A tale of two Saturdays

Great move yesterday, and some lessons learned. More on that later.

Meanwhile, we received this message from Sharon Alm, a longtime supporter of OTS but a newbie move volunteer:

I have not helped with a physical move yet so I’m not sure how I can help, but am available Saturday morning if needed. Thanks, Sharon Alm

OTS replied:

Sharon, the biggest misunderstanding in OTS is that this is all about lifting and carrying heavy furniture. There is some of that, but we have those people.

Half of our volunteers are in their 70s, and half of those are women. We need people who can turn these apartments into a home. We have baskets of kitchen and bathroom supplies, bed linens and the like, and when the lifters are gone, those people make it all work. One of our moves this Saturday is a single father with two small boys. Do you think they could use your help getting organized?

All I ask is that you come on one move. I promise you will remember the experience. Let me know if you can make this one.

And Sharon was there.

The move was unusual in that it was to a high floor in a high-rise apartment building in Silver Spring. The building had, almost, impenetrable security, and it took us a while to get the truck to the loading dock and move the furniture up the freight elevator and down the hall. Fortunately we had an intrepid crew composed of the stalwart veterans Chris Baliko, Doug Free and Paul Smith, ably complemented by our always-smiling St. Pat’s Youth — John, Paul, Ryan and Brendan (started to sound like the Beatles there for a second). One glitch: we forgot a bed, but that was quickly remedied.

Where we came up short was on the distaff side. Two ladies had to drop out for health reasons, but the two that came more than made up for what they lacked in numbers. Sharon Alm and Meg Kinneberg saw to their tasks, then saw what needed to be done, and did it.

The client was a father who has lived for months in shelters in DC and Maryland with his two young sons, two and five. As you can imagine, the boys suffered from separation anxiety when the father was off helping with the move, so Meg and Sharon took them in hand and entertained them with the goodies from the Toy and Book Committee, until the job was over.

One more kudo. As we were leaving, I said to Paul that, while we gave them great toys and books well suited to young boys, children with that kind of anxiety could really use the comfort of some stuffed animals for their beds. Paul wasn’t home more than a few minutes before Kerry Smith was on Amazon ordering teddy bears for both boys to be delivered later that same day.

The father could not have been more grateful for the blessings of the OTS volunteers, and we assured him that we were blessed with the ability to help him.

The second move yesterday was postponed. Should reappear in the next few days. Many thanks to those who volunteered for that one only to be stood down an hour before we were to gather at the unit.

Biggest thing on the agenda.

This coming Saturday, May 16, we will resupply furniture from a defunct Holiday Inn in Arlington. Metropolitan is sending three trucks and a crew of nine to do the pickup and storage for us. We need to be there to move items out of the rooms into the hallway. If we do this right, the furniture we take from there could last us through moves for the next year. We need to do this right. We need you.

Yes, we need lifters, but nothing needs to be moved more than a few feet from the room to the hall. We also need non-lifters — we have lamps to be disassembled and boxed and other light duty that will make this go quickly.

If you can spare an hour or two early Saturday morning, that’s all we ask. Please respond when I send out the call later this week.