Letting the light in
 
One of the great ways that I can meet people is through volunteering and so I signed up again with Chicago Cares. Chicago Cares is a kind-of volunteer clearing house, a place where organizations that need help and volunteers who want to help find each other. You can volunteer as much or as little as you’d like in a wide variety of ways. I first got involved with Chicago Cares when I first moved to the area in 1992 and I did a lot with people with AIDS. Every week I’d deliver meals to folks who couldn’t make it on their own and it was my own introduction to a different part of the city and, frankly, a different world altogether. That volunteering led me to getting more involved with people who had this disease. I think I did this for about three or four years and now I’m back getting updates from Chicago Cares. I went out last Saturday to Jackson Park, which is just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. My job: Get rid of buckthorn, a non-native plant that be quite invasive. I didn’t know much about buckthorn--I’d heard about it, but for some reason just assumed it was just a weed. It’s more than a weed--these things can grow to the point where they’re essentially little trees. I paired up with guy named Doug and we went to work, sawing, lopping, and hauling while listening to pretty loud house music that was blaring in another part of the park (they were having their own Michael Jackson tribute). It’s amazing the difference we made in our own little area. (You can see evidence of our efforts above). Doug was a little more experienced at this than I was and when we got rid of some particularly large buckthorn, he pointed out the little saplings that had no chance to grow because the buckthorn blocked out all the sun. It was a great thing to hear so many of the volunteers comment, “Look at that light coming through!” Indeed. Jackson Park is big and we only had three hours to make a small dent, but when you can cut down non-native growths that bring only darkness so that light can get through, that is a holy thing in more ways than one. http://www.chicagocares.org/shapeimage_1_link_0
Tuesday, July 14, 2009