The rain soaked my Sperry’s the second I ran from the car to the Student Activities Building. The room, despite the melancholy weather, was abuzz with activity as students and community members gathered to arrange rides to various sites for Cavaliers Care, the one day service event put on by Madison House.  Elizabeth Bass and the executive committee seamlessly adapted to the weather by moving those who were supposed to volunteer outside to venues inside. My job this morning was to go on a Charlottesville adventure to check in on activities at various sites.

First Stop: The Discovery Museum.  As soon as I walked into the Museum, I instantly felt welcomed by all of the big toys and the large tree house. Volunteers prepared the center for a early morning cooking class for children and their parents to cook inside, out of the downpour. My second venue of the morning was to visit the Ronald McDonald House. Here, volunteers interacted with children while cleaning and tidying the house for family members

Time whizzed by as I navigated through the puddles to the Cedar Center.  Inside, volunteers and home residents were just finishing up a bingo game as I walked in. After two more numbers, a volunteer yelled BINGO and the rest of the room groaned and commented that they were so close. I smiled as a woman commented that she didn’t want the UVA students to leave because the BINGO game was so exciting. I was tempted to jump into a game myself, but I hopped into the car to brave the traffic and visit my last location.

I arrived just as the Hope Community Center volunteers were finishing their cleaning. The room looked spotless and smelled of sweet lemons. The volunteers proudly gathered for a picture in the room they had just cleaned. My little sisters in the mentoring program, who graciously kept me company in the car, congratulated them with me and literally danced in the rain upon finishing our marathon 4 places in an hour and a half.  A full day of service!

The woman at the end of the race power walked on the heels of the pace car.. I almost missed her arrival because nobody cheered or clapped excitedly like when they had seen the other runners. My job was to act as a traffic controller and stop oncoming vehicles from making either a left or a right turn onto the corner from the side street between the Bank of America and the church. Many drivers were enraged that they would have to walk to Starbucks or Mincer’s from the Bank of America parking lot. I shrugged and continued to gesture to drivers that they must turn around and reverse down the wrong way OR wait until the last runner passed the bank. Many chose to idle and wait for the last runner, but where was she or he?

I was so busy arguing with a woman about the safety issues involved if she tried to maneuver her car through an opening between runners that I almost missed the last runner. The police car lights caught my eye and I swiveled around mid sentence. There she was. Running alone at 9 am, almost 20 minutes behind the last few racers we had seen. I mentally checked her number and began to clap and cheer this woman on. I admired her strength to run the race in the cold, alone on the heels of the pace car. To my surprise, she smiled and stopped for a second. ”Thank you for staying to make sure I was safe and cheer me on. It was important to me,” she said. I smiled and yelled that I wouldn’t have missed her run for the world and mustered one more rousing good luck. For a minute, I watched her determinedly walk up the hill. To me, she was the most inspiring runner because her spirit was unyielding.

The car in front of me menacingly inched forward and a woman rolled down her window to kindly as me if now she could drive to the dry cleaners. The race was over and all the runners were safe. I reluctantly lifted my hands in the air and signaled that all the cars can now move freely on the streets again.  I do not know if the last runner finished the race, but in my eyes she will always be the winner of the race. The Charlottesville 10 miler was a race of endurance–this woman mentally surpassed the front runners!

One of the members of On Our Own brought me a candle.

He usually rushes in at 5:15, a regular with whom I worked on job applications. He was applying and filling out a tedious 14 page job application to be a seafood clerk. We usually completed 4 pages before he lost focus or told me a story or his ride came.

This particularly warm Thursday, everyone was sleeping as an old western came on TV. I smiled as the man heroically saved the woman from plunging 500 feet to her death in the rapids on television. The program ended and Makia talked about her adventures, in Spanish so we could practice fluency. I waited patiently to be a resource if anyone needed it, but this evening everyone just needed a place to sleep for a bit.

At 5:30, the door opened and my friend came in looking frazzled. He said he had rushed to be here and wanted to work more on his application. He then pulled two candles out of his backpack to give to us as thanks for helping him. I was touched he had remembered the time, because he had promised he would try hard to stick to his appointments, and that he had thought to bring us little trinkets. He insisted we keep the candles and sheepishly moved his eyes back to the computer screen.

That candle burns in my apartment this week to remind me how fortunate I am to be warm and inside my apartment. Keep the hope alive :)