Pickin' Persimmons!

As the winter chill was settling in, the persimmon harvest was ready! November 21, Return Serve helped the Portland Fruit Tree Project (PFTP) on one of their many harvest parties. PFTP works with volunteers and owners of fruit trees to make sure our urban fruit harvest doesn't go to waste. Trees get registered, and volunteers come, pick, sort and go! I absolutely saw the resemblance between our group and a giant locust swarm, but the trees were still healthy when we left, and the owners seemed more than happy to have us. Half of what is picked at the harvests goes to the Oregon Food Bank and half goes home with the volunteers. Many of the people we were working with are avid food preservationists and they were very, very excited about their plans to turn our persimmons into muffins, cookies, bread and chutney. This was among the last harvest parties of the year, but we'll catch up with PFTP earlier in the growing season from now on!

Beating all previous records...

Our second time to Multnomah Public Library to help them add Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to each and every book. Today we were in the children's section! It was helping the library and hanging out with kids' books all in one. (= Heaven) We were in pairs, working with our own "crash carts" equipped with all the supplies and technology required. The task involved putting an RFID sticker in the front cover of a book, scanning the existing bar code to match that data to the new tag. Hand the completed book to your partner, he or she swipes the spine tag with a yellow Sharpee marker, and you're on to the next one. In 2.5 hours, we converted 1,602 books. Not too shabby for a rainy Sunday morning.

It's going to take EVERYONE

Sunday, November 1st, six intrepid Return Servers set out into the world to pick up trash. Litter of all kinds, left on several big name streets in a town we like to call Gresham. We parked and set off in pairs on Burnside Road, 181st and Stark Street. We took gloves and trash bags and enough clothing to keep us warm in the chilly post-Halloween weather. When one bag would get full, we left it and kept walking out with a new bag. When time was up (two hours later) the teams either circled back or called in to HQ to get a ride. We picked up all the bags, and this photo shows the results of our efforts.

Now, here is where the blog post takes a reflective, more sober turn. Litter is one of the most avoidable problems we will ever deal with during our projects. It might not be as important as poverty, but it isn't as complicated and it very well may contribute to those bigger problems anyway. It's such a symbol of problems afoot, and it doesn't seem to me like six people in two hours should find this much trash in front of occupied businesses and homes. The group went to lunch after we gathered up the bags and gave our hands a good washing. We talked a little bit about the problem, but being on your own out there, just you and the trash with cars whizzing by, it's kind of troubling. There wasn't a well-run, cheerful, full-time organization with us this time and I could feel the difference. We'll keep on it, but we'd love your help, too.

Time for our best home cooking

Return Serve headed back to the Ronald McDonald House on October 24th. We were there to fix a tasty (we hoped!) home-cooked meal for the families with children at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital. Ronald McDonald House Charities does a wonderful job making families feel more comfortable during their sometimes extended stays during their child's treatment. Our job was to fix something warm and fresh that would beat the vending machine/fast food alternatives.

This was our second time there and we made two kinds of lasagna, garden salad, fruit salad, garlic bread, brownies and carrot cake. Plus, Wendy did very special flower arrangements for all the tables. We did hear from one boy who was very excited to have lasagna (he told us it was his favorite) and he was having a hard time choosing between the desserts. We hope a bit of his big smile carried over while he and his family continued on with their struggles. We'll be happy to come back and try a few new dishes soon!

We are so lucky, to have so many books...

Return Servers hit the Multnomah County Library system on Sunday, October 11. The library is switching their entire collection from bar code scanning to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This means faster scanning at check-out, the ability to scan whole shelves full of books in a single swipe and I'm sure many other features that I don't even know about. And we're here to help! We worked in teams of two, taking books off the shelf, putting a RFID sticker in the front cover, scanning the old bar code to load the information onto the new tag and putting them back on the shelf. In the better part of three hours, the four of us did 855 books. There are oh, I don't know, 175 times that figure of items in circulation in the Central library alone, but we're making steady progress. At least the group before us did the sheet music section! We were in foreign language, which helped us stay focused and kept us from getting distracted by interesting books... We'll be back soon to help - we're grateful for our libraries!

Pear Time!

When the pear harvest calls, Return Serve answers. September 29, we did our third repack with the Oregon Food Bank.
This time, it's wasn't assorted, donated non-perishables of all shapes and sizes, it was just pears. Lots and lots of pears. We arrived to find many, many large boxes of pears, about thigh high. We dove in and put pears into 10 pound bags to be distributed to individual families. As always it was a fast-paced fun time.

We love the thought of the fresh fruit getting out to people all over the region - the group of volunteers there that night bagged 14,291 pounds of pears!

Turns out there's a lot of paving out there...

We can't seem to get enough. The Depave folks had their schedule all lined up, project after project, so we just went right along with them. We followed them on September 12 to the new JOIN facility on 82nd Avenue. JOIN aims to support the efforts of people transitioning out of homelessness into permanent housing. JOIN itself is moving into new digs, and removing approximately 3,000 square feet of asphalt around their building was one of the first steps in their journey. In between crushing rocks and hurling them into the dumpsters we saw pictures of the new garden that is planned for the space we were clearing. It is a very impressive vision and we wish all the JOIN community lots of luck in their new endeavor!

Every Ecovillage needs a little Depave

We were back in full force for our second Depave event Saturday, September 12. The organizers were surprised to see anyone who had worked on the Vestal Elementary School project because the asphalt there had been so thick and hard to break. The asphalt at Kailash Ecovillage however, practically flipped and broke itself! Kailash is a co-housing apartment complex made for a lower price point - they rent the units instead of the more common co-housing model of buying. The EcoVillage folks hosted us with yummy food from the garden. Return Serve helped take care of 4,500 square feet of pavement. The newly freed soil will: a) filter and retain stormwater onsite, b) host a bigger garden and c) buffer the residents from the noise and activity of the street. Return Serve was so happy to help and we can't wait to revisit and see the new garden some day soon!

A story for us all...

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy."

- Rabindranath Tagore

The Children's Books are in: 1,327 of them!

The ingredients for a great evening:

1) The Children's Book Bank (a wonderful organization with a wonderful mission and strategy)
2) Fire on the Mountain (great food, nice people, great music)
3) Lots of people giving lots of books! (a total of 1,327 books!)

Hosting a book drive for the Children's Book Bank we set up collection boxes at the Gresham City Hall, Alter Ego Salon and Lloyd Athletic Club. It seems that it was just as easy as asking! The books poured in! Our volunteer group wanted to finish the book drive with a celebration so we asked the nice folks at Fire on the Mountain to host us on August 27. They agreed and even helped us spread the word about our drive. Two families brought in many, many books after reading about our drive on Fire on the Mountain's Facebook page! See FOTM's Tweet here:

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed books. Approximately 90 children will receive their very own tote collection of 15 books - kids who may not have any other books of their own. Great work, All!

Gresham Outlook Features Return Serve

The Gresham Outlook has a story on Return Serve! Read the awkward scanned copy or read it online.

Thanks!

Tidying for the Creative Genius

Saturday, August 15 we worked at New Avenues for Youth (NAFY). NAFY has a beautiful facility in Downtown Portland where homeless and at-risk young people can come, be safe, have some food, play some games and do some laundry. They can also make art! NAFY has a lot of supplies (Some of which were gathered by Return Serve members and friends in May and April of this year!) but staff has no time to put them where they go. The art room has nice cabinets and counter space and just needed a bit of T.L.C. The story was similar in the clothing closet. Shannon, Nadine and Emily took the art room and Bryan and Michael (Visiting Portland from California!) tidied the closet. In a few hours, both rooms were looking good and we were getting excited about the next art projects that might take place in the space. Knitting? Screen printing? Water color? Photography? The supplies are all there! The kids using the drop-in center even gave us a very sweet round of applause as we left.

Let the Worms Breathe!

Saturday, August 8 was a big day for us. We worked with Depave! The task: rip up 15,000 square feet of asphalt with the brute strength of nearly 100 volunteers and a few tools. Sounds crazy I know, but it was a ton of fun. The feelings of power you have while overturning concrete that has lay behind an elementary school for 80 years are pretty significant. Portland Mayor Sam Adams joined in the fun and Shannon and I were mentioned in the Oregonian story that came out the next day!

It turns out that the Depave folks were bringing in the backhoes later to finish what we started, but we estimated that with just our hands and determination, the volunteers took care of 5,000 square feet of the total. Think of all those people who have a new appreciation for "Freeing the Soil". The kids and teachers and parents at Vestal Elementary School will work to put in a new learning lab and the remainder of the space will become a Portland Community Garden. Storm-water will drain keeping the pollution out of the streams and rivers and the neighborhood will gain a significant new community space.

We had some friends staying with us from California so that's our second time with some long distance help with one of our projects. Cheers to Katie and Kenny for rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty with some concrete bashing Portlanders!

It's Raining Softballs

Saturday, July 13 we headed to Gresham High School for the Hershey Track and Field Games. Hershey has funded these games all over the country for over 30 years as a way to promote fitness in kids ages 9-14. Gresham Parks and Recreation organized the event for Gresham kids and Return Serve volunteers were there to help with registration, record event results, chase after runaway softballs and to cheer on the participants. The day was cloudy and cold and there were not many kids who came to play, but the fun news is that most of those who did were able to place for the regional games in Salem! It's good for everyone to get out and run around a bit, and it's great for the City of Gresham to keep looking for ways to have more programming for not a lot more money. The Games definitely accomplished both.

The native species breathe sighs of relief

On July 6th, this fine looking group met at the Keller Woodlands to work with the Three Rivers Land Conservancy and the West Willamette Restoration Partnership to tear out unwanted ivy - one of the main invasive species threatening our urban forests. We worked along the Marquam Nature Trail ripping out heaps and heaps of ivy vines. Some of the vines really put up a fight and we were working on the side of a hill meaning our legs and backs had quite a workout. There was also pretty constant risk of falling back down the hill when the vines finally gave way. Still I think we made great progress and covered a lot of ground.

The problem of invasive species really can be daunting but the work party organizers did a good job of giving us some facts to keep our spirits up. Given a chance, the native species really are quite resilient so work like we did on Saturday can really do a lot to give the good plants a window to grown and reclaim their territory. The Three Rivers staff admitted that we'll probably never rid our forests of ivy completely but that they have made several passes over large sections of land in the Portland Metro Area and have seen marked improvement. Check out their latest progress on the West Willamette Restoration Project here.

** On a personal note, I (Emily) have to mention a most wonderful thing that happened at this work party. Amanda, the amazing woman with Three Rivers organizing our group turned out to be my summertime best friend from day camp when we were seven years old in Kansas City, Missouri! We haven't spoken in 21 years and had completely lost touch and this was such a great surprise. More proof of the benefits of volunteering! **

Some Thanks from New Avenues

Following the art supply drive completed in May by Return Serve members and friends, our efforts were sweetly recognized by the folks at New Avenues for Youth. Our contribution of all things crafty seems to have been truly appreciated. Our supply drive was featured in the NAFY newsletter and we had a thank you note from Angela Pratt, Development Coordinator at NAFY.

You may have also seen our blog's first public comment from NAFY Board Member Scott Johnson.
Scott writes: 'Your group is doing some really great community service. Thank you for the wonderful contribution of art supplies to New Avenues! - Scott Johnson, NAFY Board Member'

Thank you to all who contributed to our art supply drive, and look for more opportunities to volunteer with NAFY in the future.

What's a Little Lead Dust When it's for the Good of the Earth?

The group headed to the Rebuilding Center on N. Mississippi on June 3rd. This was one of our harder volunteering efforts. Two of us who showed up were sick and went home before the work really got started, and the three who stayed had to deal with an amazing amount of dust and dirt and grime. Face masks next time! The mission of the Rebuilding Center is amazing, no question, and it takes this kind of dirty volunteering to get the job done. Salvaged materials are brought here and sorted and resold to
1. make sure those reusable materials are diverted from landfills and to
2. allow shoppers to avoid buying newly manufactured products!
It really is a win-win and along the way there is a lot of community happening in the process. Our team transferred materials off shelves in order to set up a new set of bigger shelves in the "Miscellaneous" department. Great job to all, and to the rest of us, please go shop at the Rebuilding Center!

We hope it's true that everyone does likes tacos!

May ended with an evening at the Ronald McDonald House Charities. One key service volunteers provide to the organization is cooking meals for the families and patients using the House. Most of the families at RMHC are visiting from out of town for difficult medical procedures or treatments for sometimes extended periods. RMHC has filled the niche of providing alternatives to vending machines and cafeterias with homemade meals prepared by friends.

Our group arrived around 4:30 and set out our meal. For our first time we chose a Mexican theme with tacos, burritos, Mexican rice, brownies and strawberry shortcake. Marlene and Stephanie brought food in ahead of time because they weren't able to be there Saturday, and Marlee (Return Serve's youngest volunteer so far!) really stepped up helping with the dinner, playing in the playroom with Mike, helping with the dishes, and pushing the button to make the electric train up by the ceiling go around and around! (Do you think this place was designed for kids, or something?)

We were told that the families typically just graze throughout the evening due to their unpredictable schedules, so we left the food out and only saw a few guests while we were there. We hope that they know how much we feel for them and their situations and that they had a little comfort in our tacos!

How many bags in two hours?

Thursday, May 21st the group headed to SnowCap Community Charities. We were led by one of our own, Carlene, who recently retired from the City of Gresham. She keeps herself busy with a variety of causes, but SnowCap is dear to her heart and we were happy to have Carlene give us a tour and show us the ropes. Half of our group spent the evening bagging up assorted food bags to be distributed to low income seniors who are homebound and unable to come to SnowCap to pick up their food. The pace of this activity was very quick with lots of lifting and reaching and grabbing - a workout for sure! They were able to pack an impressive amount of food in just two short hours. The rest of us were bagging up chicken pasta and ham and bean soup bags that come ready to make and include cooking instructions. We had this down in smooth assembly line fashion. And Mitchell was quickly a pro at the fancy vacuum sealer! One tip, before pouring bags and bags of beans in the pail for mixing, it pays to mix as you go so you don't have to dangle one person over the pail by his or her feet for mixing after the fact!

Thank you again to Carlene for sharing this caring space with us, and we look forward to more SnowCap work soon!

** One added bonus of Thursday's work - Chris joined us all the way from Boston earning himself the honorable title of "Furthest Traveled Return Serve Member". We think and hope we'll be seeing more of him while he's here in Portland for the summer. Thanks, Chris!

Part of the Family Fighting Against CF

Saturday, May 16 was Walk Day in Portland! "Team Howie" walked in the Great Strides walk to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis in honor of William Fisher. William is Shannon's honorary nephew who lives in Boise, ID and he was born with the disease last January. He has been teaching us all a lot, and he's also the reason five of us found ourselves in Oaks Amusement Park on that beautiful Saturday getting to know some of the other families who have been touched by CF. Team Howie surpassed its fund-raising goal and came up with $1,615 through donations of co-workers and friends and family from across the country! The Oregon Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation hosted six walks in May and raised a collective total of over $280,000!
Here is a Fact Sheet on CF for anyone interested in learning more about the disease. William's mom Andrea tells us she's hearing exciting news about new studies and treatments so we are hopeful. Be on the look-out for more news from Shannon on the upcoming stair climb up Big Pink in September that will raise more money for a cure. Thank you so much to everyone who supported our walk and good luck, Little William!!

Super fun chaos!

May 12: Our second re-pack at the Oregon Food Bank was a huge success! We had a different volunteer coordinating this time and she was wonderful. We heard better descriptions of what we would be doing, the event was better organized than the last time we were there, and we weren't just focused on a wasteful peanut recall. This time we were sorting through donated food in yellow bags (surprise, surprise) from the Letter Carrier drive three days before, as well as food that was just loose in enormous cardboard boxes. We loaded the food into smaller cardboard boxes which were taped and loaded onto pallets. The pallet loader volunteers would ring a cow bell like crazy every time we filled a pallet so needless to say the mood was happy and frantic. Lots of cheering, lots of laughing, lots of grabbing and tossing of canned goods! We seem to have made good progress and were able to see our stats for the night for added encouragement and feel-good-ness. I heard things like "I had a blast!" and "I would do that again in a second!" Happy times. "Because no one should be hungry!"

Yellow bags, everywhere!

Saturday, May 9th, as I'm sure you are aware, was the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive day. (It happens on the second Saturday in May each year.) We had a Return Serve crew of eight at the Piedmont Post Office to help sort the bags of food brought in by the mail carriers as they returned from their shifts. This was Return Serve's first event where we had more bodies than we had work to do. Our group stayed in good spirits though, and when there was a load, we were happy to help bring the bags of food from the trucks to the boxes. We heard rumors that donations were down this year from previous years, but later we heard that the numbers were still quite good. Another rumor was that the NALC Food Drive started in Eugene, OR and then went nationwide! We'll have to check our facts for these bits of trivia, but for now they make a good story. Thanks to everyone who volunteered at this event - more Oregon Food Bank fun ahead!

The art supplies have landed!

After many weeks, we finally gathered up the art supplies that we had collected at various locations and dropped them off to the kids at New Avenues for Youth. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and it was great to see the organization's hip, fun space in downtown Portland. One enthusiastic young person was there for the drop off and expressed a lot of excitement at the prospect of using our supplies for an upcoming rally in Salem in support of funding for youth programs. We learned that sometimes NAFY will host art workshops with a structured activity (we heard the knitting classes are very popular) and the kids can either do the structured activity or they can do whatever occurs to them with the supplies that are there. With what we brought, there's definitely something for everyone! (see photo!) We were very happy to give so much to them with just a little bit of effort. Thanks to everyone who contributed supplies, we hope that at least this was an excuse to sort through and tidy your craft closets!

So many books, so many children!

Wednesday, April 29, four of us met a little place called the Children's Book Bank. What a wonderful organization! The story behind this one is the treasure and Dani Swope is the woman behind the magic. She started the CBB about a year and a half ago on the notion that children's achievement in school starts from the training they receive in their pre-school years. During her time as a Teach for America volunteer in 1991, Dani witnessed a gap in achievement levels between the students she was teaching. Some had had little to no exposure to reading or books before arriving at school and they consistently struggled. Even if these children could improve at the same rate as the other children, they remained behind.

Dani started the CBB to address this specific problem. Through grants and book donations she collects books for children under the age of six. She and her volunteers (now including us!) spruce up the books - wiping down the covers and removing any marks and patching any tears - and then they sort the books into assorted stacks of around twelve books each. Each stack goes into a tote and the totes are distributed to area Head Start programs. By using the existing Head Start system, Dani knows the children receiving her books are in low-income households, she knows the books arrive at the homes with the Head Start staff who can model reading aloud for the parents of the children, and she can systematically cover the city one neighborhood at a time! She has already achieved an incredible amount in a very short time and we were very impressed with this one-woman operation!

Here are two sentences that may give you pause:

In homes in middle income neighborhoods, the ratio of books to children is 13 books for every child.

In low income neighborhoods the ratio is 1 book for every 300 children.

The moral of the story is that we should be buying books both for the children we know and those we don't. We should be reading to them every day, and we should be cleaning and sorting books at the Children's Book Bank!

Oregon Humane Society

Saturday, April 25th, ten of us visited the Oregon Humane Society. With group volunteering, they like us to "socialize" the animals. It's something they can train us to do quickly, lets us have face time with the dogs and cats right away, and gives the animals some attention getting them more ready for adoption!

Our group had an orientation and tour then went to the dog runs. We got into pairs and our staff person Sasha would bring us a dog, introduce us and then leave us to do tricks, fetch, brush and pet our dog. After about half an hour some of us headed to the cat colony rooms and some of us (those of us with cat allergies or who have cats with FIV at home and are worried about passing a cold) stayed with the dogs. We arranged it with Sasha that this exact group can come back and skip the orientation so we can have more time with the animals. It would be great to start a new group though if others are interested, and then we could have two Return Serve teams rotating through OHS!

We didn't have any adoptions in our group Saturday, but we all have a token to pass to a friend or family member worth $55 toward the adoption of a "lifelong, loving companion from the Oregon Humane Society"! If you or someone you know is thinking about adopting, please let us know and
we'll get you this great deal!

Also, the OHS website is pretty great. There's a pet cam in the cat room where Wendy was on Saturday (she was almost famous) and then here is the page for the animals we met: dogs and cats. We hope these guys are all adopted by the time you read this, but if you're browsing, here are a few of the dog friends we met: Angel, Ginger, Roxy and Zuko (both pictured here on our blog). We were told average adoption time is 10 days so really the animals rotate through pretty quickly. OHS will keep an animal as long as it takes to be adopted as long as it remains healthy at the shelter. In 2006, OHS found homes for 8,671 pets, 99% of dogs and 86% of cats. For more on their policies, here is a link to the OHS FAQ page.

Our first animal project definitely a success - more to come!

Obama picks Oregon Nike executive to lead volunteer programs

Cool props are given in this article about how volunteering in Portland (and elsewhere) has seen a surge since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We're part of the surge!!! (The good kind of surge.)
Good luck to Ms. Eitel and thanks so much to the members of our group for the work so far.

Coming up on Saturday: we cross the 100 hours of service mark!

Time Flies When You're Scraping Trails!

Today we did some trail maintenance at Powell Butte. Hard work, that trail maintenance! There was no rain this morning and it was a pleasant, cool temperature, the difficulty came when we had to stop hiking (fun) and start working (hard). Still we did well I think, scraping organic material off the trails to keep them from getting mucky with future rains. The idea is that as trails become mucky, trail users walk around the wet spots, making the trails larger and damaging the areas around the trail. If we do our work, the trail stays well drained and nicely packed and hikers have no reason to venture off the path. The most fun task was gathering logs and sticks and brush and laying them in the curve of switch-backs to shrink the size of the curves - no shortcuts! It was nice to explore Powell Butte and to think a bit about the science and art of trail making.

Oregon Food Bank - Just say "no" to peanuts!

Our first adventure with the Oregon Food Bank was Thursday, March 26.

First impressions:

• Really impressive facility! They have a very nice lobby with classrooms where they teach cooking and food budgeting and then more rooms we didn't even see, in addition to their warehouse and sorting rooms.
• Utter chaos! We were told before we came that these re-packing nights can accommodate as many as 80 people. I don't think there were that many there with us on Thursday, but there were many, many and they were everywhere!
• Food recalls are no good. Normally on these nights we would be taking food from very large totes and repackaging it into manageable sized parcels for regional food banks and food pantries. Thursday we were instead sorting through food gathered from food drives and scanning it for peanut products marked "Danger" due to the recall this year. We were also on the look-out for broken food containers, food out of its packaging or not marked for commercial sale, and soap products that could leak and contaminate the other food.
• Fun people! There were high school kids who were racing each other to finish pallets, fun strangers who would whisk boxes out of your way before you even knew you needed them to be gone, box cutters, tape rippers and pallet movers keeping the whole thing going. The chaos really came into play here, but you just had to go with it.
  
• Aerobic workout! No matter what your job, the pace of these evenings seems to be very, very fast. I think of it as a charitable alternative for going to the gym.

We have more events planned coming up with the Oregon Food Bank this spring. Stay tuned!

Peace Garden: Ready for gardeners!

A few of us who had worked on the Peace Garden went back on Saturday, March 21 to finish up a few tasks. Lots more rain, but the work was good. The expert Raised Bed Construction Team put together their second bed in record time. It's amazing what a drill with a little more umph can do! And the rest of us caulked the new shed, spread more wood chips and filled both beds with dirt - ready for planting. The Peace Garden will have had its grand opening yesterday - we wish all the gardeners who will have plots there the best of luck - grow a few carrots for us!

There's something about working in the rain....

Saturday we had a great time working again in the garden located at the Human Solutions Daybreak Shelter. There was rain and there was cold, but we were in really good spirits. Several other volunteers from two different groups worked along with us which made the work go much faster. We built one of two raised beds that will be wheelchair accessible, spread woodchips on the paths and spread composted elephant manure on the beds. Yes! Real elephant droppings from the honest-to-goodness elephants at the Portland Zoo!

We found out this garden will be called the "Peace Garden", which we thought was a lovely choice for a name. All the City of Portland community gardens have lengthy waiting lists so the Peace Garden will be the only one with open plots - for a limited time! The garden will have its grand opening Saturday, March 28, so feel free to attend: 10am-noon, SE 127th and Market.

As you can see, the picnic table we built last month is still standing and looking very much like a fully functioning picnic table. And still no injuries reported!

Teaming up with Human Solutions and the City of Portland Community Garden Program has been such a good experience - we hope it continues! Happy growing to all those vegetables yet to come!