National Day of Service

I was so happy to be able to participate in the Martin Luther King, Jr. national day of service today. Patrick came with me and helped out as well, which was a great mitzvah that he really enjoyed.

I started the day by going through my dresser and closet for clothes to donate to Goodwill. I came out with an entire garbage bag full of them. Just my own clothes. Eeps. So I brought them over and stopped at the grocery store on the way back to pick up meat, cheese, and sandwich bags for our main project. We went to a church and, with at least 100 wonderful people, helped make sandwiches for the homeless. Patrick, who looked very funny with enormous plastic gloves on his hands, took bread out of the bag and put on a slice of cheese. I put on the meat and mustard and bagged it. Patrick helped assemble a good 40 or 50 sandwiches!

It was great to see how many people had brought their children with them, many of them around Patrick's age. They even had a table set up with crayons, coloring pages of Dr. King, and some activity sheets that the kids could do when they got tired of making sandwiches.

They reached their goal of 2,000 sandwiches in less than 90 minutes! We left at that time, happy that we'd been able to do something worthwhile. I think it's so important for children to understand the importance of giving their time and energy to help others, and I'm really glad that Patrick is old enough to get involved now. I'd like to do some community service activity at least once a month if we can.

One of the local churches is having a blood drive today and it goes until 7:45 tonight. I'm planning to go over once Jason gets home (right now I've got our boys + a friend of Patrick's here, so I can't go now) and am hoping that, unlike the last two times I've tried to donate, I'm not anemic and am set to go.

It's been a good day.