Join Hands Day
Join Hands Day is held every year on the 1st Saturday in May. It's a national day of service, kind of like the national day of prayer or something, sponsored by America's Fraternal Benefit Societies (like the Red Cross, FFA, FBLA, VFA, and the Salvation Army) with the goal of uniting youth and adults in grassroots volunteerism. Somehow, I wound up being in charge of the project we hosted here at the mission--assembling food baskets and school supply kits. I think it went pretty well for never having been around for it before and then having the reins land in my lap. Definitely some things we could improve on for next year, but we had around 130 volunteers (120 on the sign-up sheet but I'm pretty sure there were more) who worked 273.5 hours and made 250 food baskets and 200 school supply kits. I was pretty busy running around all morning but did take a couple pics so I could document my event:
Bulk bags of flour, sugar, rice, and beans that Chris used his chef connections to get for us last-minute. These were broken down into those bags you put produce in at the grocery store and then supplemented with canned goods, assorted breads, this soy/rice stuff, boxed meal kits, and milk to round out the food baskets.
I had entirely too much fun making signs like this one (mainly for the benefit of the English-speaking volunteers who I was HOPING would come from other churches in the area)! We only had a handful--all the rest were the regular Spanish-speaking volunteers who come to clean up the grounds every Saturday--but I still had fun making them!
Breaking down the bulk stuff...they were FAST so this didn't take long at all!
The scene inside the warehouse...
...and the finished product!
Bucket brigade to get them all back inside once we were finished--we had to line them up outside to make room for all the volunteers inside!
School supply kits too!
The worship service before lunch included music by Miguel and Ann alternated with Bible readings.
And finally...LUNCH! Hot dogs, hamgurgers, potato salad, and lemonade. Chris was sick of cooking because he spent 11 hours smoking brisket the day before for Diana's quinceanera, but he still manned the BBQ for me...thanks!
Bulk bags of flour, sugar, rice, and beans that Chris used his chef connections to get for us last-minute. These were broken down into those bags you put produce in at the grocery store and then supplemented with canned goods, assorted breads, this soy/rice stuff, boxed meal kits, and milk to round out the food baskets.
I had entirely too much fun making signs like this one (mainly for the benefit of the English-speaking volunteers who I was HOPING would come from other churches in the area)! We only had a handful--all the rest were the regular Spanish-speaking volunteers who come to clean up the grounds every Saturday--but I still had fun making them!
Breaking down the bulk stuff...they were FAST so this didn't take long at all!
The scene inside the warehouse...
...and the finished product!
Bucket brigade to get them all back inside once we were finished--we had to line them up outside to make room for all the volunteers inside!
School supply kits too!
The worship service before lunch included music by Miguel and Ann alternated with Bible readings.
And finally...LUNCH! Hot dogs, hamgurgers, potato salad, and lemonade. Chris was sick of cooking because he spent 11 hours smoking brisket the day before for Diana's quinceanera, but he still manned the BBQ for me...thanks!Until next time, blessings!
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