Volunteer
I had an opportunity to do a little volunteering this weekend at the Deseret Industries (DI) in American Fork, Utah. Doing volunteer work is pretty fun and doing stuff that I don’t do everyday is even more fun! If you’ve been following along, The opportunity to meet random strangers and work with them is something I enjoy. For some reason, I have missed out on this opportunity since I’ve lived in this area.
What is it?
For those that don’t know what the DI is, you can think of it as a Salvation Army on the West Coast. It’s run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In short, They have a great place where they take in donations from the community and re-sell them. They also provide so much more by providing new skills to people, humanitarian aid, training and job experience, carrier and technical education, and more. It’s a great place and great for the community.
Stigma
The DI takes in clothes and other random stuff that is second hand or new, probably in rare occasions. There are many that think it is the last place they want to be or shop. I won’t name any names, but someone I’m close to that turns up their nose whenever I suggest going there. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so it is OK with me! The clothes are washed and taken they have a lot of rules about what they take in. I’m sure the stuff coming in is taken care of better than some of the other second hand stores.
The EBAY’ers
The DI is a great place to hunt for deals or old stuff. You want to find an old Monopoly game or Chutes and Ladder’s game, this is the place to go. My son and I have spent a lot of time and picked up some random things that he really enjoyed. One of them was the Mousetrap. If you go in there regularly, you will see people camping out on the couches. You’ll also notice the same ones each week. These guys are the “hunters” looking to find that item that will fetch a great return on Ebay. I’ve always envied these people. Who wouldn’t want to turn $0.50 into $5?
Back to the opportunity
We were given aprons, gloves, and an assignment. The assignment was to work in the part where they take in donations from the community. The people would show up and we’d ask what they wanted to donate and sort it in the right bins. They would then take off. The donations varied from clothes to random household appliances. There were a handful of items that were unopened. The workers sort these things out, clean them up and put them out to be sold.
Seeing the smiles on the peoples face and sharing thank you’s made the experience great. I could write a ton more about what I “read” from each person, but it would probably only be interesting to me. One notable person, I remember looked exactly like Scott Wilson from the Walking Dead. This guy was driving a big dually truck that had some special bed that was welded on which looked like some assault vehicle. Something you’d see from some farmer or some off grid. it was interesting. Scott Wilson has a doppelganger out there. I had a great time and chatted with a lot of the people working there and a few with the people donating. It was fun.
Aftermath
I have a bit of a problem with Planter Fasciitis and after 2.5 hours of walking around and on my feet I was in pain that night and morning. It was rough! If you have never had problems with it, count yourself lucky. I need to get this worked on.
Conclusion
It was a great experience and I’m hoping I get another opportunity to volunteer there again! Another Volunteer opportunity we have is with the Sundance Film Festival, but we haven’t done that for some time now. If you ever get a chance to volunteer for this, I would suggest it. You’ll get to meet some awesome people.