There was a big fire in downtown Los Angeles. In that fire, thousands of care packages for seniors in need were destroyed. The community came together and replaced all the items. Then the Mayor planned a day at the convention center where people would get together to put packages together.
I like our Mayor. He seems really committed to improving the lives of the citizens in his community. He believes in public transportation. (Incredible out here, right?) This was my first time volunteering with the Mayor’s Volunteer Corps, and I was excited to see an activity run by his office – assuming it would be run pretty spectacularly.
I got a confirmation email a day or two before with very specific instructions on how to get there, what you’d be doing, etc. Cool. Information is grand.
Once I got there, there was a very pleasant woman in the hall of the convention center asking people if they were there for the volunteer corps. Then she’d send us in the right direction. Points to Mayor Garcetti’s team for going above and beyond. We didn’t just get an email. We didn’t even get an impersonal sign in the lobby (which I would’ve already thought was pretty great just for the extra clarity). We got a living, breathing sweetheart. All right!
Once we got to the area itself where the bag building was occurring, there was a check-in table, also staffed by personable people. We even got a sweet t-shirt just for a few hours of work. Not only were there free t-shirts. There was free food, and free coffee-based drinks. (Volunteering in luxury. Oooh la-la.)
I went to the adjacent room to start the actual volunteering part. I saw lines of tables with assembly lines for the bags, with plenty of people making their way down the tables.
I looked around for a leader of some kind to tell us second-shifters where to go or what to do. When I didn’t find one, I looked around for where I might fit in. I saw a space at a table where they could use more help. So, I jumped in and started handing out toothpaste.
Everyone around me seemed so on top of everything. People were efficient and kind. The girl next to me thanked me for jumping in so she didn’t have to man so many items by herself. Life was good.
I thought, “Wow. This seems pretty much as efficient as Operation Gratitude’s assembly days. Great job, Mayor Garcetti’s team!”
But then…
This is where I’ll pick up in a while (after we talk about some other stuff).