Greta Cahill
Back Seat Driving and Leather Working Gloves
A volunteer discovers a whole new perspective through one conversation.
My alarm clock rings. It’s seven AM and I'm already anticipating what today is going to hold.
I joined our school’s interact club last year, and it is like a mini Rotary Club. By the end of the year, we're supposed to complete two to three community service projects and 1 international project. For our first project, we decided to work hand-in-hand with the Rotary DayBreak club and deliver firewood to people in need. We delivered firewood because, unlike most of us, some people don't have electrical heating, and so they have to heat their houses by having a constant fire during the winter.
So, I sloppily got ready, buckled up my seatbelt and rolled my eyes. I was not ready for this day. I wanted to go back to my bed and watch the new episode of Stranger Things. We finally got to the wood lot, and I could feel the gravel underneath my Nike tennis shoes as I stepped out of the car. I took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and looked to my right to see the biggest pile of firewood that I'd ever seen in my life. This pile was twice my height and I was like oh my gosh, this is going to be the worst work of my life. There is so much wood.
We circled up, and the leader of the project began telling us what we were going to do today. It was two easy steps. First stack the wood into the trucks and trailers. Second, go and stack the wood at people’s houses. So we began throwing wood in people's trucks. It was pretty hectic and my anxiety was starting to rise. Everyone began to get in their cars, but the problem was, I didn’t know anyone here. Who’s car was I going in?
I found a random car, grabbed my friend Heleny, and we were off! We drove down the dirt road to the first person's house. It was one of those dirt roads where there is a bunch of dust behind you and it looks like this monster is coming to eat you. We were so lost, frantically looking for this house with the vague directions that said “look for the white fence.” There are so many white fences in Durango, Colorado. So, we had to pull over and look at the directions and see if we could find the specific white fence.
Finally, we found it, a little trailer. The guy who lived there came walking out with his back all hunched over and introduced himself to us. He just told us where to put the wood and went inside to his wife. We stacked the wood, and we were all thinking, OK, he's not talking to us at all, it's fine whatever. I kept telling myself, “We're doing all this work for him, why can't he be out here and talking to us or something.” The man came back out with his hunchback and thanked us again and shook our hands. I sort of forgave him because he had a really cute puppy.
We went on to the next house, and I was just sort of bummed about that first encounter, and I kept thinking to myself that I could be watching Netflix right now. So we drove up towards Durango Nature Studies, and again, it’s one of those roads where there are just these huge mailboxes with random numbers. They would just skip a bunch of numbers so one mailbox would say 235 and then the next one said 452. Our group tried to find this house and we had to pull over multiple times. We were so lost.
“It’s on the right, Bob!” One lady exclaims.
“No these directions say… ah, where are the directions!” Bob said confused. We must have sat there for a solid 5 minutes looking for the directions.
Finally, after so long, we found it. We drove in and saw this huge dirt parking lot. A really tattered house with an old food truck sat in the middle. Why does this lady have a food truck?
We got out and were stretching next to the car. This lady came busting out of her house, and you could just feel the excitement in the air rise so much. She had super long gray hair and she had these wired glasses that were straight out of the eighties, you could just look into those and you would be brought back in time. She was walking with a walking cane and was wearing those scrubs you get from Walmart for like $5 with Hello Kitty characters all over them.
This lady came up to us and gave us all huge hugs and she was so stoked that we were giving her firewood.
She laughs and says, “Hi my name is Shelly, and I am so blessed to have you guys up here. My only storage is this old food truck, so you can just stack the wood in there.” This food truck was definitely old, all the tires were flat and the paint was chipped and it was all rusted. The look on my face was probably priceless, I was so surprised, I mean, what a strange kind of storage.
I told myself, “Okay this is going to be so fun, I mean come on it's a food truck!” I smiled and we began stacking wood. I began to love stacking wood. I would stand there, grab the wood from the other person, and just throw it in the pile. My back started getting sore, but it was the good sore because you know you were doing something great.
The lady came out after a minute of being in her house and she plopped down in a big a lawn chair and started to create a great conversation. We began talking about what Interact was. She was so confused why two teenage girls were out on a Saturday helping with community work instead of hanging out with their friends or partying. We talked about how I played lacrosse, and how she couldn't work so she volunteered for a non-profit organization. Shelly would just throw out all these ideas for fundraising and tell us that if we need anything we could call her.
I sat up and with my back sore and I realized that this is what community outreach was: when people with such differences can come together and work as a team and help each other out. I learned that day that the best gift that day wasn’t the pieces of wood we delivered that day, but the warmth we provided, not only in Shelly's and the other person’s house, but in our hearts. I drove away that day, realizing that the only way to find true gratitude is by having leather work gloves on and firewood in the back seat.
I joined our school’s interact club last year, and it is like a mini Rotary Club. By the end of the year, we're supposed to complete two to three community service projects and 1 international project. For our first project, we decided to work hand-in-hand with the Rotary DayBreak club and deliver firewood to people in need. We delivered firewood because, unlike most of us, some people don't have electrical heating, and so they have to heat their houses by having a constant fire during the winter.
So, I sloppily got ready, buckled up my seatbelt and rolled my eyes. I was not ready for this day. I wanted to go back to my bed and watch the new episode of Stranger Things. We finally got to the wood lot, and I could feel the gravel underneath my Nike tennis shoes as I stepped out of the car. I took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and looked to my right to see the biggest pile of firewood that I'd ever seen in my life. This pile was twice my height and I was like oh my gosh, this is going to be the worst work of my life. There is so much wood.
We circled up, and the leader of the project began telling us what we were going to do today. It was two easy steps. First stack the wood into the trucks and trailers. Second, go and stack the wood at people’s houses. So we began throwing wood in people's trucks. It was pretty hectic and my anxiety was starting to rise. Everyone began to get in their cars, but the problem was, I didn’t know anyone here. Who’s car was I going in?
I found a random car, grabbed my friend Heleny, and we were off! We drove down the dirt road to the first person's house. It was one of those dirt roads where there is a bunch of dust behind you and it looks like this monster is coming to eat you. We were so lost, frantically looking for this house with the vague directions that said “look for the white fence.” There are so many white fences in Durango, Colorado. So, we had to pull over and look at the directions and see if we could find the specific white fence.
Finally, we found it, a little trailer. The guy who lived there came walking out with his back all hunched over and introduced himself to us. He just told us where to put the wood and went inside to his wife. We stacked the wood, and we were all thinking, OK, he's not talking to us at all, it's fine whatever. I kept telling myself, “We're doing all this work for him, why can't he be out here and talking to us or something.” The man came back out with his hunchback and thanked us again and shook our hands. I sort of forgave him because he had a really cute puppy.
We went on to the next house, and I was just sort of bummed about that first encounter, and I kept thinking to myself that I could be watching Netflix right now. So we drove up towards Durango Nature Studies, and again, it’s one of those roads where there are just these huge mailboxes with random numbers. They would just skip a bunch of numbers so one mailbox would say 235 and then the next one said 452. Our group tried to find this house and we had to pull over multiple times. We were so lost.
“It’s on the right, Bob!” One lady exclaims.
“No these directions say… ah, where are the directions!” Bob said confused. We must have sat there for a solid 5 minutes looking for the directions.
Finally, after so long, we found it. We drove in and saw this huge dirt parking lot. A really tattered house with an old food truck sat in the middle. Why does this lady have a food truck?
We got out and were stretching next to the car. This lady came busting out of her house, and you could just feel the excitement in the air rise so much. She had super long gray hair and she had these wired glasses that were straight out of the eighties, you could just look into those and you would be brought back in time. She was walking with a walking cane and was wearing those scrubs you get from Walmart for like $5 with Hello Kitty characters all over them.
This lady came up to us and gave us all huge hugs and she was so stoked that we were giving her firewood.
She laughs and says, “Hi my name is Shelly, and I am so blessed to have you guys up here. My only storage is this old food truck, so you can just stack the wood in there.” This food truck was definitely old, all the tires were flat and the paint was chipped and it was all rusted. The look on my face was probably priceless, I was so surprised, I mean, what a strange kind of storage.
I told myself, “Okay this is going to be so fun, I mean come on it's a food truck!” I smiled and we began stacking wood. I began to love stacking wood. I would stand there, grab the wood from the other person, and just throw it in the pile. My back started getting sore, but it was the good sore because you know you were doing something great.
The lady came out after a minute of being in her house and she plopped down in a big a lawn chair and started to create a great conversation. We began talking about what Interact was. She was so confused why two teenage girls were out on a Saturday helping with community work instead of hanging out with their friends or partying. We talked about how I played lacrosse, and how she couldn't work so she volunteered for a non-profit organization. Shelly would just throw out all these ideas for fundraising and tell us that if we need anything we could call her.
I sat up and with my back sore and I realized that this is what community outreach was: when people with such differences can come together and work as a team and help each other out. I learned that day that the best gift that day wasn’t the pieces of wood we delivered that day, but the warmth we provided, not only in Shelly's and the other person’s house, but in our hearts. I drove away that day, realizing that the only way to find true gratitude is by having leather work gloves on and firewood in the back seat.