(#48) Re-assembling Care Packages for Seniors with the Mayor’s Volunteer Corps (December 17, 2014) – Part 4 (The Assembly Line)

March 30, 2015

Picking up from last time –

The line got oh so much slower as people had to stop for longer periods of time for us to stuff goodies in their bags. We were going as fast as we possibly could. But it couldn’t be as fast as the ol’ drop and go.

Some people were asking us (at the front of the assembly line), “Why are the blankets in first?!” I didn’t totally enjoy having annoyed people around me, because there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t even give an explanation as to how or why that came to be the deal.

Soon enough, we all kind of shrugged our collective shoulders. No, the whole blankets-first thing didn’t seem like the greatest idea, but at that point there was nothing any of us could do about it. People who were there were there to give and have a great day. So, everyone got back in the spirit, and we all just laughed about our bleeding fingers.

Eventually all of those bags were finished. We got to go back to stuffing empty bags. There was practically cheering about it, and the already happy mood got even happier.

Everyone in the line seemed cool, but there was one guy specifically (Chris), who had this super outgoing, sort of flamboyant personality who was totally my new best friend of the day. Every time he’d come through, I’d ask a little more about him, ‘cause he seemed so fun. And he’d ask a little about me. Once as he came around, he said, “It’s kind of like we’re speed dating, Aurora!” That got a nice laugh.

I also loved that during the event, I was basically getting a nice little workout! Someone said she felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory episode (which was actually just on at the gym the other night – so her reference was extremely fresh in my mind). And I agreed! The line went so quickly. And as people went by, we kept having to open new boxes of stuff. Then people would be running us boxes, as our resources depleted. It was actually a semi-taxing day. Yee haw!

Once all the bags were completed, it was time to put the tissue paper in the top to make them festive.

Some bags got white tissue. Some got red. They were separated according to gender.

This sort of confused me, as in my line we didn’t have any gender specific products. I later found out that they were separated based on the style of the blanket. Oh, come on. The men got more “manly” styles. I think theirs had some animal prints and such.

I want people to be happy with their bags (enjoying their styles) and all, but do we need to be quite this gender stereotyped about these care packages? Just curious…

Oh well. A nice thing is being done. No need for me to nitpick so much…. Though I totally finish up with a bit more about the finishing of assembling the bags next time (not for a while because coming up, we’ll be talking about Let’s Make a Deal…).

I'd love to hear from you! So whaddya say?