“Many hands make light work.”

— John Heywood

When you show up to volunteer at an organization you know, or that you have volunteered with before, you have a pretty good understanding of how many people will be there to help you.

That’s not always the case, as we know. Sometimes people don’t show and there are far fewer people than was hoped.

Sometimes, however, a few extra people appear.

Today was like that. Two of my kids that attend Whitford Summa Middle School had been a part of the Green Club this year. Their project was to design, fundraise and implement a project to revamp the central courtyard at the school. In the fall, they organized a bulb sale and raised $750. It was enough to fund the plants and soil for today’s work project.

Just part of the work crew at Whitford

Knowing that the club was small and that just a few kids and a couple parents & teachers had volunteered to work today, I was expecting a full afternoon of digging, planting and watering. But when we arrived at 1pm, we found a parking lot full of cars and at least 25 people already at work.

It turns out that, strictly by coincidence, a church that is using the school temporarily had planned a work party today themselves. They were cleaning up the school early this morning, and the courtyard was full of people. Plus, more students than expected showed up to play in the dirt. Put that together and we had many hands making dirty work.

You add in a rare sunny day during the spring in Oregon, and it makes everyone smile.

I know that it’s hard to get volunteers sometimes, but when you can get a lot of people working on a project together, everyone’s spirits are a little higher and it makes the job go faster.

Even a few minutes make a difference. Especially when added to someone else’s minutes.

Today’s gift of time … Worked with many hands to beautify a school courtyard.