Volunteer Day

A hard days work with Volunteer Ireland. 

    Unbelievable as it sounds, tomorrow is my last day of interning. It has been a great three weeks with Volunteer Ireland and I can honestly say that I will miss it.  Yesterday I received an email about a corporate volunteer day, and after talking to my supervisor about it, he said I was invited as the entire office was going. So, this morning I put on my trainers, jeans, and sunscreen and headed on an adventure. The place we were meeting was in Dublin, across the Liffey near Croke Park (where GAA football and hurling games are held; and you might have heard of it as that was where Garth Brooks was supposed to play). Using the directions provided I took the bus to the location and then walked the rest of the way which really was not long.
      We were going to be clearing rubbish and plant life from an alley for an organize called ALONE which helps elderly people. This place was really really overgrown, but with 14 eager volunteers we got to work. We worked from 10 to 1, and filled four huge containers of weeds. Taking off down the road to Kennedy's Cafe where we had booked lunch we took a well deserved break. At lunch we gave Elaine a gift as it was her last day with Volunteer Ireland after a year of interning there. Though I did not really know her, I was still allowed to sign the card. The day was great because the whole time I really got to know the people I was working with better and we had a grand time.
   After lunch we continued to work, and filled two more bins with weeds. There was more we could have done but Dublin City Council (which had provided the bins) had no more bags for us, so we called it a day and headed out. It was a really great day, hard work, but totally worth it. People from the neighborhood were coming over to see what we were doing all day and thanking us for clearing out the mess. I cannot believe tomorrow is my last day, it is so sad, but I still have one more week of classes and then a one week travel break.

We dragged everything we cut and collected out into the street.

  

Then we cut it all up and put it in bins. Here is Allison sweeping up the left over leaves. (This is the same sidewalk as above but a few hours later).