Volunteering at Dorothy’s Place

My volunteer experience is about my summer stay to Dorothy’s Place. During our break, I went with my cousins and my Aunt Sarah, my mom and my sister to spend four days there. Dorthy’s Place is in Salinas, California on Soledad Street. At Dorothy’s homeless people can get good food for free. We helped get ready for lunch-- to make sandwichs and the main course. It was fun making sandwiches because we took a huge bowl and filled it with peanut butter and jelly, then we put the mixture on a piece of bread and I would pass it to my cousin Allyson. She would put on another piece of bread and then put them in bags. We made hundreds of sandwiches for people to take for dinner.

Another job I liked to do was work in the garden. We would get to mix a sort of adobe for a wall they were building around the garden. Then we would water the strawberries. There was a man named Terry who worked in the garden who was nice but he seemed to annoy the other helpers in the garden. He was a sort of preacher who talked in quotes. My favorite one was “It’s not a crime to be fine.”

Before our stay at Dorothy’s I really didn’t want to go. I thought it was the people’s fault that they ended up there. But then some of the workers told me stories about some of the people who came to eat there. I started to realize that some of it was not their fault. One girl had been abandoned, others were orphans. I felt very grateful for what I had. On our second day, we made dinner for the women who spend the night there. There was one lady who seemed like an outsider—she had been living with her husband and her daughter. Then she got divorced and lost everything. She told us stories about her daughter that made me sad.

What I learned about volunteering is that there are many ways to help your community. For instances, some things my family does includes planting trees in parks, beach clean ups, playing music for elderly people, work day at my school. My experience at Dorothy’s inspired me to want to do more for the less fortunate in our community. Helping people in need helps them and it can be fun. Everybody needs love and I have plenty to share!

Cedric Coly
Monterey, CA