Helping Others

The Elizabeth Food Bank is a resource that is in the local town near me. It’s near the Scout troop that my son is a part of and we have volunteered there for some time.

I’m amazed by the couple that run it, from the local church, it’s an older retired couple that manage the donations, finances, and distribution of food twice a week, year round, to help the local community. They have other volunteers, but even on the days we’ve gone and they have been “off”, they’ve often stopped by.

It’s heartening to see people like that, giving of themselves to help others. That’s a cause that inspires me, and makes me want to help more in the future.

Distributed Security

I hadn’t heard about the bomb scare this past weekend in NYC until late last night. I saw the story and investigation continuing this morning. What’s interesting to me, and inspiring, is how many people have been helping, and how quickly there is information coming in.

And how someone stepped up and reported something immediately, instead of walking away.

My guess is the police field calls like this regularly. I’m not sure about constantly, but probably regularly. However it’s good that people in the US are still looking to protect others, and they do report things like this.

Inspires me to keep my eyes open, even as I’m sad that we need to.

No Business

I've been slack about writing on this blog lately, mainly because life has been so busy. My day job, and a lack of work in the side business, has resulted in a lack of inspiration and ideas for this blog.

However I have a few thoughts on items that have come up lately and I'll try to get some things down here soon.

The Boy Scouts

I was involved in scouting as a kid, and in the last decade, with all three of my kids. I’ve volunteered to help out in various ways, though I haven’t usually officially held positions in the troops/packs since we’re so busy and my wife travels, sometimes unexpectedly. As a result, I haven’t wanted to let anyone down, but I’ve tried to help out as often as I could.

I look at the Scout leaders that my kids have now, and the efforts they go to in creating a program that motivates, excites, and pushes the kids, I’m amazed. And inspired. The Dutch Oven cooking I’ve been trying over the last month is based on the tremendous efforts I saw the Dads at the cook-off going to last fall.

I also look back at our Girl Scout leader. My daughter’s had 3 in 3 years, but this last one is great. She really goes out of her way to keep the girls interested and finds new things for them to do. I was out of town recently for the Powder Puff Derby, but I had the nanny take my daughter, knowing that our scout leader would ensure that she had a good time. And she did.

I don’t agree with all the philosophies and ideas behinds scouts, but I do appreciate, and am inspired by, the people the volunteer at the local level.

A Second Career

Maybe.

I haven’t ever really wanted to retire. As much as I like my hobbies, and I keep busy, I don’t have any great passion. When I reach the age, and have the ability to stop working, I’ve always wondered what I’d do.

My wife loves her horses. I’ve considered teaching, or even going to help a group like Habitat for Humanity, but nothing really inspired me.

Then a few weeks ago I was at the Elizabeth Food Bank and I felt a pull. I felt like this was something I could do, and more importantly, would want to do.

Sue, who runs the Food Bank, is almost 80 years old, but she goes to work most weeks ensuring that families in our community that are struggling can get food. Even on days where other people are in charge, she and her husband will often drop by and make sure things are running, drop off food, do something.

I’ve had the kids volunteering for scouts, but we’ve completed our requirements and still go. It’s a good feeling, and they like it. And so do I, as it’s inspiring.

Everyone has places they’ll support as a charity, or they should. However the food bank speaks to me, and I plan on getting down there once a month to help out.

Community Down South

When I attended SQLSaturday #17 in Baton Rouge, I had no idea who I would see there. There was only one person I knew that was going to attend, so it was an all new experience for me. I've never been to the area, and knew I would meet a bunch of new people.

It's the deep south, a city tucked up above New Orleans, and I have to say it was beautiful. However as I met people, the leader of the group down there, Patrick LeBlanc, really stood out to me. I was surprised by his passion and by his dedication to pushing education out to others.

On Friday night, we had the speaker's event, where a number of volunteers and speakers attended, getting the chance to talk with each other, and share some experiences. As we talked about our jobs, things that made us laugh, things that frustrated us, I was kind of amazed to hear about how much Patrick does for the community down there.

He presents on a regular basis for the user group. Not too many people have volunteered, so he leads meetings, and often digs in to come up with something to present to others. He runs lunchtime Livemeeting events to help those learn that can't come to the in-person meetings. He even taught a course at a local college while working on his own advanced degree.

A lot of things to help others, at times getting frustrated, but never thinking of quitting all these volunteer efforts. He never even mentioned getting benefits back, not even an MVP award from Microsoft. Until someone else mentioned it, I wouldn't have even guessed Patrick knew about it.

Over the weekend, watching him work the event, getting things organized, taking up the slack where needed, even giving an extra presentation when someone cancelled, it really inspired me.

I was so inspired by Patrick's work with the community, and it motivated me to push forward and set up an event in Denver. I've been talking about it, trying to get someone else to run it, but I finally started to push a little after coming back from the event.

A good person, and someone making the world a better place. Patrick LeBlanc is one of those people giving me hope for the world.

A Community Man

Recently I was in Richmond, VA for a user group meeting. I had a presentation scheduled for the SQL and .NET groups, who held a combined meeting because I was in town. Thanks to them for that, and I had a great time meeting people and I think they liked the presentation.

However, earlier in the day I had lunch with Andy Leonard. Andy has been a friend for a few years, mostly through our online communications (email, IM, and lately Twitter). You can follow him at @Andy_Leonard and he has a blog at VS Team Systems. He's one of my "go-to" SSIS guys for issues with that subsystem.

We had a long lunch, talking about various things, but one thing stood out to me. He loves the community.

Besides enjoying his work, besides caring for his family, Andy has a great time just helping the community. He's not looking for anything to come back to him, no payment, no great recognition, but he just enjoys helping people.

I know that Andy is awarded his MVP recognition in part because of this, but I get the feeling he'd be doing it even if he didn't get that.

With so many people seeming like they have an agenda, this was refreshing to me.