First ever guest blogger!

Laureen hosted an event of her very own! Please read below:

I volunteered to do an evening of book cleaning for the Children’s Book Bank in February. My friends Emily and Shannon had the event listed as a place to do service for their organization Return Serve.(www.returnserve.blogspot.com)

I really enjoyed the evening, and I liked what I saw which is an organization that puts their money into what they do and not in a fancy office and a lot of staff. I asked Tom Myers about having a similar event for my 6 ½ year old grand daughter Eva, and some of her friends. My daughter Julie Rae and I had both been trying to find service projects that Eva could join in, and I thought this would be a good choice.

I was told that all of their cleaning sessions were booked at the time, but if I could collect 300 - 500 books, we could make our own group. So I committed to doing a fundraiser for an organization I knew nothing about 6 months ago. It seemed like the right thing to do because books were very important to me growing up, and I liked the idea of doing something that would get books to kids who might not otherwise have access to them.

I held the event in my home. I limited it to people I knew and their friends. I wanted the event to be small enough that people could interact. There was time for refreshments and connecting with people the first hour or so.

Then we sat in a talking circle so everyone could see each other. People talked about books that were important to them, which prompted some discussion in the group. It was especially fun to hear the little kids tell us about their favorite books.

The fundraiser was a huge success. And it was a great party

that included all ages. People donated 365 books and over $500. So I urge others to consider doing something similar for this organization or an organization you feel connected to.

To learn more about the Children’s Book Bank, visit www.childrensbookbank.org.

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The pictures are from a book cleaning event Laureen and her group did at the Children's Book Bank after the fundraiser at her house.

Putting our best lettuce forward

Wednesday, April 21, Return Serve helped Birch Community Services prepare for their annual fund-raising breakfast. BCS is a group helping the working poor through access to surplus grocery food and supplies, cooking and budgeting classes and community building and support. Sweat equity keeps the whole organization humming so the volunteer opportunities aren't as numerous as they might be so we were happy to help! We cleared the warehouse floor to make room for the breakfast tables, we wrapped silverware, set up tables and chairs, and placed the table settings. The best part was seeing the great centerpieces made out of lettuce bouquets. Perfect to the theme, beautiful, edible! We hope the breakfast-goers were inspired and touched and that Birch has a fantastic year.

Native relations

Return Serve volunteers tore at the invasive species in Nadaka Park in Gresham on April 17. Nadaka was a Camp Fire Girls camp, then was abandoned. The Wilkes East Neighborhood Association is making great efforts in restoring the park. The park is not very large, but is a remarkably dense forest for being located right in the heart of an suburban residential neighborhood. The smaller size makes the task of removing the invasives not as daunting as it is in a place like Forest Park. At one point, one of our volunteers said: "I think this one's Win-able!!" I think that is the general consensus.

One interesting side note however, one of the neighbors whose backyard shares a fence with Nadaka told one of us that she wished we wouldn't take out all the ivy and blackberry because she had always like the privacy they provided. We're so used to working with people who understand what harm the invasives can do to the forests - I don't know that this neighbor understands that the trees that I am guessing she likes very much are at risk. It's a good reminder that education is one of the most important volunteering we can all do. And, reminding her that Metro had a native plant sale going on just over the fence would have been helpful, too! We'll keep it at it, and maybe once we've "won", the neighbor will love her healthy forest more than she ever thought she could.