This past weekend, I checked off one of my Thirty Before 30 goals! Well, part of one. #21 on my list is to do six volunteer projects (2 per year). I included it because I really want to give back to my community. I’d love to volunteer regularly but right now I don’t have time. I decided instead to commit myself to one-day volunteer projects.

For my first project, I participated in New York Cares Day 2011. New York Cares is NYC’s largest volunteer organization. Every year they get 7,000 volunteers together (broken up into teams) to help spruce up public schools around the city. Tasks include painting, organizing libraries, restoring playgrounds and planting bulbs.

My husband and I joined the NY Tufts Alumni team (our alma mater) and we were assigned to MMS 442, a middle school in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The school was already in pretty good condition, but they had a few painting projects for us.

We broke up into smaller groups and my group’s job was to repaint two doors. It was a simple task, but it took a while because we had to prep the space so we didn’t get paint everywhere. At first, it didn’t seem like we were making that big of an impact by painting some doors, but one of the school administrators let us know how much they appreciated our work. It’s not in their budget to touch up things like paint on doors, which go through a lot of wear and tear. Our group ended up feeling proud of how shiny and new our doors looked when we were done.
 

Before shot of the doors

 

Me and one of my group members painting. It was pretty relaxing!



One of my teammates hard at work.



Me in front of our freshly painted doors.



The appreciation poster we signed.


Do you volunteer? I’d love to hear what projects you’ve done! For more information about New York Cares, check out their website. Click here to see the rest of my Thirty Before 30 list.

ROW80 Update: Thanks for all of your words of support on my Sunday check-in post. Reminding myself that I’m only revising for my beta readers has helped lessen some of the pressure. This isn’t a race, so I’m going to take my time to make sure my manuscript is good enough to query, even if it means missing my original deadline. So far this week, I’ve revised pages for my critique group. Tonight I’m meeting up with other writers for our weekly write night. I’m still on part one of my revision checklist – character - so I hope to make some more progress. I’d love to move onto plot next week.

See how the other ROWers are doing here.