new york cares

And so do we! Seana and I volunteered, along with hundreds of others, to help out at public schools in New York today with the "New York Cares Day" program. We were assigned to PS 159 K Isaac Pitken School in Brooklyn. It's in the precinct with the highest number of homicides in New York! But it's also an amazing school. And don't worry; we felt very safe!

Before getting on the subway at 8:30 this morning, we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and breakfast. Then we took about a one hour and forty-five minutes subway ride to get there. We spent the day repainting a mural on the side of one of the three school buildings. It was such fun to see it go from drab and dull to bright and vibrant. And lots of people in the neighborhood stopped by to watch us work and to praise our efforts. It really did look much better when we finished. We took a quick break for lunch, which the school provided for us - sub sandwiches, macaroni salad, and fruit. And we finally finished up about 3:30 in the afternoon. We left feeling happy to have contributed.

On the subway ride home, we stopped at one stop and quite a few Mennonites got on our car. We found out they traveled to New York from Virginia to pass out Christian music CDs and to witness. The girl who sat down next to me said there were fifty of them! Not a sight you see everyday in Manhattan... On our connecting train, a homeless man with a terrible cough came on our car asking for food. Since the school fed us lunch, Seana and I shared the bag lunches we had packed.

It was a beautiful day (a little chilly, but sunny), we made a small contribution to New York, and we had fun while we were at it!