Volunteering Day 3

This past Monday, February 22nd 2010, Jon Newsome and I
volunteered at the San Jose Clinic.
We volunteered from 12:30 to about 2:30 and we helped the IT
guy,Joe,organize and rearrange all of the electrical
equipment that was not currently needed by the clinic.
Joe is apparently one of the only, or

perhaps the only, people at San Jose who is IT. Either way,
Jon and I quickly became accustomed to the

different pieces of machinery and wire. We became very
proficient at placing apples with apples and oranges

with oranges.

There was no interaction with many other people, other
than the nice ladies at the front desk as we signed in

and with Sam Sherman who assigned us to Joe, so I can not
say I had any breakthroughs as a person. Even Joe

left Jon and I to our own devices after he was confident that we
could organize properly. So the experience

was mostly one for the necessary reorganization of the
electrical equipment at San Jose. I look forward to

tomorrow because we are volunteering again and have been
helping different people each week at the clinic.

Therefore I am very excited to see what we will be doing
tomorrow.

Until Next Week,

pmoney

Volunteering Day 2

This past Monday, February 15th 2010, Jon Newsome and I
volunteered at the San Jose Clinic at 2615 Fannin.

This is the new location and Jon and I were excited to see the
new facility. We met with Sam again and we were quickly
oriented with the new building. After the orientation Jon and I helped out for a bit with medical records, and we saw the same old ladies that we had helped the previous week. After we had helped them, Jon and I met with Reuben who was unpacking medical supplies into one of the various storage rooms. After a little bit of unpacking and orienting ourselves with the room, Reuben left us to our business and we unpacked plenty of packages. Eventually we were able to see the floor of the storage room and Jon and I congratulated ourselves on the great improvement.

While we were unpacking and breaking down boxes, we found an old UST pamphlet that was made for the clinic. It was nice to see that the clinic had actually kept the pamphlet AND had transferred it to the new location. Jon and I worked in the storage room for the entire time we were there and didnt have much of any interactions with any people. As a matter of fact, when we had decided to leave we couldnt even find Reuben to tell him we would be back in a week! As the clinic orients itself better in the next few weeks, the work we will do will become more and more important for the clinic.

Until Next Week,

pmoney

Volunteering Day 1

This past Monday, February 8th 2010, Jon Newsome and
I volunteered at the San Jose Clinic at 301 Hamilton from 12:30 to
2:30 p.m.. We met with Sam Sherman and we were quickly oriented with all of the services the clinic provides and to whom the services are provided. Sam told us that the clinic provides health care to those who have residences, i.e. they do not serve the homeless. I have previously taken a Service Learning course at UST and for that class I volunteered at The Beacon--a soup kitchen-- so I was disgruntled when I realized that all the people who had taken showers, eaten lunch, or had their clothes washed at The Beacon were not welcome at this clinic. However, after talking to Sam for a few more minutes during the orientation I realized that perhaps there are different niches among the charity institutions, i.e. San Jose helps people who are working but can not afford medical insurance while organizations such as Health Care For The Homeless can help the homeless with the same issues.

After the orientation Jon and I packed a LOT of files into boxes so that they could be shipped to the new location -- 2615 Fannin. The staff seem friendly and responsive and I saw a few doctors who are also volunteers. This coming Monday Jon and I are volunteering again and for every Monday after that at 11:30 - 2:30 p.m. There is no question that every person the clinic serves is in dire need of the assistance and so I look forward to contributing what I can to the organization.

Until Next Week,

pmoney