Saving the world, kid by kid

Of course, in our lives we want to make a difference in our small bailiwick, and we have big dreams of making a huge global impact. Bill and Melinda Gates can do this as can others who have oceans of money. But there are legions of us small potatoes who are making change and doing good.

Volunteering is one of the greatest pleasures and hardest things of life after retirement. Americans are the most generous people (also the meanest and tightest!). There are so many of us who go out on a regular basis and deliver Meals on Wheels, cook and serve food to the needy, coach kids' teams, teach people to read, serve on community committees, clean up the coasts, volunteer in schools, rescue wildlife and do so many things that enrich our communities.

We do not do this to accrue plaques of appreciation. We do it because we believe we can make even a small difference in the quality of life for the people we serve. And also we do what we do because it is interesting to us and brings intrinsic rewards.

The photo shows kids immersed in a science project - not something in their regular curriculum, but something a volunteer (me!) could do to enrich the teaching. As a regular volunteer in two schools, one, private and middle class, the other maybe the poorest public school in Florida, I see that all kids are the same in their eagerness to learn. This photo is of the middle class and privileged, but if you colored the faces brown the photo would be the same.

This week in Lacoochee School we had the kick-off of the community gardens project, near and dear to my heart. I have this vision of a large community garden in this very low-income community. If people can grow and harvest their own food they will be physically healthier and it will be such a community bond. The principal of the school who is first and foremost a community organizer ("The bottom line is the kids"), is behind this and will gladly make part of the school yard available for the garden. But I am thinking that this garden should really be located between the rows of public housing units. I am going to talk to the person in charge of this. What nonsense it is to prohibit having a garden there! Why our own family vegetable garden works is that it's so near our kitchen!

So, after my gig in my adopted fourth grade classroom, I went out to the small beginnings of a container garden with my flats of cold-hardy broccoli and collards. I prepared the dirt and planted those seedlings and waited to see if anyone I had invited would appear.

And then the Mexican women trooped over to this small beginning next to the side of the school. The school care takers had generously and promptly supplied a hose for watering.

We stood there around the plastic kiddie pool and the other containers with the brave collard and broccoli seedlings. We spoke of this small beginning that could be the start of something big. They decided to have a rotation of people who would water the plants and keep an eye out. I volunteered my husband to build a compost container.

As I left, I told them that now, it was up to them. I walked down the hill to my car and I saw them still standing there, talking animatedly.

Volunteering to do an actual something is quite different from just writing a check (though that is important also). Doing hands-on stuff keeps you humble and polishes your heart.