Our third NY Cares Day

This weekend past, we volunteered as part of my work team for NY Cares Day. Since this was our third time going, it had become part of a tradition both with work and friends, and Doobie and Ilajna joined our work team as well. This year, 5,000 volunteers around the city worked to revitalize 75 parks, schools, playgrounds, gardens and community centers.

It's a HUGE event, and when I thought about it, I was filled with a surge of pride. Partly because I'd hauled butt early on a Saturday morning to do volunteer work. But mostly because it was inspiring and uplifting, to see the city pull together in this manner!

This year, we were assigned to work in the park. I'd been a bit apprehensive about this at first (after all, what did I know about weeding or clearing brush?) but then the weather forecast predicted a beautiful, warm day, and we were all pretty happy to be working outdoors in the sun. When we got there, the team leader pointed us to a huge hill of abandoned land, overgrown for years by tall weeds.

"We need to weed hill, and take out the top layer of soil, so the land can be re-planted. Rakes and shovels in the shed over there," she said cheerily, before skipping assign the next group with the task of clearing rocks.

And so we got to work, like a team of toiling ants. You know how the saying goes - how does one eat an elephant? A bite at a time. That's exactly how it was. Handful by little handful, step after step. Hack the weeds, shovel the roots, rake the debri. Hack the weeds, shovel...

At first, it seemed never ending. Like we weren't even making a dent in the landscape. The hill was just too big for us to do in a day. But slowly, gradually, we started to see the land transforming under the efforts of our toil. Huge garbage bags full of weeds and leaves started to pile up on the side, one at a time.

And by late afternoon (after a much needed lunch break for pizza), as we started to wrap up, without our even realising it, the scene had changed dramatically. As I put away my rake and wiped my grubby hands on my jeans, I couldn't help but look back in awe at what we had accomplished.

Some day - maybe a month from now, maybe a year - this abandoned land would be part of a park. There would be kids playing on swings, and roller bladers and bikers weaving through happily strolling families, and starry eyed couples.

And now, forever, we were a part of this story to come.