Today I had one of the more fulfilling days of being a volunteer. Today at AYS (Asian Youth Services), we had a group of high school students from a few different high schools in the area come and volunteer at the center. This is through a program where kids can get volunteer hours through an agency that helps them find places to volunteer. I got to the center around 9am, and at 9:30 the girl who was the coordinator came to see the place and be there for the students. They all showed up in the next 30 minutes. Because Shari was not there yet, I spoke to the group and told them all about what we do and what is provided to our kids. They had come there today to both tutor our kids and to organize the hundreds and hundreds of books that we have at AYS. This was the first time in MANY years this has been done and it was really needed. It ended up taking 15 high school kids and 2 teachers about 3 hours to do this. Between the tutoring and book organizing, they did a lot. I absolutely love seeing young people doing volunteer work. When we were done I was lucky enough to talk to a few of the high school students about their experience, and for a few of them, this was the first place they had ever volunteered. Their feedback was very positive. Afterwards, when all the kids had gone Shari and I had the chance to talk with the coordinator and she will bring the kids back before Christmas and early next year for some special events. Also a number of the high school students want to help more during the week.

With the help of many family members and coworkers, I have been collecting those pop-tops from soda cans for the last year. I finally collected a few thousand. There is an agency called "Ronald McDonald House" that provides families a place to stay when their children have cancer and need to spend a LOT of time at the hospital. The families can live here so they can be close to their children. This very special charity collects these pop-tops and gets money from them, which they use to support the children with cancer and their families. One of the places is located in Chicago close to AYS so I visited there today to drop off the pop-tops. This place is located in a very nice part of Chicago and the building is an old mansion that is very big and very nice. It is quite an amazing place. The person working there gave me a little tour, then he noticed I was wearing my "RR Donnelley" T-shirt and went to get his other volunteer there. It turned out that this woman also works for RR Donnelley and knows people that I used to work with! So, I was able to get the BIG tour and wow – this place is amazing! I also got to meet some of the young children who have cancer along with their families. The kids and families were so nice and this place provides such a great service for them.

When I left, I had wanted to get dinner but I got lost in Chicago (I get lost everywhere I go) so I called a co-worker who lives near Chicago and he helped me out. I enjoyed a nice Thai dinner close to AYS and then went home. I left my house this morning at 7am and returned home at 8pm. It was a very rewarding day.