VOLUNTEERING FOR SECOND SATURDAY

Our Arizona church started a volunteer program a year ago where they dedicate one day of every month to partner with social justice organizations to serve the community.  They call it “Second Saturday” and this monthly outreach is greatly supported with volunteers and finances.  We had our first experience volunteering with them this past Saturday and the event was a very moving experience.

The organization we were serving was Teen Challenge of Arizona which provides a faith-based solution to the drug epidemic and has been combating the drug and alcohol problem in this state since 1965.  It is a non-profit recovery program supported by donations from caring individuals, family members, community organizations, local businesses and churches and has a documented 86% success rate.  Teen Challenge of Arizona operates five residential program centres in the State of Arizona:  three centres for men, one for women and women with small children, and one for adolescent girls.  We were at the Phoenix Induction centre for men which is a converted motel and is located near downtown Phoenix.

We met at the church before 8 a.m. and then about 600 volunteers boarded 9 buses for the drive to the centre which took about 45 minutes.  

The bus ride was interesting and they played some trivia games along the way to help pass the time.  Stuart said it felt like we were on the “Cash Cab” TV show.  Each bus had a leader and the volunteers were assigned to different areas of work.  Our choices were to do inside cleaning, outside cleaning or painting.  Stuart volunteered for painting and I volunteered for outside cleaning and once we arrived, we were equipped with the “tools” and sent out to work.

While the work was being done, other volunteers operated games and entertainment for the residents and their families, as well as cooking up a huge amount of hamburgers and hot dogs.

We worked steadily for a couple of hours and were provided with bottled water and snack bars for energy.  With so many volunteers in a small space, we worked closely with others and had some interesting conversations and experiences.

There was enough hot food leftover for the volunteers to get a burger or hot dog before we headed back on the bus.  It was amazing to see how much was accomplished by so many in such a short time period.  

We will definitely volunteer for more second Saturdays while we are here.

Meanwhile back at Happy Trails, we are going about our business as usual except for a minor glitch with me.  I pulled a calf muscle at pickleball on Monday so I've been hobbling around trying to keep busy and out of trouble.  Stuart has been out playing most days which is good for him but I’m a little frustrated with the lack of exercise.  My calf is slowly getting better, I must learn patience.

We’ve been living in this RV for almost 2 years (adding up the seasonal stays over a 4 year term) and decided that we needed a new mattress.  The original mattresses in RV’s aren’t usually high quality so they start sagging after a while.  Of course, they are not standard size mattresses—our RV king mattress is 72” by 80” rather than full king size at 76” by 80”.  We found a mattress company in Phoenix that makes custom mattresses at a reasonable price so we ordered one and were able to pick it up the next day.  When we were there, the owner gave us a quick tour of their factory and it was interesting to see how the mattresses are made and to know that each one was carefully made by the workers.  It wasn’t a big factory but they do make good products.  We sure had a good sleep on the new mattress last night.

THE OLD

THE NEW

The weather has been warm and sunny which is normal for November.  We have a wind advisory for later today and they expect big dust storms south of us.  Kind of like a snowstorm back at home, but warmer and dirtier.