I Have a Job

I have a new job. I get no salary. In fact, I'll probably wind up paying to do this job.

About 3½ weeks ago, I became the new chapter coordinator for the Greater Kansas City Area chapter of Project Linus. My predecessor, "G", went back to college full time and was falling farther and farther behind. The change in command happened so fast, my head spun for days.

I'm slowly catching up on everything. Picking up new blankets, attaching our Project Linus label to blankets, contacting recipient organizations and arranging deliveries. Sometimes it seems like the more I do, the more there is to do.

Once I had the volunteer addresses, both electronic and snail, I created an email distribution list in Microsoft Outlook. I updated both lists with all the bits of information that "G" saved during her 8 month tenure.

I sent postcards to everyone on the snail list to tell them of the change in command and other important news. I chose my words carefully and squeezed as much as I could onto those postcards. The email list received a similar message.

Part of my message was a request for cash donations to keep the chapter running and help pay for publishing a newsletter. (My pension check is a lot smaller than the paycheck I used to get.) I asked for just 5 or 10 dollars a person.

I've received several notes, thanking me for letting them know what was happening. Checks have been arriving in my mailbox. Just from a small portion of volunteers, but it already adds up to enough to cover a good portion of publishing a newsletter in January. The comments I've received reinforce the need to have a newsletter again. The volunteers want to know about what is happening and it's been too long since a newsletter was published.

When things are caught up and routines established for the week to week activities, life will be more relaxed again. For now, I've still got a lot of work to do.

Project Linus has taken over a lot of my house and my life. To make some room, I've gotten rid of things I'd planned to get rid of for weeks/months. My garage is cleaner than it has been for ages. As soon as I can get some shelving units and storage containers, I will move some things out there.

I will close with a couple of pictures of my living room. That's all I'm going to share, but certainly not everything I have stored in plain sight. Hey, the closets were already full.

First, some blankets all checked out, labeled, counted and bagged ready to deliver to a hospital or shelter.

And some incoming blankets, awaiting inspection, labeling and counting.