TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Volunteer Update

The taxi cab company I drive for has several accounts with area k-12 schools through the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation commonly referred to as VICC This means allot of business for us drivers. In the slowness of the summer when there was no school I had some time to write but now that the schools are in session it’s becoming difficult to sit down at a computer for days.

I’ve been doing most of my internet computing from my cell phone and that’s ok for quick emails, facebook and twitter but that’s about it. I can’t get my cell phone to send to my blogs on blogspot.com so my facebook comments to myself are a substitution to my desire to get my daily thoughts on a normal blog.

On the volunteer front I have been super busy at Stray Rescue and Loosen the Leash. It’s a “no complaints” kind of busy that has me telling myself that I wouldn’t have it any other way as I’m enjoying the work and the new friends I meet all the time. The best reward I receive for all the volunteer work is the constant interaction with the rescue dogs. All this work also gives me the constant hope that the goal of the United States becoming a no kill nation is attainable.

I’m excited about a new volunteer opportunity that the Loosen the Leash executive director approached me with last Friday night. The program doesn’t have a proper name that we know of but it entails taking a Loosen the Leash rescue dog to the St. Louis city’s Griscom Detention Center School every Tuesday and Thursday evening for an hour and a half. The students that I would take the dog to are Juvenile offenders who are attending Griscom School while they await court trials for crimes committed.

I like the idea of this program because I want to work with kids and juveniles as they like to listen any time I have anything to say. When I’m running taxi fares in the bad neighborhoods the small children always run up to me and give me hugs and the older kids ask me about the job of a cab driver. They also ask me why I get out of the cab and if I’m afraid of the neighborhood. The answers I give are truthful and not what they expect as they are used to visitors being afraid and wanting to get out of the neighborhood as soon as possible.

It makes my job as a taxi cab driver fun, rewarding and it ultimately gives me a chance to show people in the bad neighborhoods that there are people who care. The way I drive a taxi cab correlates to the reasons I volunteer.

Posted by Joe_Taxi at 11:43 AM