Stephen Callcott
After 3rd Visit Blog
CALL Primrose
Terry Boesch & Bryant Van Beckum (Volunteer Coordinator)
terri@boeschonline.com/Callcoordinator@callprimrose.org
After finishing my most recent (3rd) visit at CALL Primrose, I really feel like I am starting to make a difference. There was a month long gap in between my first and second visit because I was doing a homestay in Japan, but Ms. Boesch at CALL Primrose helped me plan for that so that my work there made sense with my schedule. At CALL Primrose they recently decided to relocate many of the offices and storage space to the second floor of the building, and after Ms. Boesch learned that photography and filmmaking was a big hobby of mine, she wanted me to apply it to their relocation process. What this meant is that my first visit I spent the time photographing the entire building, food pantries, refrigerators, offices, storage rooms, signs, tables, volunteers, and some clients (with permission). When I returned from my month in Japan, I returned to CALL Primrose in order to observe and document all the changes that had happened while I was away. Photography is one of my biggest passions, but it wasn’t until the third visit until I had a truly impactful experience.
On my third visit I was finally working inside the kitchen, chopping up celery, bagging cereal, organizing diapers, etc. This was actually the work I was expecting to do when I contacted CALL Primrose originally. Burlingame is a very wealthy area, and growing up I never actually realized that there were so many people in my own community who were reliant on food pantries such as CALL Primrose for their groceries. I think of myself as a pretty thoughtful and caring person, but this realization was a pretty guilty one. Yes, it did feel like I was making a positive impact by helping out, but in all my years of living in walking distance from the CALL Primrose Center I never could've imagined how many people were in need of help putting food on the table in my own town. I think this realization is not only very impactful experience, but I think it will really be motivating to me in my next three visits (all of which will be in the kitchen) to make the most out of my time here.
Stephen Callcott
After 6th Visit Blog
CALL Primrose
Terry Boesch & Bryant Van Beckum (Volunteer Coordinator)
terri@boeschonline.com/Callcoordinator@callprimrose.org
After finishing my 6th visit at CALL Primrose, I can confidently say that there is no other place I would rather volunteer at. In my last blog post, I discussed that my experience was impactful, and it has continued to be, but this time I really want to emphasize how enjoyable of an experience this became. Unboxing diapers and organizing them in ziploc bags by size does not exactly seem like it would be the most fun thing in the world, but it wasn’t the physical work that was the charming part - it was those who I was volunteering with. It’s challenging for CALL Primrose to get a wide range of volunteers simply because of its hours. It is open only on weekdays from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm, so really no average working person or student can come in during that time. Because of this, the majority of volunteers at the CALL Primrose Center are retired elderly women who need to be kept busy during the day. To them, volunteering at CALL Primrose is how they stay social. They gossip, talk about their grandkids, and laugh at each other's jokes, all while helping this very important cause. I not only found this pretty amusing, but also realized how important of a daytime routine volunteering was for these ladies lives.
Aside from the excitement of organizing yogurt while chatting with Margaret about her grandson off at Arizona State University, I have also had some really impactful experiences in my last three visits here as well. On my 5th visit, I was setting out a basket of baby tomatoes on the table for clients to select their groceries from when I client asked me what was in my basket. He was a younger, probably thirty-something year old African American man and I replied “tomatoes” before I realized that he had no idea that tomatoes looked like that. I talked to him for probably less than a minute after, and he clarified that he knew what tomatoes were, he was just used to seeing them cut up or at least had never known that they could be so small. It was extremely impactful to me to realize that their were people in my own community who didn’t even recognize a tomato when they saw one, just because they did not see them enough. I see tomatoes on a daily basis, but it had never crossed my mind that others didn’t see them often enough to even recognize them. This was an experience I think I will remember for the rest of my life, mostly because it emphasized how fortunate I am for not only my education and living conditions, but the healthy food I eat everyday as well.
I really want to continue volunteering at CALL Primrose, but it is really difficult because I always have school during the hours. However, I am still in contact with Ms. Boesch about a way they can effectively use all the photos I took during my first two visits, so even though my 6 visits are up there are likely many more to come!
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