By Gwen Kokes
A lot of my conversations lately have been about volunteering. At our last ESC meeting, we discussed how volunteering without thinking can lead to unintended consequences–everything from building something poorly to re-instituting a neo-colonialist, patriarchal cycle of control and dependence (wowza). In my time at ESC, I’ve learned more and more how to be patient as a volunteer, with volunteers, and in the process of creating change in the city I love.
Sometimes, work is work–at the end of the day, I realized I didn’t really step outside the office, and I stared at spreadsheets and answered emails. These days can seem cumbersome, but there are moments when I realize all of the work made real products. At the Baltimore Orchard Project (BOP), we’ve been making pompoms to decorate the trees so people know that orchards are loved and cared for. That past few months have been filled with pompom-crazed days–volunteers have made pompoms, kids have made pompoms (even though their tiny hands and poor hand-eye coordination elongate the process), and many trees have been successfully pomed. On Saturday at the BMore Healthy Expo, my co-worker Karyn and I had people of all ages stopping by to make pompoms. It was exhausting–untangling yarn, trying to listen to many children at once, talking to parents who are losing their patience. By the end of the day, we were exhausted and realized some people just took the pompoms home with them even though they were supposed to put them on the tree we somehow had gotten into the convention center. It was one of those tiring days where we wondered how much are we really doing?
WELL, on Tuesday at the Jubilee Arts Center where Karyn leads the Garden Art Class, we were outside making signs for the trees in the orchard. Some kids were not paying attention and throwing the football around and running into each other. Again, one of those days where we wondered what are we doing? BUT, a woman stopped by. She past us, turned her car around, and parked right up to the orchard and said, “Hey, are you the pompom ladies?” and we replied “Why yes!” She had seen the pompoms on the trees at Jubilee and noticed they were the same pompoms she had made with her kids at the Expo. After her and Karyn had a long conversation, she decided to bring her kids to Jubilee. Now Jubilee has more students and BOP has more kids to teach about the wonderful world of fruit trees. With patience, time, and love, Karyn and I realized all of that hard work does lead to good change.
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