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!