Day of SCervice

"Hey Bonnie!  You can't spell, can you?"  Well, yes, yes I can spell.  

I meant to type service as SCervice because it was the University of Southern California's day of service to our communities yesterday.  USC has named it the Day of SCervice. All the USC alumni clubs and students on campus are encouraged to have a day of SCervice. It's always the 2nd Sat. of March.   And for the first time in several years I got to participate because it was scheduled at 2 pm, rather than the morning when I tend to go to the Powhatan quilt guild. And, I liked where we were volunteering. 

We volunteered at Richmond SPCA, a no kill shelter.  It was a very busy day at the shelter as it was a free adoption weekend.  We were 17 strong ready to help work and enjoy a few animals.  Here are some of us listening to our instructions. See that pile of crates to the far right.  That was one of our jobs.  We were to sanitize, wash, scrub, rinse and dry the crates.  Good thing there some of our folks knew their way around a crate as we were taking them apart to clean them. But we also had to put them back together. 

We also cleaned some heavy plastic panels that were placed on the cages to keep the dogs from barking as much.  (I'm thinking of this as out of sight, out of mind.) Richmond SPCA is a huge place.  This is just one room where collars were being stored/washed/sorted.  All the dogs had on a collar because they got to go for walks with volunteers.  

This dog looks like a twin to our dog Kona. Hum, it's hard to tell if this dog has upright ears like Kona. See that aqua panel in the front?  That's one that we took off and scrubbed.  

And here's Kona -- she has more white on her. 

Here's what greets you as you come into the building.  A cat fish! 

And it's good buddy, a dog fish.  These are quite large sculptures.  The window behind the dog fish is the store that sells pet supplies.  I assume the proceeds go back to the organization to help support their work. 

Lest you decry that this is a quilting blog not a pet blog, I did see this quilt being used on a dog's bed.  Part of me wanted to cringe.  The other part of me was "isn't that nice there is a quilt for the doggy to cuddle in." Sometimes quilts just need to be given up to a new life. (Preferably not the one you spent 300 hours on.  But why not the fast quilts that don't take all that long to make.) 

Just a little update on the timing on Saturday. I left the house at 8 am to make it down to the guild meeting for the 9:30 start.  It wasn't a particularly long meeting which suited me fine as I wanted to go shopping at the local quilt store and the used book store before the volunteering. Pat had left at 7 am for a barbershop all day rehearsal. We met at the Richmond SPCA.  After our volunteer stint we had dinner with Doug who we went to school with.  We got home around 6:30.  Kona had been by herself that whole time but she was great. No signs of little problems, no piles of chewed up paper, no gnawed on wood! We promised we'd hang out with her today.

I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? I'll be back Monday with my normal "quilty" blog.   

Happy Quilting!  Bonnie 

Day of SCervice

Pat and I are members of our local alumni association... Univ. of Southern California Alumni Club of Richmond, or something like that.  Yesterday we participated in the Day of SCervice that is actually happening today in Southern California and across the country where alumni clubs are located.

Our group chose the Central Virginia Food Bank.  We arrived at the location on a beautiful spring day.  

Surprisingly, I was the only one who had thought to bring a camera.  Well, except all the cell phones with cameras.  I tried to get photos of everyone helping out and a group shot. 

Mike and Pat giving the traditional USC victory sign before we started our 3 hour shift. 

Covering hot food.

 Pat and I were bagging bread with little cups of spread. 

Scooping coleslaw into cups.  Later the staff fired up a machine that heat sealed some plastic over the cups.  Pretty interesting actually. 

By the time we were done we were all very happy to have degrees from a good university.  Cutting, bagging and sealing loaf upon loaf of bread wasn't very stimulating.  Of course, I was extremely happy I am retired.  The staff was so appreciative of our efforts.  Pat and I were totally exhausted and I don't think I've recuperated yet! I'm quite happy to make charity quilts rather than pack food.  

Happy Quilting All!