On Giving Back

'tis the season for people to be charitable and, even in these tough economic times, give back to their communities, whether it be donating money to favorite charities, donating food to the local food banks, or volunteering time with their favorite causes. Something about the season brings charitable good to the forefront of people's minds.

Our company is pretty big on giving back to the community. Every year, they match your donations to non-profit organizations, dollar for dollar, up to $1000 per individual, per year. Every year, each employee gets a free volunteer day, where they can take the day off (without cutting into accrued PTO) to do volunteer work. Earlier this year, we used our volunteer day to participate in Disney's give-a-day, get-a-day program. Not so much volunteering in the true sense of the word, since we did get "paid" with free Disney tickets, but it was fun helping out our church's preschool, running errands and cleaning up. This year, the company gave everyone a second free volunteer day in October, to be used with specified local non-profit organizations.

I wound up volunteering for Life Chronicles, an organization that makes video recordings of people wishing to leave their loved ones a last message. The service is employed not only by the terminally ill, but by the elderly who wish to document their memories, or soldiers who are about to be deployed to a war zone and aren't sure if they'll return, or mothers who give their babies up for adoption, leaving a message for the child to view when he/she grows up. I gathered with a group of co-workers in one of our conference rooms, and we set about transcribing DVDs.

Let me tell you-- transcription is hard work! I'm not exactly the world's slowest typist, but often times I had to repeatedly rewind the DVD to try to understand something that wasn't spoken clearly (names of people/places were the worst!). I had to pause to create sections with timestamps, as individual, topical sections do not become apparent until after you've heard/read everything. I managed to get through 2 DVDs during the day.

The first DVD was of an elderly lady with Parkinson's, recounting memories of her childhood, growing up on the farm, and raising her daughter (who also has Parkinson's). There were some funny moments, and it was largely autobiographical in nature.
The second DVD was of a woman who was battling cancer and did not face a good prognosis. She wanted to leave behind some nuggets of wisdom to her children, grandchildren, siblings and nieces/nephews. Some were basic: stay in school, stay away from drugs, get a good job and be independent (mostly for her baby granddaughter). Some touched more poignantly on her current situation: this family is prone to cancer, get yourself checked out early and often! Some were insights borne of years of experience: don't waste energy holding onto grudges, focus that energy on something more positive instead. It made you realize that when you're facing the end of your life very soon, the really important things become clear. It is sad that it takes a lifetime for many people to realize that, and I hope that she made an impact on her family long after she departed this earth.

I worked steadily for 5 hours, transcribing the two 1-hour-long DVDs. By the end of it, my shoulders were aching, my eyes were watering and crossed, and my ears yearned for fresh air after being oppressed by headphones for so long. But in another way, I felt good. It felt good to contribute in some small way to a larger project, a project that is important to a lot of people, a project that leaves behind a loving and lasting legacy for many loved ones.

I hope to instill this sense of helping and volunteerism in Todd. Perhaps one day, when he's older, we can go as a family to DAWG (Santa Barbara's local dog shelter) and volunteer from time to time there. I live too far away from any coastal areas that serve my biggest animal love, sea turtles, but I happily donate to the organizations that do help the turtles. Todd has already developed a love of animals. Let's see if we can turn this compassion into some good for the community :-)