New York Cares Day 2004

I met with the rest of the Indiana University Alumni Team at the New York Cares office in Midtown, bright and early on the sunny morning of Saturday, October 23. About 50 members of four different teams happily boarded yellow school buses for our trip to the Benjamin Franklin School for K-5 students. During the ride, I caught up with my old friends Jillian Gentry and Jillian Boeni (JG and Jill for short), sharing what we've been up to with work and school and life. After about 45 minutes, the bus pulled up to the mammoth 6-story school building. We all signed in and were greeted by our Site Manager, a girl named Kim, new to NY Cares this year. She was surprisingly bubbly for having been at the school since about 6 a.m., but I guess that's why she would make a good leader for our busy day. She explained the tasks that needed to be accomplished, and introduced us to the principal and several teachers of the school who were excited to have us there.

Then it was time to divvy up. I wanted to stick with my friends, and they were determined to work on mural painting, which is probably the most fun job and wouldn't require being outside on a chilly fall day. However, when Kim asked for volunteers for the gardening team, and I saw only three volunteers scoot over there, I figured I should help with that, I could always paint later. So I joined Cindy, our IU team leader, and some nice fellows named Josh, Rich, and Matt. All together, we were five people who didn't know a thing about gardening, and would try to "prettify" a school. This would be interesting.

We were handed a heavy bag of tulip bulbs, some hand shovels, a few pairs of scissors, and gardening gloves. It was about 50 degrees out, not too horrible, but definitely less welcoming than the warm building right behind us. We moved out to the front yard of the school and saw the masses of weeds that we had to clear, the seven giant pots to dig up, rework, and replant, and the mess of dirt and sand to clean up in between. It was a bit overwhelming, but I soon realized that although our group was small, it consisted of relaxed yet hard-working folks. Rich, Matt, and Cindy had all attended IU, and graduated a few years earlier than me. Josh had come to the project with another team, The Odd Angels, his friend's rock band. So we moved through our tasks sharing college anecdotes and music reviews, along with creative ways of dealing with weeds, and our guesses as to what these tulips would actually look like when they bloomed come spring.

After major cleanup and stacking overstuffed trash bags, we stood back and saw the fresh new front garden that we had renovated for two hours. We had managed to clean it out well, making room for the flowers that would grow, and rearranged the existing grasses and small plants to look more full and healthy. Bubbly Kim came out and commended us on a job well done. She said there was plenty for us to split up and continue to help out with, but first it was time for lunch.

We headed to the cafeteria and grabbed our sack lunches that New York Cares had provided. I felt like a kid during recess, enjoying a simple tuna sandwich with an apple and a cookie for dessert, while laughing at Matt and Rich who decided to instead play catch with their fruit. I found JG and Jill, and we decided we'd go join the mural painting squad when "recess" was over.

I contributed to painting a wall-to-wall orange bridge that was part of a type of fantasy world scene that was sketched in the back of the cafeteria. I was then upgraded to work on the Benjamin Franklin mural up in the auditorium. The artist had already sketched out a smiling, cartoon-y looking bust of Ben, one that would capture the spirit of the man and make him kid-friendly at the same time. JG and I got to the pick out all the colors, and worked meticulously to concoct a realistic flesh colored paint for old Ben, bringing him to life.

Just as we were starting to paint Mr. Franklin's glasses and attire, we heard that it was almost 3 p.m. and we needed to start cleaning up. It was a race to collect brushes, scoop up paint spills, remove tarps, clean hands with turpentine, all while letting the volunteers like Kim remain at their tasks. Some of us didn't mind staying a little longer to help out. But Kim and the organizing team made sure to get us ready to head out to the buses again, no matter how late they would have to stay back to finish the job.

As we cleaned and made our way to the front of the school, all of the changes of the day were evident. The cafeteria and auditorium murals were near completion, totally brightening up once bare rooms. The two staircases on either side of the entrance way were now decorated with painted images of children playing, learning, and laughing. Down the hallways were clean and spacious, and there were no longer piles of books and supplies that had been emptied out from dusty closets for reorganizing. On our way out the door, we received free mugs that were sent in by one of the sponsoring companies, Campbell I believe. It was a funny sight to see the mass of paint and dust covered volunteers trekking out, blue mugs in hand, and tired but smiling faces across the board.

And as with any school bus, the afternoon ride home was louder and more rambunctious than its 9 a.m. counterpart. JG, Jill, and I got to the buses first, so we got to sit in the back, we felt privileged. We laughed about our interesting day of meeting friendly new folks, displaying hidden talents, and all while doing something to improve the daily lives of deserving school kids. Our bus driver was a little rough with his steering, so we flew off our seats several times, once again experiencing poignant grade school nostalgia. The end of the ride was more quiet, with the sun hovering just over us as we came down the West Side Highway, and after pounding through some midday traffic we got back to New York Cares headquarters around 4:15 p.m.

We exploded off the buses, eager to get back to the rest of our weekends, yet a little sad that the day was over. I waved back to JG and Jill while heading down 7th Avenue to my car. I felt like people on the sidewalks were looking at me in a unique new way. I got ahead of myself, thinking that maybe they were recognizing the efforts of a volunteer team that had finished its duties. But then I realized it was more likely the fact that my five foot frame was wearing a ridiculously oversized New York Cares shirt, which happened to display the graphic of an apple that was about five times the size of my head. Or maybe it was the huge orange paint blob that found a permanent home on my sweatpants. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because I was walking around with a cheery grin pasted on my face, and this is not the most natural sight on the streets of Manhattan.

Regardless, all’s well that ends well. I did my part and felt good about it, and I think the students of Benjamin Franklin P.S. were in for an even greater bout of joy when they would enter their school that Monday morning. That would definitely confirm this New York Cares Day as a success!