We volunteered to clean 6 parks. I have to admit, it was a less than satisfying experience. I don't feel like the organization really needed our help.
We were scheduled for 8:30am to 1:00pm. The place was packed when we showed up because they had several different projects going on.... Park Beautification (us), Mural Painting, Flower/Tree Planting, Crafting, Haitian Relief and American Redcross. Super!
We were the first group out for our project and we were sent to a park (slab of concrete, two hoops and some grass) that was maybe the size of a gas station. It took us about 20 minutes because the park was already fairly clean. The team leader then told us to fill out an evaluation form and take it back to the school to checkout. She had called ahead to the other groups and was told that the other parks weren't dirty enough to bother with.
We got back to the school and were in line to checkout when one of the organizers got uppity and declared, after already checking out quite a few people, that if we left we would not get anything because we had not done enough and were not there long enough. Okay. I agreed with that. I was disappointed that we hadn't done more.
She threw us off on the Red Cross, who told her that they didn't have any work for us, and stomped off with a major attitude. The organizer for the Red Cross was extremely apologetic and nice. She got us some gloves and trash bags and told us we could just pick up trash around the campus. Great! The only problem was that the campus was fairly clean also.
To sum it up, they had way too many volunteers come and nowhere near enough work. We spent an additional 2 hours "cleaning" something that didn't really need cleaning when we could have been making a difference somewhere else. And when I say we, I mean my kids and me along with a few others. Quite a few volunteers hung out by or in their cars just waiting for the time to pass. I even overheard a few that went for a late breakfast then came back. I can't say that I blame them, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
It's not what I expected and I wouldn't work with this particular group again. I will, however, continue to volunteer because I believe it is important to give back and this has made me realize that we just don't do enough.