Community Service
Saturday was DD's last People to People meeting before the group leaves on July 1st for Europe. This meeting was for their community service project and Bon Voyage party. We met at 9am in a warehouse for SERRV International (www.agreatergift.org) in New Windsor, MD. We paired off in groups (parents were encouraged to participate as well) to help the organization prepare products for sale in their gift shop. This program buys products from artisans and farmers in Africa, Asia, and other developing countries to help them support their families and then resells the items in their gift shops.
So our group was in charge of inspecting and adding price tags to bracelets from Ecuador that were made from the Tagua nut (this nut can be carved and polished to resemble ivory - sometimes called the "vegetable ivory" - way better than using elephant tusks!) So we created a mini-assembly line. LH and another dad inspected the bracelets for any damage, I pulled off the price tags from the roll so they wouldn't rip, and DD and another girl put the price tags on the bracelets, counted them for inventory control, and boxed them up. We worked for about an hour and a half, and we managed to get through 600 bracelets for them! It felt really good to do something useful and meaningful for a change.
After our service was completed, we went upstairs for a short presentation on the program we were supporting that day and about the artisans and farmers who provide the products. I was amazed to learn that it takes an entire year's crop of cocoa beans from 1 tree to get a single can of cocoa powder! After the presentation, we were allowed to shop in their gift shop and all volunteers got 20% off the products (except for food products.) We had a great time looking at all the interesting and fairly unique items that they had for sale. Everyone made some sort of purchase so we helped them out in that way, too.
After the service project we went to a local park for their potluck Bon Voyage party. Tons of good food and nice weather - all in all it was a rather nice Saturday.