#2: "A world where every child feels like a valuable part of their community through a national belief in the power of giving"

#2: Do volunteer work...check!!

When I created this list of Thirty while Thirty, I knew some of the items would challenge me beyond my comfort zone, some would be simple and just need to be done because...well...let's face it, I'm thirty and it's just kinda ridiculous that I don't have a valid passport.  I did not, however, think that any of these "tasks" would be as emotionally moving as #2: Do volunteer work, would be.

Observation:  As of the past few years, the vast majority of my volunteer work has been dedicated to one single organization and it has been a long time since I have volunteered my time to help those within my community that are financially less fortunate.

Question: Can I get the same feeling of "giving to others" from new organizations?

Hypothesis:  Getting involved in activities that help bring joy to others, will, in turn, bring joy to me.
Materials:
~An organization
~My time
~A good attitude
Method: Following the suggestion of my good friend Jess, I decided to volunteer at Family Giving Tree http://www.familygivingtree.org/index.html . We (Jess, Nick, Phil, Natalie and myself) arrived at about 2pm, were given a tour and assigned our area.  Our area was broken down into 5 or 6 sections each containing ~120 "slots", each "slot" represented one child and one wish. We each took a section and got to work ensuring that each child in our section had their wish fulfilled and for those that did not, we went to the surplus section to "shop" for a gift that satisfied their request. 

After close to 3 hours, a lot of laughs and some good teamwork, we finished our area and headed over to what was called the 700 section...the area of all the extra toys that needed to be sorted.  Jess took charge and told us what to find and we spent about an hour attempting to bring some order to the piles of toys.
At one point I leaned over to her and said, "I kinda don't want to leave until it is all organized..."
She looked at me, and with a little chuckle, replied, "Then you will never go home..."
Results: Together, along with some help from a few other volunteers, we were able to organize, sort and fulfill the wishes of ~700 underprivileged children.
Discussion: In order to understand the full impact this task had on me you need to know a few things:

1. The Vision-"The Family Giving Tree Elves envision a world where every child feels like a valuable part of their community through a national belief in the power of giving"*
2. The Mission-"The Family Giving Tree fulfills the exact holiday wish and provides backpacks filled with school supplies to those children in the most need in our communities while inspiring the values of kindness, philanthropy and volunteerism"*
3. The History-"The Family Giving Tree began in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project. Jennifer Cullenbine and Todd Yoshida were asked to "create a program that adds value to someone else's life." They created the Family Giving Tree with the hope of providing holiday gifts to 300 children in East Palo Alto. Encouraged by the success of the first year, Jennifer decided to continue and expand the organization. In the 20th year of the program's existence, the total number of gifts and backpacks donated had grown to over 700,000, making the Family Giving Tree the largest gift and backpack donation program in California"*
4. No...Todd Yoshida is NOT related to me...I asked. ;oD

Now imagine:  You walk into a huge warehouse (an old emptied out Mervyns store), immediately you hear the familiar voice of Bing Crosby caroling away, in front of you there is an isle of 10-15 twinkling Christmas trees, to your left a row of computers for volunteer sign in and just beyond them you see rows of toys neatly lined up like soldiers ready to march into battle.  Just as you begin to get your bearings...a lady dressed head to toe in teal elf paraphernalia zips by you on an electric power chair, waves, smiles and yells "thanks for helpin'"! 

You then being your tour of the facility where you hear all about the Vision, Mission and History listed above.  Then, as you round the corner to your area you see it...the 700 section...the area where all the surplus toys go...the piles, of piles, of toys and all you can think is that if the North Pole and Santa's Work Shop exploded, this is what it would look like!

Hundreds...of thousands...of toys...Once I silenced the little anal retentive gremlin that lives within me and I got over the udder chaos that was this warehouse...It hit me: Organized or not, each one of these presents represents the wish of a child. Children in the Bay Area, who, without this organization, would get NOTHING on Christmas day.  Not children in a foreign country that I will never see...but individuals in MY community. 

I'm not usually the type of person that is easily overcome with emotion...In my 30 years of existence I can probably count on my hands the actual number of times I have "had a moment"...but I can honestly say that one of those moments happened on December 17, 2011, standing in old Mervyns store in Milpitas, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of toys.

From then on the day became about doing the very best I could to fulfill the wishes of each child in my section.  I had one little boy who requested a 3-wheel Spiderman Scooter as his primary wish and a Buzz Light Year action figure as his secondary. 

I looked EVERYWHERE for a 3-Wheel Spiderman Scooter...I found a 2-Wheel Spiderman Scooter...but he was too young for 2-Wheels...I found a Cars 3-Wheeler and Toy Story 3-Wheeler...but no Spiderman 3-Wheeler! Frustrated, I made the executive decision to get him the Toy Story 3-Wheel scooter, rationalizing it saying his second gift choice was Buzz Light Year so he must like Toy Story and a scooter is a scooter...right?

Later on, when we were sorting out the 700 section (surplus)...what did I find???  A 3-WHEEL SPIDERMAN SCOOTER!!!  I was so elated you'd think I'd found Willy Wonka's 6th Golden Ticket!! I'm pretty confident my impromptu happy dance freaked out the 7 year old Boys Scouts that were helping me organize...but I didn't care.  I was on a mission to get that little boy exactly what he wanted.  On further examination I saw that the Spiderman Scooter came with little guns on the handles that shot out spiderwebs and all in all it was a WAY cooler scooter than the Toy Story one.  I know I can't see the face of the little boy when he opens his 3-Wheel Spiderman Scooter on Christmas day...but I sure do hope he is as happy with it as I was when I found it for him.

Conclusion: From organized chaos great things can arise...and joy in my own life begins with bringing joy to others.

What's next:  I want to find an organization that is located in Napa county that let's me volunteer time and continue to give back to my community...and... if Jess will have me back...I want to help out at Family Giving Tree in 2012!

*http://www.familygivingtree.org/about_us/about_us.html