sunday parkways

On most applications, whether it's for school or work or a grant, ask for volunteer experience. Although I do a lot of community work, almost none of it is for a government-recognized charitable organization. I found that when I applied for grad school, I had to embellish on the weekly food and clothing donations I pick up to make it sound more legitimate (even though it's a fair amount of work that benefits others greatly and isn't always rewarding). If I think way back to when I volunteered (not worked for) a charitable organization, I think that I would probably have to go back to grade school when I volunteered to hand out drinks at a charity run for our church.

Today, I helped out at Sunday Parkways, a city-run but totally free-to-the-people event where an eight mile loop is closed off to motorized traffic in the city and opened to bike, skater, cyclists and communities. My job was to sit in Mt Tabor Park for three hours in the morning and tell people to veer to the left and to watch out for the grate in the road even though we put carpet over it.

It was easy and felt good. I wouldn't say that I felt like I really gave back to the community but I do feel like I helped to promote car-free behavior. Usually when I do that, it's by participating in such activities and not really working at them. They're going to continue the Sunday Parkways and add two more rides per year, bringing it to five rides a year. I think I'll volunteer for each of them if time permits.