It’s Movember!
If things seem a little hairy these days, you’re not going crazy. It’s Movember (formerly the month known as November)! That’s right – men around the world are forgoing shaving again this month and attempting their best Tom Selleck impressions. So no matter how creepy or clownish a ‘stache looks on someone you know and/or love, keep in mind they’re probably growing it out to raise money and awareness for cancers that affect men like prostate cancer. The event started in 1999 and continues to grow each year.
While I’ve done my share of volunteering/donating to support breast cancer awareness, which is important to me as a woman, I never really thought twice about supporting causes specifically for men. However, I thought it was pretty cool that my friend Adam was participating in such a worthy cause for his gender. In my world where I believe in doing small things with great love, he is truly helping change the face of men’s health in a simple (and entertaining) way.
If you don’t know a Mo Bro, follow Adam’s progress as he posts weekly ‘stache updates on Mo Space. Actually, check out the whole team of teachers at Falls Church High School participating and please consider donating to their cause! They definitely deserve some support this month for sporting those silly ‘staches. They might not be as cute as a little pink ribbon, but it’s equally important to get the word out on men’s health.
Just out of curiosity – who tops your list of best mustaches of all time? Mike Ditka? Burt Reynolds? Walter Cronkite? So many possibilities…
Winding down on volunteering with the USO
This year I was really looking forward to volunteering for the USO Casino Night (now referred to as the Stars and Stripes Casino Night) for multiple reasons. The biggest reason? After Walter Reed closed earlier this year, my opportunities to volunteer with my favorite organization (and more specifically, wounded warriors) were greatly decreased. This is due to location basically, it’s almost impossible for me to get to Fort Belvoir and Bethesda Medical Center after work in time to volunteer.
At first, I was pretty sad about this. Afterall, I’d been volunteering with the USO for at least the last five years. But the more I think about it, the more I realize this is the time for me to explore other volunteer opportunities and perhaps find a new organizations to commit to as passionately as I had with the USO.
However, I didn’t want to go out without a bang, and when an email circulated for volunteers at the Casino Night, I jumped right on the chance. This was after all the event that opened the doors to me volunteering hands on with our Wounded Warriors four years ago (I think its been that long!).
The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington Oct 28, as it had been for as many years as I had been participating in it. This was the 8th annual casino night, and I was proud to be there again. This time I signed up for supporting the silent auction. In years past I’ve done this job as well as escorting VIPs and selling tickets as a chip girl. I like to change it up each year, helps add the fun of the event!
While monitoring the silent auction items and answering questions for attendees about the event, I couldn’t help but get a few bids on some of the goodies. Unfortunately, both the autographed Stephen Strasburg baseball and the brand-name pots and pans I had my name on went for more than I was budgeting for. Of course, I wasn’t too sad because the money raised went to supporting the troops 
Also, I helped promote writing notes to the troops. I was especially pleased when (ret) GEN Peter Pace (former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) came through and signed a note for them. I hope some lucky Soldier, Airmen, Marine or Sailor realized how cool that is when they read his message! I’ve been coined by a former Chairman before, but it’s always an honor to meet another one.
Anyway, the event was a great success. It raised a ton of money for this organization. Read more about the attendees and the sponsors on the USO Metro DC webpage, which also includes a photo gallery of the event. With any luck, I’ll at least be able to keep volunteering with this event, even if it is only annually.
Hiking for Beyond the Pink
Earlier this month my friend Melissa asked me if I was interested in hiking Sugarloaf Mountain to help raise awareness for breast cancer (October is breast cancer awareness month). I couldn’t resist a fun and healthy event for a great cause with good friends. Plus, it gave me a chance to do something good for breast cancer awareness. A wonderful and amazing woman I know, citygirlblogs, recently finished treatment and I was going to think of her through the whole hike.
Despite being on the DL, when Sunday, October 9th rolled around, I jumped out of bed at 6am, packed a bag with a knee brace, trail mix, energy beans, my GPS and headed out to pick up my friend Sherry who was also participating in the hike. We made the hour drive to Sugarloaf Mountain and met up with our other friends participating and jumped right into helping set up for all the registrants. Several of us stuffed goody bags including water bottles, energy bars, coupons and more, all good stuff.
Melissa had been involved with the hike for several years, and this was the 5th annual hike. Beyond the Pink benefits the Breast Cancer Fund. According to the event site, this fund “has a long tradition of organizing physically challenging, inspiring events to support their work.” And challenging it was!
Fortunately, we were blessed with gorgeous fall weather. There were two hike options – 2.5 miles or 7 miles. We had decided on the longer, more challenging one and set off on our journey. Shortly into the hike, Sherry and I decided we decided to push ourselves more and began to pick up the pace, including running on occasion. It was pretty awesome. Sugarloaf is beautiful!
Of course, there are several trails around the mountain and unfortunately, Sherry and I were so focused on enjoying the hike, we didn’t really think to pay attention to which one we started on! Funny enough, after a few twist and turns and some backtracking, our 7-mile hike became a 9-mile hike. It was exhausting, but such an intense workout on the mountain, we didn’t mind the extra milege, it gave us more time to chat away like girls do. When we finally made it back to base camp hours later – we were rewarded with lunch donated by California Tortilla. We were starving and it really hit the spot.
Here’s a pic just before we headed out on our 9-miles of fun!
Before the hike (we should've gotten an after to0!)
My day of service to Adams Morgan
My latest adventure with One Brick led me to volunteering for the Adams Morgan Festival in Washington, DC on September 11. I was excited to help set-up for the day’s festivities because I had spent a few months living in the neighborhood and it brought a lot of memories back! Of course, the day was meaningful for other reasons as well: it was my way to recognize the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance.
I was holding off on this post in hopes of garnering a copy of the photos of volunteering that day, but alas, none have surfaced. Our duties were pretty simple: setting up tables, chairs, posters – all the basic things to organize an event right down to putting out trash cans!
The event itself was a total blast (I finished volunteering with the 1st shift so I had a chance to explore and taste some of the foods from the area). The festival was free and opened to all ages. There was tons of food, local hand-made goods from countless artisans and much more. It was beautiful to see hundreds of families come out and support their neighborhood. The weather was amazing too!
FYI – here’s some information on 9/11 Day from their site – hopefully you’ll consider getting out and doing something for your community next year:
It is easy and free to participate. All you need to do (joining millions of others around the world) is observe the anniversary of 9/11 by performing good deeds, supporting charitable causes, volunteering and engaging in other acts of compassion.
Labor of love over the holiday weekend
While many people try to head out-of-town for Labor Day to celebrate the end of summer, my guy and I recently returned from a week-long vacation so we decided to stay local for the holiday. Before making any plans, we realized it had been too long since we last had a chance to volunteer together. So we put finding a volunteer opportunity at the top of our list of things we wanted to do.
I went online to search for a new volunteer experience for us, and I didn’t have to look hard at all to find one. First stop was One Brick, and when I saw an opening for DC Central Kitchen for Sunday morning, I immediately signed us up.
DC Central Kitchen, or DCCK, is a pretty remarkable program. I know I say that a lot, but every time I try a new volunteer opportunity, I’m always amazed by the mission and commitment of staff and volunteers. DCCK staff and volunteers recycle thousands of pounds of food each day, converting it (quoting staff from our volunteer briefing, not their website) into approximately 7,000 meals per day! The food is all prepared at DCCK, but it’s not a distribution point for the meals. DCCK now provides food for several DC schools, but primarily distributes food to shelters, transitional homes, and rehab clinics throughout the Washington area. From their website, DCCK’s mission is to “use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. Our programs provide a comprehensive continuum of care to the people we serve.”
In addition to preparing meals, DCCK also offers a nationally recognized culinary job training to once homeless and hungry adults. In fact, the volunteer coordinator who greeted us on site was a graduate of the program. I believe she said they strive to hire one graduate from each training program into DCCK either in the kitchen or in the office. I can’t recall how large their staff is now, but they’re growing and really doing a lot of amazing things for the DC community. We learned upfront that we wouldn’t be working with any of the trainees, which was a bummer, but at least I was with S! Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together, so cooking and volunteering makes for the ultimate experience for us.
The volunteer coordinator ran a tight ship. But she had to – there were a couple dozen volunteers to manage from multiple organizations and there was a lot of work for us to do in a short amount of time. We were scheduled for a shift from 8:45am to 12:00pm. After signing in and getting our overview of the program, we were split up into different groups. We scrubbed down, donned plastic aprons, gloves and hair nets and then got down to business.
S, two other volunteers and I started off by cutting up and packaging giant watermelons. When we finished that, we cleaned up our work space and got down to preparing frozen chickens to cook by rubbing them down with seasoning. That was uber cold! After yet another scrub down of our small prep space, we jumped into peeling carrots. We went through dozens of pounds of food preparation in just a few hours. And there were work stations set up everywhere with volunteers doing other slicing and dicing the whole time too. It really was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. It was a great experience and we were both so happy to spend a few hours of our long weekend volunteering together.
Volunteering with DCCK is a great opportunity for groups to get together and really make a difference in a short amount of time. Check out their website for more information and opportunities to volunteer with directly with DCCK today!
