Health and volunteering week by default

Looking at my scheduled activities for the week I see that by default the focus this week will be on health and volunteering. I have a checkup with the dentist and follow up appointments with the orthodontist and opthamologist (re: cataract surgery). I also intend to go to the gym 2 or 3 times and we took and hour walk yesterday while it was lovely warm. In addition I signed up for the Engine 2 Challenge at my local Whole Foods and the first of four classes is Wednesday evening. I also plan to get new walking shoes and walk the dog as much as possible. Fixing healthy meals is on the list as always.

On the volunteering list, I need to pass out book sale flyers today and do my usual morning of donation sorting Thursday for the Friends of the Library. The next day I will lead the book sale set up and then the all day sale on Saturday. Everyone else has done their jobs very well (publicity, volunteer scheduling, table ordering, book sorting and pricing, etc.) so think good thoughts that we raise lots of money. We have the greatest Executive Committee and volunteers.

The other activity scheduled is painting class on Tuesday evening. Last week's was cancelled due to the snow storm traffic snarls so it will be good to get back to class.

I'm also starting to get ready for our next trip to visit family in N CA. I just ordered a hostess gift for my DIL's mother as we are staying with her. Check out the Savannah Bee Company gift packs for some great gift ideas. I wanted something from Georgia to make it unique so I ordered the Everyday Honey Gift Set after consulting with my DIL.

The other Georgia company that makes unique gifts is Doux South which makes the most interesting pickles. I sent a variety gift pack from them to my other son and DIL for Christmas and they really enjoyed them - especially the Mean Green Tomatoes.

I think what is missing is a date night and a friend get together! I will have to plan both.

What is on your schedule for this week?

Rambling thoughts

Yesterday my elderly Mom had a stent put in her femoral artery. According to my SIL, she was attentive and seemed to process what the doctor said and the follow up medication instructions. I talked to Mom about 30 minutes ago and the drugstore had delivered a prescription earlier this morning. She didn't recognize the doctor's name or know why she got the medicine which she thought she shouldn't take. I guess they didn't send written instructions home with her although she has been diagnosed with dementia that has pretty much destroyed her short term memory. I did get her to call my SIL to check and see if she remembered the instructions and we think all has been sorted out and she will take the medication. So frustrating - what would she do if no one was checking in on her and making sure she remembered the important things? Why do doctors not recognize the need for clear written instructions? It is also worrisome in the what awaits me realm.

Which leads me to my new volunteer activity. I am going to be a senior mentor for a first year medical student (other students involved are studying nursing, physical therapy, etc.). We have topics to cover but the whole point is for these doctors in training to get some perspective on how to more effectively treat older patients. Most of my input will be about my Mom's experiences and ours as her support system I imagine. It should be interesting. We are in catch up mode as her original mentor withdrew from the program.The topics to cover are:
- Personal History/Background
- Daily Diary
- Nutrition
- Health Systems-Medicare, Social Security, Aging Economics
- Friendship
- Volunteering
- Function and Relation to Health
- Values
- Bucket List
- Health Care Interactions with Older Adults

I checked off all my library related to do's this morning and came home with some interesting books. One of the advantages of sorting through the donated books is finding ones I've never heard of yet look interesting. I bring them home to read and then take them back for the next sale. Today's bonus books are:



 














I'm still working on these that I brought home a couple of weeks ago.

 

Lastly, today's library check outs.

 

 

I'm sticking to eating at home and am in the process of cooking everything needed to make a Nicoise salad for tonight - green beans, potatoes, eggs - in turn using one pot. I was thinking about what to make to take to the neighborhood potluck on Sunday evening and as usual my mind wandered to desserts. I'm being good though and making a green salad with oranges, dried cranberries, celery, walnuts and goat cheese. There will be plenty of desserts I'm sure LOL.

Organizing a used book sale as a library fundraiser

Each year our Friends of the Library hosts 3 used books & media sales. Two are outside on the front lawn of the library - Memorial Day weekend during the local Arts Festival and Labor Day weekend during the local Book Festival. The third is in February and is inside in the library meeting rooms.

Memorial Day weekend sale 2013

 

All year round the donations pour in and at times it feels like you are sitting at the bottom of a waterfall. Lots of things the library can put in the collection (dvds, large print books, hardback children's books and current best sellers), lots of them we can put in the sale and I will even try to sell the containers they arrive in such as plastic storage boxes. Anything left after sorting goes to the literacy coordinator who sends books to prisons, homeless shelters, literacy classes, health clinics, etc. Three of us do all the sorting, pricing and boxing up.

The Friends group board members take care of publicity, signs, getting cash, signing up volunteer worker, etc. The library system provides tables and book carts. The guard shows up early the date of the sale to let us in before the library opens.

Then comes the day before the sale. The book carts have to be filled. The 15 tables and all boxes and crates of books have to be moved to the front lobby of the library late in the afternoon.

Saturday morning the sale set up starts at 8am. We rather swarm in, quickly get the tables out and set up. Some people start putting up the signs on each table. Others haul all the boxes/crates of books out and onto or under the tables. Other volunteers "flip" all the books so the spine is up and easily read. The filled carts are brought up from the basement and outside. Our customer service volunteers keep the early bird shoppers at bay and answer their questions. The cashier tables are staffed and ready.

Labor Day weekend sale 2012

 

At 9am the sale starts and we are swarmed. We get so many used book dealers that we have rules about how they can use scanners and where they have to take their large quantity of purchases for tallying and paying by check.

Volunteers come and go and keep pulling books out of boxes to restock and moving books back to where they belong. Usually by 1:00 or 1:30pm the volume of buyers shrinks to a manageable number and it gets really hot outside (this is Atlanta). We start consolidating categories on table and start removing empty boxes, tables and carts. At 3pm we close and move everything that is left back inside. Typically we make $4,500 to $5,000 at a sale.

 

My goal always is that we sell every single item! Last time we had about 2 children's books and 3 cookbooks left and only a few more in some non-fiction categories. This time we have lots of VHS movies and music CDs as well so we will see if people still want to buy them.

That is me in the red shirt LOL

 

Besides the money, it is great to see people of all ages from small children to elderly adults so eager to buy books! Sometimes the children simply sit down in the midst of the action and start looking at their new to them books! I've even seen them sitting under tables to read.

This Saturday it will be hot, dusty and very busy and we will rejoice in it. Wish us luck.

A day of this and that

I am determinedly moving through my computer set up checklist and trying to accomplish 1 major and several minor things a day. Thanks to DS advice, today I switched to a different antivirus, etc. software and uninstalled the one that came with the computer and would have cost money. I've been going through the files I downloaded from a thumb drive which I used as backup as many of the files were duplicated. I'll be backing up in the cloud as soon as I get everything off of the old hard drive. Which is the next step. I know I need to remove it from the old computer case without letting a static charge damage it - asked DS for how to do that. Then I have to buy the correct external USB housing suitable for the hard drive which I hope the staff at Best Buy can tell me, get everything hooked up and transfer the files including all of my Outlook contacts, etc. So dealing with the old hard drive is my next big step! Think of all the new neuronal connections I am forming and all the money I am saving by working through this myself LOL.

But as they say, one step at a time.

I went to a meeting about the new volunteer work I am going to do and am a bit more excited. We are going to record brief interviews with parents and children about why they love the library and how it has/does impact them. These will be edited to make podcasts for the website and also quotes that can be used for fundraising appeals and grant writing. We realized how little we understand about the technical side of this project but brainstormed a good list of potential volunteer experts. I'm going to start at my library branch and I do love to hear people's stories so that part should be fun.

The arborist came by to evaluate the mid-sized broken branch caught up in a large oak tree. He said if it was his house he would just wait for it to fall to the ground but if we were really worried it might damage the house then $300 would do the trick. I like the gravity approach as we wouldn't have even known it was there if a neighbor hadn't heard the crack when it broke and come over to see what happened.

Add a quick trip to the grocery store and giving the dog a bath and it is mid-afternoon. Onward.

Whew, that was tiring and successful! Raising money for the library

UPDATE: We made $4968.15 !!! The odd amount is due to the fact that we put out jars for donations.

I just got home from one of the three used book sales my Friends of the Library group holds each year. This one was indoors and we were busy! More advertising paid off. Such a great group of volunteers and nice book loving buyers. I especially love watching the children pick out books and get lost in reading them while they wait for their parents.

We raised at least $4800! That was the culmination of lots of work as all books and media sold were donated, sorted to see what to keep and what to pass on in our used book triage system, priced, boxed, moved to storage, moved our of storage and set up on tables for the sale. The donated used book and media triage at my library is interesting. First the library can take what they can use for the collection. They have had huge budget cuts and we are sending more their way. Then we pull out what we think we can sell. Then the literacy and outreach coordinator pulls what can be used for literacy programs or sent to county health centers for children, to homeless shelters or prisons, etc. The remainder gets sold for pulp - mostly the filthy, water or insect damaged, mildewed or just plain obsolete books.

Lots of work but a good result.

Check out what I did yesterday!

We had a great turnout for our book sale yesterday.  You can check out photos from the Friends of the Decatur Library book sale here

It always makes me so happy to see people of all ages excited about getting books to read!  Oh, and we raised a good amount of money too.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

This and that

It's been a busy and fun day so far.  We walked to a nearby restaurant for breakfast after I put up a load of wash.  When we got home we took the dog to a nearby nature preserve that we hadn't visited and walked her for a while.  I'd say I walked 3+ miles on hilly terrain so far today.   The laundry is drying and I called my Mom for a chat.

A kitchen cupboard needs cleaning because I sprayed bug spray in it after seeing a bug go in (yuck) and I want to make more progress on my desk and file cabinet.

As I look back at the week I feel like I got a lot accomplished and exercised a lot both officially and in the process of doing other things.  I found I did not really enjoy my new volunteer gig as an outdoor kitchen assistant so once my commitment for this seasons programs is over I am not going to do that anymore.  I think I will redouble my efforts at fundraising for the library instead and try to create a group to take walks/have local field trips with instead.

What has your week looked like?  Are you happy with what you got done?  Are you doing anything fun today?

Finding volunteer opportunities that fit you

It can take trial and error and time to find volunteer opportunities that fit who you are and what you want from the experience.

Around four years ago I started volunteering at book sales held by the Friends of the Library at the branch I use.  As I cut back on my work hours I got more involved by being Membership chair and by helping to sort donated books.  I went to a grant writing workshop as the group's representative.  Last week I was elected President.  Why do I spend my time on this?  I love to read, I believe strongly in the mission of libraries, and the other volunteers are fun, nice and interesting.  Its turned out to be a good fit for me.

This year I wanted to add another volunteer commitment.  The question for me was if I seek out volunteer activities that address problems in the world that I dearly wish were solved or do I pursue those that hit the "sweet spot" of my lifelong interests and provide a "fun" quotient?  The answer for me was that I would continue to donate money to address big problems in the world (e.g. hunger and sustainable development) but I wanted to volunteer time for something that fit my ongoing personal interests, had potential for fun and fit my ever changing part time consulting schedule.  Once I decided that was what I wanted, the perfect opportunity popped up - be a chef demo volunteer assistant (officially an Outdoor Kitchen Resource Assistant) at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  I met with the volunteer coordinator today and am happy with my decision.  Training is in April and then I commit to volunteering twice a month May - October and sign up for the days and times that fit my schedule.  I'm really looking forward to this experience which builds on their edible garden section and highlights cooking with foods that are in season.

How have you selected volunteer opportunities?  What is holding you back if you are wanting to volunteer but haven't yet taken that step?