called Studio 35 and were given free pizza and popsicles while we watched "The Princess Bride" (INCONCEIVABLE!) All in all, it was a really fun day. I love meeting up with the other VISTAs to see what everyone else has been up to.

Unfortunately, I did not take a single photo while I was in Columbus. It's not easy to carry a heavy bag of trash and trash-picker-upper anyway. I didn't want to have to carry my camera around, too. But I did want to include a photo in this blog post, so at the risk of getting off topic and delving slightly deeper into my personal life, here's a picture of my cat, Albert. Work-related note: This photo is now my desktop picture for my work laptop.

The Results are In!

2010-05-10T07:56:00.013-04:00

11,125: The pounds of food we collected in Fairfield Saturday for the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive!

Yes, I would say the food drive this weekend was an enormous success. We had several enthusiastic volunteers helping out, and the time went by pretty fast because we were unloading trucks so often.

Today's blog post will be told through the use of pictures.

We got to the post office a little before 2:00, so not a lot of mail trucks had come back yet. We used that time to lay out about a dozen enormous boxes provided by Shared Harvest. We still had some down time when we finished that, so we went for a group shot inside the box. On the left you'll see my sister Jen, my mom Debbie, Kaitlyn's husband Taylor, Kaitlyn, and Adam, a volunteer from Lakota East High School. And that's me in the middle.

We actually had a lot more volunteers than this. For some reason, my brother-in-law Dan isn't in this picture. My dad took the picture. The five volunteers from Fairfield High School showed up at 3:00, and my boyfriend Kyle came over at 4:00.

Whenever a mail truck would come back from it's delivery, a few of us would meet it outside with one of those carts and plastic storage bins to unload the food. Sometimes a truck came in with two bags of food, but most of the time the back was completely filled with non-perishables.

Meet my dad, Chris! He's preparing a dolly to go out and load some more food!

Check out all of those volunteers stamping out hunger!

Once a box was completely full, we would use the dolly to wheel the skid into the enormous truck to go back to Shared Harvest.

Meet my boyfriend, Kyle!

Meet my brother-in-law, Dan! These guys were really helpful in getting all that food into the truck.

At the end of the day, Fairfield had collected a total of 11,125 pounds of food!
And the grand total of Butler County came out to be (drum roll, please)....

77,182 pounds of food!

That's 2,730 more pounds of food than last year! Hooray! Thanks again to everyone who helped out on Saturday by unloading and reloading boxes, donating food, or getting the word out! We made a huge difference this weekend!

Welcome to Indiana!

2010-05-05T07:59:00.003-04:00

2: The number of states Kaitlyn and I were in on Monday.

Kaitlyn and I spent Monday out in Preble county visiting seven potential Ohio Benefit Bank sites. And oh, what adventures we had.

The first place we went, the Higher Heights Church of God, was a huge success. We were able to meet with a few people who seemed extremely interested in incorporating the Benefit Bank in their church. It was actually quite refreshing. They didn't hit us with illogical concerns and excuses--they saw that it was a good program with huge potential for their services. We'll probably get back with them in the next day or so to get them started on becoming a site.

After that, though, things kind of went downhill.

Two of the places we visited were residential homes. I don't know if we had the wrong address or we had somehow gotten the supervisor's home address or what, but we didn't bother going in. We left information at three other agencies. The GPS and Google Maps couldn't locate the address of another. And for the last one, we ended up in Indiana.

That wasn't our fault, though. The agency used an Ohio address for all of their mail, so that's where we sent our notice letter and where the GPS took us. We pulled into the driveway of a quaint little ranch, which was located on acres upon acres of gorgeous scenery--horses, a lake, even a barn. There was a man working on a tractor in the front yard, so we asked him if we were at the right place.

He explained that the agency was actually like a day camp for kids, and that the actually office buildings were located a mile or so up the road. We tried to leave after that, but he was kind of a chatterbox. He asked us if we had a minute to talk and, thinking he wanted to discuss the letter about the OBB we had sent, we said of course.

"We've got about seven horses, see, you can see them up there."

"Oh yeah, that's great."

"The lake is right over there, it takes up about 70 acres."

"Wow. It really is beautiful up here."

"Now you see this statue over here?" *Gestures to statue of a horse*

"Yes."

"He's painted to look exactly like that horse over there, that brown and white one. He was born about 11 months ago."

"Mm." *Back away to the car*

"Now the colors are a little different, see it's a little darker now."

It went on like that for a pretty long time. Eventually, we thanked him, got in the car, and drove about a mile up a steep, dirt drive. When we finally found the building though, we decided not to even stop in. We can't recruit sites that are in Indiana.

But at least we proved that Kaitlyn and I are dedicated VISTAs -- we're willing to go out-of-state to locate new OBB sites!

Home sweet home

Recruitment

2010-05-03T08:12:00.003-04:00

74,452: The pounds of food collected for Shared Harvest from Stamp Out Hunger in 2009

Now that tax season is over, VISTA community trainers like Kaitlyn and I are going through what feels like an extended lack of activity. It's odd not having to pick up the phone every ten minutes to schedule tax clients, and quite nice to have most of our weekends free again. And now that we have so much extra time on our hands, we're focusing our energy on recruiting more Benefit Bank sites.

Today we'll be going to Preble County with a list of several potential sites we've been compiling since the start of our service. We sent out a letter to all of these sites a little over a week ago, letting them know what the Benefit Bank is and that we are going to be in their area today. Hopefully we'll be able to sit down with a few people and convince them to get started on becoming a site.

In other news, this Saturday is Stamp Out Hunger! I've got the post office in Fairfield covered when it comes to volunteers, and I have seven people willing to help out in Middletown (though that has been a little iffy) but we're having some trouble finding enough people in West Chester. So if you're willing to donate your time to a good cause, PLEASE let me know and I'll be happy to sign you up to go to your local post office this Saturday to help us unload, organize, and reload boxes of food to go to the Shared Harvest Foodbank. It's for a terrific cause, and we can use all the help we can get! Go here for more information!

The Job Readiness Program

2010-04-20T10:30:00.004-04:00

18: The number of days I could take on vacation right now if I were to use all my sick, personal and comp time.

For the past several weeks I've been in contact with Stacy Keys, an employment specialist at the Greene County Adult Probation Courthouse. She has also been working on the Job Readiness Program, which is geared toward assisting probationers overcome barriers to employment.

The class occurs three times a week for three weeks, and she wanted a Benefit Bank employee to appear as a "guest speaker" for the first day of the program. So yesterday I loaded my car with my laptop, Quick Check cards, and several marketing flyers and drove out to Xenia.

There were five people in the program, and I went ahead and gave a brief presentation about what the Benefit Bank is and how it could help them. Everyone in attendance was interested in applying for health care. Unfortunately, they were all middle aged single men, and the Benefit Bank mostly helps the elderly, disabled, or families with children. While doing Quick Checks for everyone, I realized that they were mostly living with friends or relatives, and none had acquired a job yet. Everyone was at least eligible for food stamps and prescription assistance, so at least there was that. But I still felt kind of helpless because no one was eligible for health care. It was especially frustrating when someone told me that he thought he could be proved disabled, but he couldn't afford the hospital bills for the technology it would require to prove it. What do you do in that situation? Completely stuck.

It was frustrating, but I'm glad I was able to go. At least they're a little more aware of what they can apply for and what they're eligible for.

Cover the Uninsured

2010-04-12T08:18:00.003-04:00

12: The number of people who applied for medical benefits at Cover the Uninsured.

I'm happy to report that I am in a much better mood this week than I was last week. For one thing, the spyware that had infected my computer is completely gone, thanks to our IT person in Columbus, Rebekah Moser. You have no idea what a relief it is not having to close those tiny warning boxes every five minutes.

Also, this is just a four-day week for me. My boyfriend, Kyle, is buying a condo and is going to start moving in this Friday. Yay! I took the day off so I could help him out.

AND, while working on a Saturday is never really a fun time, participating in Cover the Uninsured this weekend was not as bad as I thought it would be. I had fully expected to arrive only to have no idea what I was doing. I had planned to follow the lead of whoever was sitting next to me. But by the end of the day, the other volunteers were looking at me whenever our customers had questions.

The event lasted from about 9 a.m. to noon. We (me and two other volunteers) had a table set up near the pharmacy at the Kroger in Forest Park, equipped with applications for programs like food stamps, prescription assistance and Healthy Start. We had a pretty good stream of people coming through all day, and we ended up filling out applications for a dozen people.

I was starting to feel pretty good about myself when I was able to answer questions that no one else had an answer for. The one really frustrating part of it was not being able to use the Benefit Bank. It would have made the whole process so much easier. It was difficult hearing people say how redundant and confusing the applications were without giving everyone a pitch about why they should just come to Shared Harvest on Monday to use the Benefit Bank.

Okay, I even handed out a few business cards.

Anywho, it was a lot better than I thought it would be. At least my experience went a lot better than Kaitlyn's did.

Celebrate You

2010-04-07T08:45:00.002-04:00

1.6 billion: The number of times my computer has told me I am infected with spyware (or so it seems).

This has not been the easiest week so far. This Saturday Kaitlyn and I will be going to two different area Krogers to help people apply for Medicaid (without using the Benefit Bank, those sillies) for this event called Cover the Uninsured. It's only a few hours in the morning, so it's not really a big deal, but no one likes working on Saturdays.

Yesterday I went to a training in Troy, where for some reason or another they were not aware that the OBB had reserved the computer lab there. Fortunately, it was only booked in the morning. Unfortunately, we had to start the class about 20 minutes late until it freed up.

Today my computer has been popping up messages every two minutes telling me that it has been infected with spyware. Not really sure what to do in this case. I'm not going to pay to install the security system it keeps recommending. And other than the annoying pop-ups, it's running completely fine. So I'm going to go ahead and pretend all is well.

So, enough complaining. I just wanted to share something that always cheers me up when I am down. I got this poem(?) when I was at a conference for the Ohio Benefit Bank. We were supposed to be learning about customer service. It turned into some kind of hardcore, confidence-boosting hugfest. You'll laugh, you'll cry, your heart will melt into a pile of warm goo.

Or you'll just laugh.

Enjoy.

CELEBRATE YOU
You are worth celebrating.
You are worth celebrating.
You are unique.
In all the world, there is only one you.
There is only one person with your talents,
your experience, your gifts.
No one can take your place!
You are precious.
You have immense potential to love, to care,
To create, to grow, to sacrifice,
if you believe in yourself.
It doesn't matter your age, or your color,
or whether your parents loved you or not.
(Maybe they wanted to, but didn't know how.)
Let that go, it belongs to the past; you belong to the now.
It doesn't matter what you've been, the wrong you've done,
the mistakes you've made, the people you've hurt. You are
forgiven. You are accepted, you're ok.
CELEBRATE YOU.
Begin now. Start now. Give yourself a new birth. Today.
You are you, and that is all you need to be.
You are temporary. Here today and gone tomorrow.
But today, today can be a new beginning, a new thing, a
new life. You deserve this new life, it is given freely. That
is the miracle called life.
So celebrate the miracle and CELEBRATE YOU!

I hope that made everyone who reads this a better, well-adjusted and confident individual.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-02T08:17:00.003-04:00

74,452: The pounds of food we collected from Stamp Out Hunger last year.

It seems like most of the world got to stay home from work for Good Friday, but Kaitlyn and I are still here at Shared Harvest. It reminds me of when we had 11 inches of snow and my car was the only one on the road.

I know I haven't written in a while, but that's because not much has been going on. I had a very crowded training in Dayton last week. If one more person asks if they just completed a taxes or benefits training I am going to scream. We had our regional VISTA meeting with Martha on Wednesday, which is always fun. It's great to see how the other VISTAs are doing. Plus, Martha always brings in a ton of food.

And I had my first Stamp Out Hunger meeting with Tina and Bob, two fellow Shared Harvest employees. We're going to need to recruit a lot of volunteers in Butler County, so if you want to help out with a good cause, please let me know! We need some strong people to help us transport thousands of pounds of food from one truck to another.

I'm really glad it's the weekend. I can't decide if this week went by really fast or if it dragged. Everything is starting to blur together.

Stamp Out Hunger

2010-03-24T14:14:00.002-04:00

49.1 million: The number of Americans living in food-insecure homes (in 2008).

Things are definitely slowing down around here, mostly because the end of tax season is finally in sight. We haven't had many more calls from people who want their taxes done, and I am officially DONE with tax trainings! It brings us all an odd sense of relief, having tax season out of the way. I definitely feel like we accomplished something over the past three months.

But even though tax season is almost over, I'm still going to be busy around here. I'm about to get started on the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the nation's largest single day food drive. It is done through a collaboration of the National Association of Letter Carriers, the Campbell Soup Company, the U.S. Postal Service, Feeding America, Valpak, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, the AFL--CIO and United Way Worldwide.

On the second Saturday in May, people across the country will hopefully assist the hungry by placing canned goods and other non-perishables in or around their mailboxes. The mailmen collect the food in a single day, and it all goes to local foodbanks and pantries.

My job in this is going to mostly focus on recruiting volunteers to help us get all these boxes of food out of the trucks. We're going to need some serious muscles to get this going. I also want to help get the word out, so I plan on designing flyers and handing them out to various apartment complexes and local businesses.

I'm excited to get this thing started. It's nice to have a new project to focus on!

Food stamp stigmas

2010-03-17T14:56:00.004-04:00

1.2 million: The number of people who access the Food Assistance Program in Ohio

Every once in a while Kaitlyn or I will get a phone call from prospective clients wanting to know what kind of services the Ohio Benefit Bank provides. I've had to answer this question hundreds of times before (from friends and family, too) so I pretty much have my response down to an art form.

"The Ohio Benefit Bank is a free Web-based program that allows you to apply for multiple benefits, such as food stamps, cash assistance, medical assistance and child care. It is essentially a bank of applications that we can fill out for you, because we understand that the process can be really overwhelming. We also provide a free tax assistance program...blah blah blah..."

I may have that part memorized, but the other day I had a phone call that had me drawing a blank.

The call was from a woman who wanted to know what the Benefit Bank was and how it could help her. I started going through my monologue, but I didn't get too far before she burst into tears.

She had been in a car accident a few months ago that left her unable to drive or work, and buried under thousands of dollars in unpaid medical bills. Her husband and mother recently died, and she had no other family she could turn to.

She said she used to make pretty good money, but she never actually put it away. She used to be the type of person who was disgusted by people who used food stamps or needed other kinds of assistance. She told me, "Karma finally caught up to me."

It was an exhausting 30-minute conversation. All I could really do was listen to her and try to reassure her that help was out there and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. That federal money is there for a reason. But I think she just had too much pride to do anything but call.

She made it clear that she didn't want to be on food stamps. She didn't want to be asking for help. She was just terrified of not being able to pay her bills or rent. She had no food in the house, and couldn't really wait 30 days for the food stamps application to go through. I gave her the contact information for a nearby emergency food pantry, but she couldn't make an appointment to come in and see me to fill out some applications because she needed to ask a neighbor if she would be willing to bring her here.

I've never felt so helpless. For people who need help, all we can do is present them with all of the resources that are available for them. It's up to them to actually follow through with it.

I gave the woman my work cell number so she could reach me at any time, but I haven't heard back from her. And unfortunately, I don't think I will. We can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

I hope everyone reading this understands that there is no shame in applying for benefits. They are there for a reason! I'm going to pull a Myth-Busters now and give you some common reasons why some people might not apply for food stamps.

1. Resources and assets count against you. FALSE! The only things that determine your eligibility when applying for food stamps is your income and your household size. The government understands that you can't eat your car or your house.
2. Food stamps are welfare. Nope. The Food Assistance Program is a work-support program. You must be in an approved work, training, or educational environment to be eligible. So you can apply for food stamps if you are volunteering or receiving job training. (Or if you're retired, or have a disability...)
3. Shopping with food stamps is not simple and inconspicuous. This used to be true. However, we have done away with those little scraps of paper that used to hold up the line. We now have what is called an Electronic Benefits Transfer Card (EBT), which can be used just like a credit or debit card. You can swipe it and no one has to know that you just accessed your food stamp money.
4. The amount of food stamps a person qualifies for isn't worth the time to apply. The smallest amount of money you can get a month for food stamps is $14. If I handed you $14, would you take it? I thought so. Also, those dollars roll over to the next month if you don't use them. They don't just go away. So you can get your food stamps in January, save up all year, and buy your family a nice Thanksgiving dinner come November. That's just one less thing to worry about.

Spread the word, people. Fight the stigma. Goodnight.

Chaos at Miami Hami

2010-03-09T07:42:00.009-05:00

50: About the number of people who participated in the poverty simulation yesterday.

Yesterday at about 1:30, Kaitlyn and I drove out to Miami University Hamilton, but for once we weren't doing a training! We were asked by the VISTA there, Jessica Reading, if we would help them out with a poverty simulation, like the one I went through in December. This time, though, I had a chance to be on the other side of the frenzy.

My booth was the General Employer's office, so it was my job to check everyone in who was fortunate enough to have a job, take their transportation passes, hand out their "job assignments" and distribute their checks at the end of their shift (which was seven minutes long).

Kaitlyn sat at the table next to me. She was the schoolteacher, and she was in charge of taking in people grades K-college, handing out assignments and homework, and giving them slips of paper telling them to bring in a few dollars for field trips, class projects, school supplies, etc.

Kaitlyn sits at her "classroom" and waits for her students to arrive

Did I ever mention that my sister works at Miami Hamilton? She has the extremely awesome job of coordinator of student activities. She gets to plan student events, like cornhole tournaments and pizza tastings, in her day's work. But today we got to work together, because she was participating in the simulation as the owner of "Big Dave's Pawn Shop"!

Meet my sister, Jen Moning! (I mean Jen O'Brien!)

Anyway, as the General Employer, I had a lot to keep track of, so I might have been a little overwhelmed at times. Only six people out of eight showed up on time to work in week 1, so I had to fire two people right off the bat. (My rule was that they had to be at work for at least half the time). Fewer people showed up with each week, and by week 4 I had only two employees, though I had more applications than I knew what to do with. Only one person showed up to work on time every week.

It didn't take long for me to recognize the feelings of anxiety, despair and panic that I felt when I went through this simulation back in December. The entire room was chaos. I really hated firing people, especially the people who lost their job for the same reasons I lost mine when I was playing Cindy Chen (not enough transportation passes). The sad thing was that most people didn't really put up a fight when I told them they lost their job. The conversations would mostly go like this:

THEM: I'm here for work!

ME: Well, work just ended, so I'm afraid you're fired.

THEM: Fired?! Well, crap. *scampers off*

Everyone just had too much to keep track of to actually fight for their career. There was one girl who was late in the first week of work who I had to fire, but she showed up the next day anyway and begged for another chance, so I cut her some slack. She was always on time after that, though she did try to steal a stack of my transportation passes. Strike two.

Everyone scrambles around the room trying to get their bills paid, their families fed, and their homes secure. This is the room where we had the simulation.

I was a little surprised by the amount of theft that went on in this simulation. In the one I was in in December we had a little, but this was insane. People were yelling "SHERIFF!" all over the place. The "thief," played by my sister's friend and co-worker Annie, actually tried to rob the bank. There was some kind of shoot-out at the school, but I didn't really get a good look at it. People were stealing from their neighbors and taking up jobs as drug dealers left and right.

And of course, most of the chairs in the room were turned upside down by the end of the day.

Chairs that were turned upside down symbolized that that family has been evicted

This crowd is the line for the homeless shelter--which quickly became too full to accept anyone else.

At the end of the simulation, everyone righted their chairs and sat in a circle for a group discussion about their experiences, led by Amanda Cowgill, National Service Coordinator for AmeriCorps*VISTA.

Amanda leads a discussion about what everyone experienced in the simulation

All of the participants were constantly reminded that this was not a game; it was a simulation, meant to increase our knowledge, understanding, and awareness of the challenges of living in poverty. I think everyone got it. I think it was around week 3 when one of my few employees looked around at the chaos in the room and said to me, "This is heartbreaking."

I'm glad I was able to do this simulation again, because it's always good to see the effects of what you're doing. I think by the end of the simulation, everyone had a better idea and respect for what people living in poverty have to go through.

In closing, here's a video of the participants near the end of the simulation, picking up their chairs and such to get ready for the group discussion. Is it just me, or do they look kind of exhausted?

The Other Side

2010-03-08T10:09:00.002-05:00

12: The number of days until Kaitlyn's wedding! (And the first day of spring!)

Remember back in December when I went to In Service Training and went through a poverty simulation? Today, Kaitlyn and I will be traveling to Miami University Hamilton where we will be on the other side of the experiment as social services case workers #1 and #2.

I'm pretty excited about this! When I went through the simulation the first time I was participating as a woman living in poverty. I was running around from place to place in such a frenzy that I really didn't have the time to soak it in until it was over. Today, I'll have a better idea of what to expect and I'll be able to observe the chaos, rather than be stuck in the middle of it. It'll be really cool to see how other people react to being placed in that kind of situation.

Anyway, Kaitlyn and I will be leaving for that this afternoon and it will probably go until at least 5:00 p.m. (Hello, comp time!) But I'll be sure to post all about it tomorrow or the next day. I'll also try to remember to take pictures this time.

IN OTHER NEWS: Our site supervisor, Meredith, is back at Shared Harvest after about three months of maternity leave! Welcome back, Meredith! And welcome to the world, Minerva Abigail!

Benefits Training, Take 2

2010-03-05T14:02:00.005-05:00

2: The number of days in my weekend (For the first time in a long time!)

Today was Part II of that benefits training we had to cut short this week. Kaitlyn and I were a little nervous, but determined to make it through the class unscathed. We needn't have worried. The site administrator had had a chat with everyone in the class before they came in, and he even said a few words about turning off cell phones before we started. Everyone was very courteous and attentive, and it went a lot more smoothly than Part I.

They did have a lot of questions, but Kaitlyn and I had been expecting that. The first half was so chaotic; people were talking over me and their internet kept cutting out. So it was like they were retaking the training today, in half the time they should have been. But everyone did catch on and completed the scenario without too many problems. I'm really glad that's over with.

Some more good news is that Kaitlyn and I were finally able to find someone to take over the Greenville class tomorrow! We e-mailed Jess with pleas for help, and she told us that she knew plenty of people who owe her a favor. I'd like to take this moment to thank Jess, and a big thank you to Suzanna Witte for taking over that training tomorrow! I'll be able to go to Kaitlyn's bridal shower; we're both really relieved!

IN OTHER NEWS: It is going to be in the 50's this weekend and next week! WOO! I have had an extreme case of cabin fever for the past couple of months, and I am so excited to be able to get out of the house.

Meet me Halfway

2010-03-02T12:27:00.002-05:00

15: The number of minutes I was stuck in traffic this morning (and therefore the number of minutes late I was to my training).

Don't worry. I always arrive at 8:30 for my 9:00 classes. So today I was here at 8:45, and I still had time to set up.

Today is my first full benefits class since before Christmas. I'm currently on my lunch break in Dayton, for a class of seven people. Things are going really well. Benefits classes are pretty much the same as tax classes, except there aren't as many errors in the book and we go over the different programs we offer with OBB instead of tax credits.

I haven't even looked at my benefits guide in ages (I should probably be doing that now, but I am feeling a little frustrated with myself for having such a lame blog post yesterday and I have a strong desire to make up for it). I think I'll be okay, though. I know the program. I know the benefits.

That training that was snowed out in Greenville Saturday needs to be rescheduled soon (they have their first tax clinic on the 13th). The problem is that they can only do a Saturday training, so it would HAVE to be this Saturday, which is the same day as Kaitlyn's bridal shower. We have been scrambling around, trying to find someone else to take the training, but we haven't had any luck yet, so I might have to miss the shower. Which is bad news bears.

We might have to become as flexible as some of these other sites we've been working with (i.e. MUCH LESS FLEXIBLE). I know it's our job to train as many people as we can, but these special trainings out of our region and working on weekends is really starting to take a toll. You've got to meet us halfway.

Don't wake me, I plan on sleeping in

2010-03-01T13:29:00.003-05:00

4: The guess-timated number of times I wake up every night.

I'm having a problem with writer's block today, so today's blog is going to be in bullet point format.

I have a bad case of the Mondays.
I drove halfway out to Greenville Saturday for a training only to get a phone call from the site administrator telling me they had a level 2 snow emergency. The farther north I drove, the more slick the roads were. The time it took me to find a side road clear enough to turn around solidified my decision to cancel the class.
I have a training tomorrow in Dayton, Thursday in Eaton (which I think will be canceled, as no one has signed up for it yet) and Part II of the Training from Hell (see "Alexandra's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day") on Friday.
I have had to work, in some capacity, the last 3 Saturdays in a row. I miss two-day weekends. I miss sleeping in.
Being an insomniac is really getting on my nerves.

Alexandra's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

2010-02-22T13:43:00.004-05:00

3: The number of hours Kaitlyn and I spent in a training today until we snapped.

Kaitlyn and I have been collaborating with a local business who wanted to train 23 members of it's staff on benefits for the OBB. We don't usually plan extra trainings, but because there were so many people who wanted the training, and because they all had laptops and wireless internet, we decided to make an exception.

We rarely both attend a training, either, but as there were so many new counselors, in an unfamiliar place, we made another exception.

Kaitlyn had had an enormous class last Friday at Miami Hamilton, so we both went to that one, too. Kaitlyn did most of the talking while I went around to people who were struggling and helped them catch up. We were going to switch roles today; I would lead the training and Kaitlyn would make sure everyone was on the same page. With our system from last week, we figured today's trainng would go just as smoothly as that had. It did not.

Although we were told that all 23 counselors would have their own laptop and reliable internet access, this was not the case. In fact, only about 15 people showed up, and two of them hadn't brought their laptops. The internet was a complete disaster; it took forever for anyone to get signed on, and even then it was erratic. Someone's internet died every 10-15 minutes.

Sadly, this wasn't the worst part of the class.

The entire time I was there, I felt like I was babysitting a bunch of sixth-graders. I think that, because everyone already worked together, they were all really comfortable just goofing off and chatting to one another. I literally did not have their attention for more than 15 seconds at a time. When the third cell phone rang I was just like, "Okay, everyone. Can we turn off the cell phones, please? That's the third one that has gone off." I mean, really? When you heard the first one ring, didn't that REMIND you to turn off you own? I didn't think I'd have to remind them. They're adults.

Everyone was so disrespectful. My voice got steadily louder and I was much more firm, but it didn't sway them. It was completely out of control. I don't know if it's because they thought we were too young to know anything or what, but I have never been more frustrated in my life.

Some examples:

We asked counselors--several times--to pair up because we were having so many problems with the computers. We still ended up with a group of one and a group of three. They just weren't grasping the concept of "pairing up."
One man stood up in the middle of the scenario and went back to his own computer. When asked if there was a problem, he said he was done. They had been working for 15 minutes. They weren't done.
I don't think we had everyone in the room at a time throughout the day. People were wandering in and out constantly. Could you not have gotten your coffee during that 20 minute break when we were trying to get everyone online?
Kaitlyn overheared one person say there wasn't a social security number for the woman in the scenario. She interceded, and said that she did have one. The man then said that he thought they were supposed to just make someone up. Why? Why would I have gotten you through the first few steps of the Alice Nelson scenario and tell you to keep your books open on page 73 if I wanted you to BS the whole thing?

It was, without a doubt, the worst training either of us had ever been to. No one heard a word I said because they NEVER STOPPED TALKING. We eventually called Jessica and let her know what was up. We talked to the site supervisor. We discussed it with each other. And we decided to pull the plug on the training at noon and finish it another day, at a place with reliable internet access. This is why we don't usually set up special trainings for one agency. We already have reliable training sites. We're going to stick with them.

It was awful. I am not looking forward to seeing them all again to finish the training. Kaitlyn and I have already decided to go together for part II. If I had been by myself today, I would probably be cowering in a corner somewhere.

And now when I send them the next class announcement for round II, I'm going to have to remind them to turn their cell phones off, tell them not to talk when I am talking, and to take this seriously.

Or I could just say, "This is not a 3rd-grade field trip. This is a business-related training. Please behave like adults, or you will be asked to leave the class."

Tempting.

Necessary.

The Trouble With Snow Is...

2010-02-18T07:39:00.006-05:00

45: The number of minutes my car was stuck in the snow Tuesday.

As everyone is probably aware, we've gotten oodles of snow over the past couple of weeks. It seems like whenever we took the time to bundle up and shovel the driveway, Mother Nature would drop another 6+ inches of snow in Fairfield.

This week has been particularly tricky. My drive home from work Monday was terrifying, to say the least. The roads were completely covered in a fine layer of ice. I slipped and slid all the way home, but made it back safe and sound.

I think the roads were marginally better on Tuesday, but I can't be sure because I never made it out of my driveway. The snow plow that had come in the middle of the night had pretty much trapped me in. Of course, I didn't realize this until my car got stuck in the middle of the street and the driveway. (See below)

Fortunately we live on a dead-end street, so no angry drivers came by. But it did take my mom and me 30-45 minutes to dig it out.

Needless to say, I worked from home Tuesday.

The roads are a lot better now than they have been, and it hasn't really snowed in a few days. But the parking lot at Shared Harvest is an absolute catastrophe. It's never actually been a good parking lot. There aren't a lot of places to park, so people usually park on the grass. But as the grass is currently buried beneath about a foot of snow, everyone has been cramming themselves wherever they see blacktop. The result of such a system is pictured below:

The good news is that you're never too old to play in the snow. I am just dying for Steve to go on the intercom someday and say "Attention, Shared Harvest employees. A snowball fight will begin in the parking lot at 12:15 ... Snowball fight at 12:15."

IN OTHER NEWS: Here is my cat, Albert, playing in the snow.

Tax Clinic Gurus

2010-02-15T08:31:00.004-05:00

3: The number of Saturdays I have to work in a row.

Before I begin, here is a picture of some ENORMOUS icicles Kaitlyn and I saw when we were driving around Darke County last week. Aren't they insane?
I just wanted to share that. Kaitlyn thinks I have a slight obsession with icicles.

Shared Harvest Foodbank has been trying to kick off a tax clinic for the past couple of years, but always ran into a few speedbumps. The clinic was called off one year because of a snowstorm, and another year no one even showed up. But things were a lot different this year. Third time's definitely a charm.

Seven counselors, including Kaitlyn and me, came to work bright and early Saturday morning ready to do people's taxes. Kaitlyn and I had spent the last couple of weeks hanging tax flyers, taking phone calls, and referring people to the clinic. We encouraged people to make appointments with us, but we also let it be known that we would accept walk-in clients. We were pretty determined to make this year's tax clinic a success.

And it was! We had six people come in who had made an appointment with us. I so wish I had a picture of Kaitlyn's face when we found out that one of the people who came in had heard about us through a flyer we had hung at the laundromat. It was pure joy.

Anyway, the clinic went really well. We didn't have any technical difficulties, the counselors were all comfortable with the software and hardly had any problems. And we didn't have any walk-in clients come in, but we're still extremely pleased with how everything turned out.

I have to help out at another tax clinic next Saturday, and the Saturday after that I have a training to do in Darke County, so I'm going to be busy for a while. I'm excited for my next 2-day weekend, whenever that may be.

IN OTHER NEWS: My Dad's birthday was on Valentine's Day. Happy birthday, Dad!

Working in a Winter Wonderland

2010-02-09T08:07:00.007-05:00

6-8: The additional inches of snow we're expected to get by the end of the day.

Nearly every school in Butler county was closed today because of the snow. There were hardly any cars on the road this morning. I know this because the Shared Harvest Foodbank doesn't shut its doors for trivial things like fierce winter storms.

The reason being is that Shared Harvest is considered an emergency service, so even if there's a level 4 snow emergency going on out there, we still have to show up to work. Which makes sense, really. What doesn't make sense is why some of the other businesses on our street are still resolutely shoveling their sidewalks, only to have to shovel them again in a half hour. I just can't see people braving this storm to go out and buy boating accessories right now.

Well, the good news is that it is absolutely gorgeous outside. It's snowing like crazy, the ground is covered in a sheet of white, and the trees are sparkling with ice.

The bad news is that I don't face the window at work, so this is what I'll be looking at today:

Facepalm

2010-02-08T14:02:00.004-05:00

8: About the number of inches of snow we got over the weekend.

I have incredibly fantastical news---my insurance company finally paid off my health bills! After months and months of re-calling, double-checking, and head-banging, that whole entire mess with my ankle is finally cleared up. When I was younger I used to wonder why adults always refused to go to the doctor when they felt sick. And now I realize that it's probably because they don't feel like dealing with their insurance companies.

Makes perfect sense to me now.

And now I have to get something off my chest. I've compiled a list of three simple rules to keep in mind when talking to your friendly neighborhood OBB counselors:

1. Read the e-mails we send. They most likely hold the answers you are calling/e-mailing us about.

2: Listen to the words I say. I was at a training a few weeks ago and someone asked me,
"Do you usually send out training dates ahead of time? Because I haven't seen the dates for next month yet."
I responded with, "Yes we do, but the woman who usually does it is on maternity leave and the Southeast regional coordinator is taking over for her. She's pretty backed up, but we'll have those dates out in the next couple of days."
He then condescendingly said, "Well what I'm ASKING is...do you usually send those out ahead of time?"
"....YES."

3. If you opt not to follow the aforementioned rules, do not yell at me as if it were my fault you didn't get the information. There's only so much I can do.

Thanks, everyone.

Happy Birthday Me!

2010-02-04T09:18:00.004-05:00

23: My age today!

I'm not sure why, but 22 seems a lot younger than 23. I seem to remember thinking the same thing about 21 when I turned 22.

It doesn't really feel like my birthday today. Maybe it's because I haven't really had much time to anticipate it...I spent most of last week buried under a pile of blankets with Nyquil and a box of tissues. I'm feeling a lot better. Just a residual cough.

Anyway, yesterday Kaitlyn and I drove up to Dayton Urban Ministry to help them out with their tax clinic. We arrived a half hour early, made sure we understood which computer went to which printer, and logged in to the OBB Web site, ready to help people do their taxes.

I guess by now I should be used to the fact that hardly anything turns out perfectly, no matter how much you prepare.

There were only four counselors available to help clients, including Kaitlyn and me, and because of computer/space issues, only three were actually able to sit down with people. A line had already formed in the next room over. And the internet was just horribly, horribly slow. It took several minutes just to go to the next page. Everything took twice as long.

Hardly anyone had brought their 2008 AGI or PIN, which you need to electronically sign/file your 2009 taxes, so a lot of people had to make calls to the IRS, where of course no one was answering.

Fortunately, Kaitlyn had the good sense to bring out our laptops, which ran a lot faster. We each helped clients on our laptops, then brought it up on the desktop when we had to print something off, which still took up a lot of time. We were only able to see two clients each. But all of them got some money back, and that's always good to see.

The second guy I saw was like a breath of fresh air. We were still using the slow desktops and I was getting a little frustrated. He just said to me, "Don't worry about it, I don't mind waiting a little!" and then we realized he didn't have his 2008 AGI or PIN he said he would just paper file. He actually said, "I'm in no rush!"

I wanted to thank him profusely for being so rational. Most people are in the biggest rush of their lives to get their taxes done. It was nice to meet someone who realized that it's not the end of the world if they have to wait a few days longer to get their refund.

Insurance Issues, Taxing Troubles

2010-01-29T13:48:00.003-05:00

631: The number of dollars I (???) owe my doctor.

I can't believe we're only a few short days away from February. This month really did fly by. I thought that only happened the month before Christmas.

Remember how I was getting frustrated about all the speed bumps in my trainings because of glitches in the system and typos in the book? I spent all of Monday morning going through all three scenarios in the tax guide so I would know exactly where the issues were.

I don't get it. I got through the scenarios just fine. There was only one typo I hadn't been aware of before. But at least I remembered each scenario more clearly, so that when people got confused at my tax training on Tuesday it was easier to figure out where they had gone wrong.

Wednesday was a slow day, and Thursday I had a doctor's appointment for my last ankle check-up. I gave the lady at the front desk my debit card for my $5 co-pay as soon as I signed in.

LADY: Great, thank you. You also have a balance with us, would you like to pay that off now?
ME: ...Well how much is the balance?
LADY: It's six thirty-one.
ME: Like...hundred? Like $631.00??
LADY: Yep.
ME: ... No, I would not like to pay that off, thank you. I think I'll call my insurance company instead.

I went in to see Dr. Daily, who said my ankle was still puffy and stiff, but on the mend. When I got to my car, I called my insurance company for the umpteenth time to find out what was up. Apparently they had only received one claim from the doctor, so I had them send all the paperwork in again.

This is getting incredibly frustrating. I have had to call my insurance company at least once a week since November trying to get this taken care of, and every time I do they give me a new excuse. I don't know what else they expect me to do...I make like $4/hour so I can't really afford this bill.

Urgh. Moving on.

We've had a lot of calls lately from people who want to make an appointment for us to do their taxes. Since we lost our only HarvestCorps member about a month ago, all of these appointments fall on Kaitlyn and me, even though we're not supposed to do a lot of direct service. Shared Harvest is hosting a tax clinic on February 13, so we've been trying to persuade people to come in then, but most don't want to wait that long.

Kaitlyn and I put together a flyer so we can drive around to local businesses and hang them up. We're also putting out a news release. Hopefully we can get a lot of people into the tax clinic!

And on that note, if you are interested in having your taxes done for free with the Ohio Benefit Bank, and getting your FULL REFUND, call us at 800-352-3663 and make an appointment for February 13. Walk-ins are also welcome. You have to have a 2009 AGI of $57,000 or less to be able to use the program.

Speed Bumps

2010-01-22T11:04:00.003-05:00

80: The number of minutes it took to drive to Troy today.

I feel like I've been slacking on my blog lately, but that's probably because I took such a long hiatus over the holidays. Which is funny, because it took me no time at all to get in a groove of sleeping late and eating Christmas cookies.

Anyway, only a week left in January, which means tax season is about to get brutal. I think February is going to be the busiest month for us, what with all the tax clinics and trainings all over Southwest Ohio. At least there are only 28 days to get through.

It's been a little frustrating lately because so many people want to get into training, and we don't have the dates finalized for February yet. It's like they're all trying to squeeze their way in a locked door, and the line of people just keeps getting bigger. It's all very overwhelming.

Right now I'm at a tax training in Troy, and getting tired of hitting speedbumps because of all the glitches in the system and typos in the book. Someone asks a question every five minutes, and my answer is usually "Yeah, that's just a mistake in the software, they're working on it," or "That's just a typo. It should say ___________."

I never thought I'd say this, but oh, how I long for the days of benefit trainings.

The good news is that it's Friday. Thank goodness. I was beginning to think I was in some parallel universe in which the weekend is always at least two days away.

[LONG] Day of Service

2010-01-19T08:10:00.008-05:00

12: The number of hours Kaitlyn and I worked on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day of Service has finally come and gone! Yesterday was spent in several different places doing several different projects. Kaitlyn and I really had a good time!

We started off our day at the Animal Friends Humane Society in Hamilton. We would have had to take a two-hour long orientation in order to actually interact with any homeless puppies and kittens, so Kaitlyn and I were assigned to laundry and dishes duty for the first hour and a half of our day of service.

Because Kaitlyn and I were planning to attend the Martin Luther King Jr. march at 10:00, we were only able to do one load of laundry. The laundry room was an absolute wreck of towels, blankets, mop heads and chew toys. Fortunately, we found a box of latex gloves before we had to handle the pile of hairy, chewed-up, poopy towels. See said mess below:

When we had done all we could do in the laundry room, we were sent to another room to wash dishes. This part wasn't so bad. I rinsed out all the animals' water dishes and food bowls, Kaitlyn put them in the dishwasher and loaded and unloaded as needed. It only took us one round of dishes to come up with a good system. We do work well together.

We left the animal shelter at about 9:30, as we weren't exactly sure how to get to the beginning of the march or whether there would be plenty of places to park. But with the help of my trusty GPS, we found the Booker T. Washington community center rather easily, and ended up waiting around for more than an hour for the march to start. Were we crazy to think that "The march starts at 10:00" really means 10:00? We didn't leave the community center until 11:00.

Still, the march was pretty cool, in every definition of the word. My legs were about to fall off, they were so freezing. We walked about 2.5 miles, so we got our exercise in for the day. Check out all the marchers preparing for the journey:

It was a little after noon by the time we got back to Dexter (my car), so we went to lunch. We had been talking to a guy from Walgreens for about a week about getting some kind of donation for the Battered Women's Shelter, so Kaitlyn gave him one last call at this point and *yay!* another success! After lunch we went down the street to Walgreens and were presented with a $20 gift card to spend. We bought some hair care things and body lotions and added them to the growing collection of toiletries, office supplies, diapers, and other donations we had solicited.

Continuing our adventure, we drove out to the Atrium medical center in Middletown to visit our VISTA leader, Martha Rose, who was in a car accident over the weekend and has to have surgery on her back. We brought her some flowers, but we weren't able to go in and see her. Fortunately, her mom was in the waiting room and we left them with her. We hope she gets well soon, but we know she's in good hands. Check out that hospital--it's like a hotel.

The last few hours of our day were spent with the long-awaited Battered Women's Shelter project! About ten volunteers met at a woman named Barb's house to put our donations into paper bags for the shelter. It took a few minutes to figure out the best way to do things ("Should we all go around with one bag and just go to town?" "Maybe we should each just have a station." "Do they want different things in each bag or should all the shampoos be together?") But we soon developed yet another system and finished up in no time. It was a really cool organization; everyone was really friendly and made Kaitlyn and me feel more than welcome.

So all in all, it was an incredibly busy, exhausting day, but it was also a lot of fun. One day can hold a lot of great experiences!

MLK DAY

2010-01-13T12:58:00.002-05:00

16: The number of people I need to train in the next two days.

As you are all probably aware, Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And while many businesses take that time to sleep in and stay at home, us (we?) VISTAs will use the time to work with various organizations to better serve our community.

Shared Harvest is still open on MLK day, but Kaitlyn and I have strategically alloted our time to spent with three different agencies that day. From 8-12 we will be with the Animal Friends Humane Society. I was hoping we'd go there and have fun playing with the kittens and walking the puppies, but we were told that we would have to go through an orientation to do that kind of thing. So we'll probably wash dishes and do laundry.

Why it takes a two hour training seminar to learn how to hold a cat, I will never understand.

We are also trying to get a hold of the Lighthouse Food Pantry to spend the afternoon there. If that name sounds familiar, it's because I worked with them a few months ago for the National Day of Service. We haven't heard back from them yet, but Kaitlyn said she'd call again tomorrow while I am at my tax training.

And finally, we'll be going to the YWCA Battered Women's Shelter from 4-7 putting together care packages. This project has been a roller coaster ride. The Women's Shelter sent Kaitlyn and me a "Wish List" that they had put together of toiletries, office supplies, cleaning materials, baby items, etc. for the care packages. With MLK Day only a week away, we had to act quickly.

So most of Monday was spent doing cold calls. Kaitlyn and I drove everywhere we could think of who might be able to make a donation: Meijer, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Radio Shack (for batteries), McDonald's and Wendy's (for fast food gift cards), Target, Walgreens, Office Depot, etc.

Most of the places we went to required you to draft letters or fax a ton of information in order to even be considered for a donation. But we did stumble across some good luck. Office Depot gave us an allowance of $25 to spend in their store for some office supplies that was on the list. And a secondhand baby store called "Reruns for Wee Ones" put together a bag of diapers and baby bottles for us. We even got about 50 coupons for a free breakfast from Wendy's.

So I think we're pretty well prepared for Monday. We have a decent amount of stuff to bring in.

IN OTHER NEWS: I have a tax training tomorrow in Xenia and Friday at Miami Hamilton, and I haven't had one since the beginning of December. I hope I remember everything. Wish me luck!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

2010-01-08T07:48:00.003-05:00

49,510: The number of pounds of food collected in the holiday food drive for Shared Harvest this year...which is 7,350 more pounds than last year!

Right now Kaitlyn and I are in some sort of limbo between the holiday food drive and tax season. I'm spending a lot more time in the office. I was supposed to do a benefits training in Xenia today, but I had to cancel it on account of it snowed like the dickens all day yesterday and part of this morning.

So far, though, we've had plenty of phone calls to make, spreadsheets to refer to and agencies to research.

And we've definitely had our fair share of excitement! Tuesday found Kaitlyn and me in the conference room, picking off the adhesive from cardboard from Kaitlyn's Check Out Hunger project. We soon grew tired of using our fingernails, and Kaitlyn began using a rather ingenious device comprised of a sharp razor blade and duct tape. After about two minutes, she sliced her thumb open and we had to make a trip urgent care. See Kaitlyn's bandaged thumb, containing nine stitches, on the right. She's always such a trooper!

I told Kaitlyn that we are turning into the most expensive VISTAs ever. We've had our fair share of injuries, what with the stitches, the sprained ankle, the car accident... Hopefully all of that is behind us.

In other news, I am incredibly glad it is Friday. Going back to work after having time off is never a fun thing. I'm still not quite used to my sleep schedule.

Back to Work!

2010-01-06T07:50:00.003-05:00

12: The number of days I was on holiday leave from Shared Harvest.

That's right, I've returned! And although I had to use up a small chunk of comp and personal time to enjoy such a glorious week and a half of vacation, it was all incredibly worth it. Forgive my lack of blog postings in December. I hope everyone had a good holiday.

So now I'm getting back in the swing of things. The last two days have been spent dropping off and picking up barrels, and Kaitlyn and I are unofficially DONE with the holiday food drive! This thought brought about a plethora of emotions. We were getting a little tired (physically and mentally) of lifting heavy boxes, dragging skids to the truck and searching for businesses in the GPS. On the other hand, we are going to miss Gus the Bus. See us saying goodbye to him below (in our fancy new SHARECorps jackets): We told our special projects manager, Holli, to tell us if she really needs our help with food drives again, but that we were going to be pretty busy over the next few months with tax season.

And yes, tax season is here. These next three months or so will be a time for tax trainings, tax clinics, and tax questions. Starting at the end of January, I am going to be working almost every single weekend (i.e. Saturdays AND Sundays) at various OBB sites in Southwest Ohio. The good news: Comp time. The bad news: No free time.

But that's okay. I'd rather be busy than bored.

In other news, after two months of crutches, air casts, wrapping my ankle in gauze, X-rays and HOURS of physical therapy, my ankle has gone from severely painful to merely tender and stiff. I'm done with therapy, I am no longer on crutches, in an air cast, or in gauze. I still do some stretches and such at home, but I think I see the end of the proverbial road to recovery.

We miss Gus

2009-12-18T14:24:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-15T12:16:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-09T20:53:00.006-05:00

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!

2009-12-04T14:08:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-04T08:27:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-02T09:58:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-30T08:47:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-11-24T12:12:00.009-05:00

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

2009-11-18T12:35:00.003-05:00

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)

2009-11-13T07:55:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-11-11T14:16:00.004-05:00

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

2009-11-09T09:05:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-04T12:24:00.004-05:00

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

2009-11-03T14:29:00.008-05:00

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

2009-10-30T13:55:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-28T11:16:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-26T11:10:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-23T08:10:00.005-04:00

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

2009-10-20T14:06:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-19T13:40:00.008-04:00

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

2009-10-16T14:43:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-10-14T09:50:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-08T14:13:00.016-04:00

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

2009-10-06T13:52:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-01T13:47:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-30T11:38:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-29T07:45:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-22T11:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-17T13:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-15T14:32:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-14T10:47:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-12T11:37:00.003-04:00

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.

Gus the Bus and Us

2009-09-04T13:23:00.011-04:00

37: The number of times Kaitlyn and I squealed in terror/adrenaline as we drove the truck for the first time to our first food drive pick-up.

I knew coming into this position that being an AmeriCorps*Vista would require a wide variety of skill sets. I fully expected to encourage people to apply for benefit programs, drive all around southwestern Ohio to train people to use the Ohio Benefit Bank, and generally work hard in our mission to eradicate poverty.

I did not realize that driving the Careening Van of Chaos was one of my obligations.

Keep in mind that this van is not really a van; it is a truck, about the size of a U-Haul, with no rearview mirror and no way to merge onto a highway without feeling a great deal of anxiety. It is a large, intimidating vehicle, one that fellow Vista Kaitlyn Baker and I now fondly refer to as "Gus the Bus." We chose to refer to it as a bus because no one around here can seem to come to an agreement about what it is. Said vehicle is pictured below:

Our mission was to pick up a barrel of food from a PGA tour in Maineville from a food drive they had been holding for the past week or so. Kaitlyn and I had been dreading this trip, our first time driving the truck that is just small enough that you don't need an extra license to operate it. We decided to split up the driving time; Kaitlyn would drive there, I would drive back. The first 20 minutes in the truck consisted of the two of us squealing as we drove over small, and not so small, bumps in the road.

We finally arrived in Maineville, slightly shaken but otherwise unharmed. As we had no idea where to go to pick up the barrel, Kaitlyn parked the truck across two or three vacant parking spaces. We went inside the main building and asked the woman behind the desk where we could find the barrel of food from their food drive, and she pointed to a barrel near the front door. We thanked her and peeked inside, where we found exactly two products: a jar of peanut butter and a package of cookie mix. We decided to consult the lady behind the desk again.

"Is this it?"

"Yep!"

"Is there another barrel of food you wanted us to pick up?"

"No, that's all of it!"

"You're sure?"

"Yeah!"

"O...kay."

We didn't need the dolly we had brought along to lug out the food we were expecting, or the 10 banana boxes, or even the truck, really. We stored the groceries in a random box in Gus the Bus, anyway, and began to drive back to Shared Harvest. We weren't even on the highway, though, when we decided to call the person who had requested us to pick up the food, just in case. Sure enough, there was another barrel full of food in a closet that needed to go back to the warehouse. So we pulled into the nearest parking lot empty enough for us to turn around and drove back to get the other barrel, which ended up containing 130 pounds of food. Much better. Even though the dolly we had brought along had a flat wheel, so it was completely useless and we ended up carrying boxes of food back to the truck one by one.

Driving Gus the Bus was really intimidating at first, despite the constant stream of tips and reassurances Kaitlyn and I listened to prior to clamoring into the truck. But once we got used to being several meters higher than the rest of traffic and ignoring the hard stares from drivers speeding around us on the highway, we didn't mind it so much. And the next time we go on a delivery, we will have a much better idea of what to expect. I'm looking forward to the next adventure.

Lesson #1: Be sure to check that the dolly is fully functional before struggling to lift it into Gus the Bus.

Lesson #2: Don't be afraid to go five or 10 (or 15) miles below the speed limit.

Lesson #3: Always have a fellow Vista with you.