Roped Into Charity

I was asked if I wanted to help clean up a park over the weekend. One of LA's city councilmen was putting on a series of projects to beautify neighborhoods, and friends of mine were getting into it in large numbers. I would otherwise likely have paid no attention to the enterprise, but was glad to pitch in alongside my comrades. I earnestly believe it would be a good time, and it was.

It was something like service projects I had taken part in while active in the Boy Scouts. The effort required then was more, but the esprit de corps was no less in this current civic endeavor. Of course, I wasn't wild about the early hour I had to get up. Others could get up later, but I was up at 6 in the morning because I wanted time to myself before heading out at 7:30 to meet a friend at 8. We grabbed a bit of breakfast at a coffee shop. The coffee was fine, and I guess the egg muffin sandwich was fairly good too. It was a more ample approximation of the signature breakfast item made by the major fast food chain, and consisted of higher-quality ingredients. I guess I would complain that the turkey bacon got lost amidst the egg and muffin.

From there, we headed to the collection point for volunteers. We signed liability waivers, and were given wristbands and hats. There were shirts, but they were not offered. Friends who arrived shortly after us were offered shirts. Apart from that stuff, we also took advantage of freely available water, breakfast bars and 45 spf sunblock. The last of these would seem to have done the job, helped by lots of loose clothing covering much of my body (surely to the chagrin of lady volunteers).

At first, there was concern between my friend and I that the turnout of our friends would be less than hoped for. Soon enough, though, they all turned up- some rather later than others. Such is the nature of punctuality among those we know. We got into groups of six, were assigned projects and equipment, and set off on our way. Around this time I returned to obtain a shirt before the work began, and changed into it. As is my wont, I exhorted those nearby to "take a good look", but there were no takers.

As I said, the work was not onerous. We kept fairly busy, but there was not anything more substantial to do  than picking up small bits of litter. I would say that one member of our team and I went above and beyond the call of duty by fishing foul-smelling trash from the park's lake. I also aided the effort by commandeering an abandoned shopping cart to carry our tools and trash bags along the paved track which ringed the park. The cart was in turn seized by an agent of the grocery store that owned it just as we were finished with it.

Upon the conclusion of our work, we returned to the parking lot where we began, trash bags in hand. I don't think anyone else brought them back, but we had the idea that maybe we should bring them back as proof of our efforts. Others apparently were content to leave theirs in the park, and there seemed to be no consequences for either course of action except that we got a little more tired carrying the weight further. I suppose it evens out, since no one else used a shopping cart.

Box lunches were provided, and it was a reasonable repast to give as compensation to volunteers. The whole haul might be valued as roughly equivalent to what someone might be paid as a salary to do that work for as long as we did, so if helping my fellow man weren't reward in itself, I would still have to be pleased with what I did get. It was quite pleasant to spend time with friends in this manner, and so the entire thing was quite worth doing.