#12 Do 30 hours of community service

As I was putting my list together, I started to become very aware of how... self-absorbed, self-centered, and self-ish it was.  Everything on my list was all about me, and making myself happy.  And while I'm not opposed to making myself happy... I realized that I needed to do something to give back... I have a lot of good fortune, and I need to spend a little time on others... My Mama raised me right :)

Hence #12 Do 30 hours of community service... (or donate $10 for every hour uncompleted)

So I began to think about ways I could satisfy this challenge.  My work has a relationship with the Hoboken Homeless Shelter, and one night a month, volunteers go to help prep the evening meal.  This prep takes about two hours...

OK, so that's one possibility, but only 2 hours... 28 more to go... what else could I do? 

Then I realized that I was already the Team Captain of my company's team in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge (which benefits the Central Park Conservancy) and I was already spending a lot of time coordinating a team of 300 colleagues across 11 locations in the NYC metro area for a 3.5 mile race against other NYC-based companies in Central Park on Thursday, June 14.

As Team Captain, I was responsible for the communication over three months (from registration notification to race day details and finally, the "thank you for participating" email), as well as ordering custom tshirts, distributing race bibs (which had to be separated out to 11 different locations... not difficult, just time consuming), and planning the team table on race day.

You might not realize how much work goes in to this... but I spent 27 hours in the first two weeks in June managing the list of participants and planning/executing the race day event.  Yes, 27 hours.  I counted.  And... THAT'S NOT MY JOB.  While I enjoy doing it, I don't work in Community Affairs or Event Planning... I do something else entirely.  I do the Team Captain thing for fun, but it also means that I do it "for free". 

(Sorry, no photos from the event... I want to keep my work life out of my blogging life...) 

So, 27 hours... Do you think that counts as "community service"?  But, regardless, I still had at least 3 hours remaining, so needed to figure out what to do about it...

Sure, donate platelets!  Why not?

Well... the last time I donated blood, I was asked if I would consider donating platelets.  I didn't realize what this would entail, so I said "Sure, why not?" And I made my way to the New York Blood Center on a humid Saturday morning in June.  After checking in and filling out the obligatory "no, I'm not pregnant, have HIV or done any traveling that would jeopardize my donation", I get set up in a salmon colored chair, and am told I get to hang out there for a least two hours.  Nurse Angela explains how my blood is going to be "drawn", circulated through a big machine that sounds like a washing machine, the platelets will be removed, and then my blood (without the platelets) will be "returned" to me - this process occurs every 90-120 seconds, for a total of 90 minutes, or until I fill 2 bags with platelets.  Phew.

My arm, attached to this machine... crazy, right?

So when I signed up for this gig, I knew it would take about two hours, and I was expecting to be able to read for 90 minutes (you know, to work on #29 Read 30 books), but no... because of the cycle of "drawing" and "returning" the blood every 90-120 seconds, I had to pay attention to the monitor which told me when my blood was being drawn (so I could squeeze the rubber ball and get my blood pumping), and when it was being returned (so I could stop squeezing the ball to allow the blood to be put back in to my body!)  Sigh.

The screen telling me my progress and when I was in the "draw" or "return" phase

Now, this might not have been a big deal had my veins been bigger and my blood pressure higher (I've always had notoriously low blood pressure), but the machine kept yelling at me because the pressure was so low it wasn't able to draw enough blood out of me during the "draw" phase.  Each time it yelled (i.e. beeped at me), the machine stopped and a nurse had to come over to fiddle with the blood pressure gauge or the settings on the machine.  This angry machine had fits with me every two minutes for the first hour... so yeah...

The machine, in yelling mode...

So the 90 minutes turned in to 2 hours and 20 minutes... of me sitting there, trying to please it and give up my blood... but finally... I finish!

(Almost) Full bag of platelets!!!

Nurse Faye comes over to remove the needle and wrap me up, giggles at me thrusting my fist in the air, and congratulates me on my perseverance.  She then asks why I'm doing this, to which I don't have a very good reply (I mumble something like "I want to help others...").  She quietly says that someone on the other side of the process will really appreciate what I've done.... and then... she shares that she was in that place for 11 months and had just recently returned to her job at the Blood Center.

Wow.  Slightly shocked at the admission, I congratulate Nurse Faye on her recovery... Now, Nurse Faye had been so kind to me, even though I was the "problem patient" with the machine yelling at me every minute... so then I quickly mention "Well, I hope my platelets help someone as nice as you." Nurse Faye blushed, and just like that... 3 hours very well spent.

My platelets... Kinda icky looking right?  Well, they are a life saver, hopefully for some incredible person out there.

So why is donating platelets so important?  Cancer patients and others with blood clotting problems require frequent platelet transfusions... and platelets only have a shelf life of five days, so frequent donations are a must. Yes, it is time consuming, and I did end up spending an hour recovering from the process (walking was a slow process and I was light headed)...

But after Nurse Faye shared her story, the light bulb clicked on as to why I was doing what I was doing. You never know what will happen in life. Someday, I might be on the other side and need platelets.  I just hope there is someone nice out there willing to donate for me.