“I am Part of the Change”

Today had been a long day. Rob got me involved with something good. His marital arts teacher and the people he works with came up with an idea. They asked for help, and we answered the call.

At 9:00 this morning, Rob, Rich, Justin and I met with their teacher – we went to his place of work, and we met some fantastic people. We made plans and lists, pooled our collective knowledge and backgrounds and came up with a battle plan. We were all given one of those rubber wrist bands that everyone wares without thought – but we put a lot of thought into it; ours are orange and say “I am part of the change” on them, and we have worn them all day.

We went everywhere on our list, gathered supplies, and spent two hours putting things together. We meet again at 11 am tomorrow to put the final phase of the plan into motion.

Today, fourteen people in three cars drove around to various stores in the Medford area. We gathered supplies we are giving away tomorrow.

We made 30 food boxes with about 2 weeks worth of groceries in them. We are delivering them tomorrow door-to-door to families that need a little extra help, and they don’t know we are coming. We are going out in small groups, and knocking on the doors on our lists and saying “Happy Holidays, this is for you,” and going onto the next house.

We put together 50 bags we are going to give out to the homeless; they have blankets, gloves, socks, sweat pants, protein/energy bars, water bottles, fresh fruit, light canned food, and two to three sandwiches in them. We have been told by people who have been there where different people gather, and we are going to them in groups and giving them these bags.

Today, we are all very tired, and tomorrow we are going to be as well. But we are doing a good thing. And we all agree, this is not a one time deal. This is going to become a monthly operation. We are going to find more people who will volunteer their time to help. We are a small group now, but we will grow larger. So far, the people who organized this are saying we can feed 1,000 people . . . I think we can do better than that.

. . . Today I heard an saw some amazing things. A random stranger donated money to us. Stores gave us discounts. We talked to people who said their church does something similar, and that were going to go back and volunteer. Others simply helped us maneuver our carts and load the trucks. We carried our little wrist bands with us, and gave away a lot today. I was given a box to take back to my school. I am going to talk to all my kids about changing the world. . . .

We are part of the change. Your turn:

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You must be the change you want to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi