Shane's Inspiration Part II: Balboa Park RETURNS

Grading:
Ease of Sign up (5 being easiest)
4/5 (Zach) 4/5 (Justin)
Physicality (0 being no physical labor)
1/5 (Zach) 2/5 (Justin)
Fun Factor: 5/5

Info:
Address: 15213 Burbank Blvd. Van Nuys, CA 91411 USA

Phone: Toll Free, (888) 61SHANE or (888) 617-4263

Hours for Shane's Club, Last Saturday of Every Month: 9:30AM - 1PM
http://shanesinspiration.org/

Time Spent:
9:30AM - 1:45PM March 28th, 2009

Cut The Crap:
Shane's Inspiration was founded 11 years ago by two parents who lost their child soon after birth. They realized that had their child, Shane, lived; he would have never had been able to play on a normal playground. They made it their mission to make a universally accessible playground. What started as one playground, has spread and their are many of these playgrounds not just in LA, or the country, but around the world. Click here to visit Shane's Inspiration.

Our Experience

Once again we stopped by Shane's Inspiration, this time Shane's Club was at Balboa Park in Encino. This was such a cool playground. Even better then the last one! We would like to thank all the people who helped us and Shane's Inspiration by volunteering. For a more in depth breakdown of Shane's Inspiration, check out our last blog about it here.

AIDS Project Los Angeles S.T.A.G.E Fundraiser

Grading:

Ease of Sign Up: 5/5

Physicality: 2/5

Fun Factor: 4/5

Info:

Address: 611 South Kingsley Drive. LA 90005

Phone: (213) 201-1600

Website: www.apla.org

Time Spent:

5:00pm-12:00am

Cut the Crap:

AIDS Project Los Angeles, is dedicated to improving the lives of people affected by HIV and raising awareness in hope of reducing the infection rates. They run several major fundraisers per year, including the AIDS walk, and the S.T.A.G.E. event which is a musical compilation with a new theme each year.

Personal Experience:

When we first arrived at the theater to help, we met Jim, the Volunteer Coordinator. He was really nice and very appreciative of our help. We were split up and assigned to work the silent auction and run the ticket booth. It was a lot of fun and a very social event, so that time went by pretty quick.

After intermission, the silent auction ended, and with the handing out of the prizes, so did the fun. When the show ended the flood gates opened and a rush of people came in to claim their winnings. To say it was an unorganized mess would be an understatement. The ladies in charge of the silent auction were yelling and throwing out commands like "Hey you! Get me sm143," without saying what sm143 was, no one liked that very much. Besides the hectic end, it was great hanging out with everyone and supporting a great cause. They have some really interesting and fun events coming up that we will be attending and looking forward to helping with. Thanks also to Jennifer, Nesrine, Lindsay, and Amanda for coming with us to help!

Meals on Wheels of West LA

Grading:

Ease of Sign Up: 5/5

Physicality: 1/5

Fun Factor: 3/5

Info:

Address: 900 Hilgard Ave. LA 90024

Phone: (310) 208-3439

Hours: Monday - Friday Starting at 10:30AM

Time Spent:

10:30AM - 12:30PM

Cut the Crap:

Meals on Wheels of West L.A. operates just off the UCLA campus, out of the University Religious Council Building on Hilgard. M.O.W. provides hot and cold meals to people who are for the most part home bound and have a hard time getting food for themselves. M.O.W. provides over 80 people a day with a lunch and dinner. Clients usually get meals 5 days a week.

Personal Experience:

Justin and I had a pretty good experience at Meals on Wheels of West LA. The sign up process was very easy. All we had to do was show up. There was no paperwork to fill out. Within 10 minutes we were filled in on all their procedures and on how to go about doing our route. There are about 8 different routes, everyone is assigned one. First we went to the UCLA hospital loading dock and picked up two containers. One with the hot meal and one with the cold meal. Then we drove from residence to residence to drop off the meals. We were given a booklet for our route with all the stops and directions of how to get to each place. It was idiot proof. You don't necessarily have to be very good with directions. We had a really good time, but I think the more you go the more rewarding it would be. A lot of the elderly people we brought meals to were a little timid and didn't really want to talk. I am sure that the more you go, and the more familiar you are to the client, the more likely it would be to strike up a good conversation. One of the women who was really friendly was a 93 year old former Minsky's dancer from New York. She told us she had plenty of stories to tell us, I pictured amazing stories about her hanging out with the rat pack, and good old Blue Eyes smashing a bottle of Jack against someone's head, I couldn't wait. We told her we had plenty of time. She told us she would have told us stories but had lots to do and didn't have her make up on yet.

Shane's Inspiration

Grading:
Ease of Sign up (5 being easiest)
4/5 (Zach) 4/5 (Justin)
Physicality (0 being no physical labor)
1/5 (Zach) 2/5 (Justin)
Fun Factor: 5/5

Info:
Address: 15213 Burbank Blvd. Van Nuys, CA 91411 USA

Phone: Toll Free, (888) 61SHANE or (888) 617-4263

Hours for Shane's Club, Last Saturday of Every Month: 9:30AM - 1PM
http://shanesinspiration.org/

Time Spent:
9AM - 1:00PM February 28th, 2009

Cut The Crap:
Shane's Inspiration was founded 11 years ago by two parents who lost their child soon after birth. They realized that had their child, Shane, lived; he would have never had been able to play on a normal playground. They made it their mission to make a universally accessible playground. What started as one playground, has spread and their are many of these playgrounds not just in LA, or the country, but around the world. Click here to visit Shane's Inspiration.

Zach's Experience

I found Shane’s Inspiration to be my favorite and most rewarding of the projects I have worked on to date. The fact that you are working with children and have the opportunity to see the effects of your time and effort first hand is one of the reasons I loved it so much. It probably also helped that it was a beautiful day to be in the park. When we showed up we met with Marjorie who immediately put Justin and I to work setting up tents. Then the kids started arriving.Not all of the children who participated up were disabled. A lot of the disabled kids came with their parents and siblings. This gave the event a fun and easygoing atmosphere. There were games for the kids to play, face painting and of course the playground. Justin and I had volunteered to pair up with the kids and play with them around the playground. I was paired up with a four-year-old girl named Jessica. She was born with Spina Bifida. Her upper body was the same as any other four year old’s would be, but her lower legs and lower torso were affected by the condition. This made it necessary for her to use a walker. At most playgrounds she wouldn’t be able to play because of all the obstacles. This playground, however, was completely accessible to her. With the walker she was surprisingly fast and I was getting tired following her around. She smiled from ear to ear the whole time she was running around all the equipment. She was truly one of the most happy and enthusiastic children I have ever met. I also had the opportunity to talk to her parents and get their perspective on Shane’s Inspiration. By the end of the day I was at the face painting station and got to put some sweet tags on some sweet kids. Rad. I left Shane’s Inspiration feeling motivated to do more, and feeling I had even more fun then Jessica. Definitely a place I would go back to.


Justin's Experience

Shane's Inspiration was some of the most fun I have had in a long time. The morning started with helping to set up the sign in area which was quick. The staff was great and very friendly. After that, the children started showing up and each was asked if they wanted a buddy. I kind of felt like the last kid picked for kickball since everyone was picked as a buddy before me, but in the end I'm glad it worked that way. A few minutes after Zach had been picked up by a family I was finally picked! I walked over to meet my new buddy who was staring at cars in the parking lot. I knew from this point we would get along, as I love looking at cars or anything on wheels for that matter. Mark is a 4 1/2 year old who suffered horrible seizures when he was younger (up to 100 per day) but thanks to a new diet his mom found out about he has been seizure free for some time now. Mark was accompanied by his mom, and grandmother, who were wonderful and a lot of fun to talk to. We first went over to one of the Disney game booths to win a hat. After 3 great throws, Mark knocked over all the cans and won himself a nice pair of Mickey ears! We then wandered around and decided the swings were calling our names. He absolutely loved the swings and was all smiles. He is on a very strict diet so at one point we had to stop and take a food break, which was nice since I was getting sore from pushing the swings. We sat and I learned some sign language from him and his mother and learned more about this diet he is on which has done wonders. Next it was time for the "Sharing is Caring," show which we decided to skip and take advantage of the much emptier playground. I'm sure it was a great presentation, but we had slides to conquer. The rest of the time was spent on the various structures in this amazing play ground that is 100% handicap accessible. We finished up the day with some sticker art and then parted ways. I had a great time hanging out with Mark, his mother, and his grandmother. I wish I had a camera handy for some pictures, but they said they would come out next month and I plan to join them! You should come too! Its a great way to help out and get a chance to play on a playground without feeling creepy.
(The children's names have been changed to protect their privacy)