Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My Summer Job


For most kids my age, a summer job means making sandwiches, watching little kids play in a pool, folding clothes or taking children on field trips. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with working in food service, retail, as a camp counselor, lifeguard or nanny, I had the once-in-a-lifetime chance at a unique and rewarding summer job.
            Last December when my mom told me about a job our long time family friend had for me, I didn’t know what to think.
“You will be coordinating volunteers for a project her non-profit organization puts on,” she told me. Well I thought it sounded interesting enough and I would be getting paid.
Then in March when I interviewed, I still had a vague idea of what I would be doing this summer.
So June came, and I jumped right in to an experience I would come out a different person.
I was an intern for the program called Crayons to Calculators. At first glance, it just sounds like a mouthful of a program that might have something to do with education.
What I found was far more. Sure it is a program that collects and delivers school supplies for the 30 percent of economically disadvantaged kids in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts, but it was the hardest, most stressful, most rewarding job I have ever had.
For the first month I delivered a lot of posters to companies that hold a supply drive in their offices. I dressed as a crayon at farmers’ markets to raise awareness and money. I suffered several paper cuts from folding and sealing 700 letters asking previous donors for money. I worked closely with the world’s greatest boss and mentor. And I learned something new everyday.
Before I tell you what I did the last month and a half, you have to understand what we do. Crayons to Calculators main job is to fill 8,000 backpacks with school supplies for grades pre-school to 12th grade. At our location we had to sort, stuff, check and pack 4,000 of those backpacks to be delivered to the Boulder Valley school district.
So July flew by as I arranged volunteer shifts for the first week in August. There is no way my boss, the other intern and I could fill 4,000 backpacks by ourselves. We could not have done any of it without our 200 amazing volunteers.
My main job was to contact people who wanted to volunteer, sign them up and thank them when all said and done. And I am proud to say, as the Crayons to Calculators Volunteer Coordinator I successfully saw the project through and learned something new from all of my volunteers.
I learned to have patience from the Boulder Rotary Club. I learned to smile even when work is hard from the kids at American Eagle. I learned to have a good time while working from Brocade. And I learned to always be willing to take direction and help from the countless number of individual volunteers.
And I have to thank my coworkers, Cheryl, Kate and Natalie, for keeping me sane during the whole process.
I don’t know where else I could have dressed up in a crayon costume, met hundreds of new people, learned new people skills, made a music video, made a difference in the community and had the time of my life.
Thank you Crayons to Calculators for changing the way I see the world and myself. Thank you for teaching me to be a generous, kind and hard-working person.  You will always be a part of who I am. 
The music video we made when the project was finished.