Join Tiernan

We will be holding an ice-cream social for the seniors who have limited mobility; will set up, serve ice cream, and talk to the residents. Then, we will play bingo with the Alzheimer's patients.

This was one of the more wearing of our community service activities. It required coming up with things to talk about with people of an entirely different generation, and also to deal with those who no longer had good control of their physical and/or mental facilities. During the ice cream social, some people served ice cream or went back and forth between the serving table and the residents at the tables; the rest of the people wandered around the tables, sitting and talking to the residents at them for a time. During the bingo game, each Tiernanite paired with one or more of the residents and helped them remember what numbers had been called and where to put their chips. All of us were somewhat exhausted by the end of the event, but we were also glad to have been of some help.

Touch-A-Thon - 5 April

The National Kidney Foundation holds an annual Touch-A-Thon, rewarding people who raised a lot of money to assist them. Participants must touch a specified body part to a certain part of a car; the person who remains touching the car for the longest amount of time wins a car. Every four hours (the length of a dialysis treatment) the contestants are given a 20 minute break. Tieranan is invited to help judge during this graveyard shift.

Not bad for so late at night / early in the morning! And free T-shirts! We judged during the time when contestants were required to keep the tip of their left index finger (anywhere above the first joint) on the car. Judges rotated positions every hour or so to keep us from getting bored staring at the same few people for a long time. Only four people (out of an initial 21) were removed during our shift; mostly because they tended to hit their various body parts against the car when either falling asleep or startling awake.

Francis Center - 11 April

We helped clean up around the Francis Center, a Rochester men's shelter. The Rochester weather was surprisingly nice, so we headed outside with brooms and rakes and trash bags. We cleaned the front sidewalk, side parking lot and main parking lot. Mostly, we were sweeping up cigarette butts and twigs/branches downed by the recent ice storm. We finished that rather quickly (only an hour or so) and then moved inside, where we wiped down the walls of the cafeteria. After that, we ran out of work; as our ride wasn't due to arrive for another 45 minutes, Dan and Alex played Stratego, Katye read and Cyrus (lucky fella) got the honor of mediating Stratego. Next time he'll be smart and bring a book too.

Rochester Food Not Bombs - 18 April

Rochester Food Not Bombs is a food pantry; this trip is part of Pam's Retention Project. People will go and help prepare their new location for moving in.

Easter Egg Hunt - 19 April

We will be hiding eggs, doing arts-and-crafts, playing games with children at Hillside Children's Center. We will also be bringing small prizes for the kids to win.

Thanks to Gail's Wake-Up Service, everyone managed to roll out of bed in time for this early-morning trip to Hillside Children's Center. We were put right to work when we arrived, filling plastic eggs with lots of candy and slips of paper that promised the prizes we'd brought with us. While some of us hid the eggs outside, the rest got the arts and crafts ready in the gym. Once the kids arrived, Easter-related craziness reigned until it was time to herd everyone out to the playground and supervise the egg hunt. The smallest kids went first, so everyone managed to get eggs, candy, and prizes. Thanks to Steve, Ben, and Angela's egg-hiding skills, the kids were kept entertained for longer than you would expect for such a candy-crazed bunch.

March of Dimes - 27 April

Aiza has been arranging fundraising for the March of Dimes and helpers/participants for their walk on Sunday, April 27. Walkers will be, well, walking; others will be helping set up, clean up and do all the myriad things in between that are found for them to do.

last updated 2005.01.18