Horse Spud Queen

If you remember my earlier entry regarding Chickie’s little illegal road trip, then you may recall that one of the things the judge requested that she do is some community service time. In the course of my search for appropriate volunteer activities for her, I got connected with an organization called Hands On Tampa (HOT for short). It is quite an interesting association. Sponsored by the United Way, HOT mobilizes individuals for volunteer service in a variety of short-term projects. It’s ideal for a career person – the work is all in the evenings and on weekends – mostly in 2-4 hour stints. There are several key areas of service: Homelessness & Hunger, Children, Persons with Disabilities, Elderly, Housing & Renovation and Environment. All of this is background information. I am not intentionally becoming an internet PR person for HOT.

Chickie and I (and later, Sis also) attended the obligatory 45 minute orientation session and became HOT volunteers. Then we set about selecting some programs to get involved with. The first was last weekend. Saturday morning at 8 a.m. found us in a rural area on the outskirts of town at a place called Quantum Leap Farm. At Quantum Leap Farm they run an amazing program. They have a half dozen horses which they rescued from various bad situations which they use to give riding lessons and therapy to people who have assorted physical disabilities. The owners/administrators of the program are very few in number and they rely on volunteers to lead horses, walk next to people to keep them from falling as they ride, clean out stables, feed & groom the horses and general maintenance/clean-up. I spent quite a bit of time talking to the woman who’s responsible for this particular program and am amazed and gratified by the generosity of the human spirit. These lessons (with a trained and certified riding therapist) cost only $20/hour. More than reasonable just as it stands. However, it goes further. No one is turned away. If they are unable to pay, then they are granted a “scholarship”. She said they started the program as a freebie for anyone who enrolled but, unfortunately, the costs were just too big to continue running it that way. The program runs 5 mornings/week. But I am turning into PR Woman again.

Chickie and I step out of the car (a miracle in itself for Chickie at THAT time of the morning on Saturday) and met Edie, the director of the program. She was warm and loving and we felt instantly accepted and welcome. Very important for Chickie, who was very unsure about this whole business. Other volunteers arrived, schedules were set for the various chores…and Chicke went off to walk beside a rider while I grabbed a rake-type implement and set to spearing barn apples along with a young man named Kevin. We chatted amiably while literally “shooting the shit”. heh. Pretty soon Chickie was done and it was my turn to walk and her turn to clean. Only problem was that all the dang stalls were already clean by the time she got there! What kind of inequity is this? She steals my car and I shovel horse poop? Not to worry. There was plenty of work to go around – and at the end of our 4 hour shift Chickie and I were BOTH exhausted and smelling distinctively of ‘eau de horse sweat’.

THIS Saturday, 9 a.m. found us at a huge warehouse just on the outskirts of downtown. I said WAREhouse! Make sure you read that correctly, please. We were there to participate in Project SHARE. SHARE stands for Self Help And Resource Exchange. SHARE buys food in large volume working with growers, manufacturers and brokers. Anyone who volunteers 2 hours per month can buy food from them. Of course the food available varies from month to month…but here is the basic package for March – available for just $15: 2 lbs chicken breast bites, 12.5 oz pork breakfast sausage, 1 lb. fully cooked beef fajita, 1 lb individually frozen ocean perch fillets, 2.33 lbs chicken thighs, Hunts tapioca pudding, 12 oz. raisin almond cereal. There are host sites which serve as distribution points all over the state- most often churches. This helps people in need (can you imagine what a boon this much food for so little money must be to some folks? Heck, it’s great for ME – it must seem nearly a miracle for others). Oops – PR Wolf is at it again.

Bottom line here is that we spent 3 hours bagging potatoes today. Yep. You heard me. Young men with rippling muscles dumped 50 pound boxes of potatoes on huge tables in front of us. Then we carefully weighed out 3 lbs and put them into little mesh bags (which were being made in a back room by people who were getting a LOT less dirty than I was!). Tied up the bags…and repacked the boxes. 18 bags to the box – and got a rippling muscled young man to come haul the box off and put it on a pallet. We met some great people – very friendly – who participate in this regularly. There were an amazing number of youngsters as well. At one point Chickie declared she was going to come back and do this again! When I questioned a little (because this is, after all, very close to manual labor which she seems to be largely allergic to) the reason I got was – “Ma! LOOK at all these COLLEGE boys!” Sigh. Not sure if this is what the judge had in mind for the lesson she is supposed to be learning…

So far, that’s what we’ve been up to. It’s been great for both of us. And we’re signed up to participate in a nursing home dance/ice cream social… Surely there won’t be horse poop or flying potatoes there!!