I learned something very important–surprising, even–at the 25th Annual Chicago Cares Serve-a-thon: high schoolers are still sticking gum under their desks. Lots of different colored gum.
Okay. Okay. I also learned other things, too. I learned the school, Chicago Vocational Career Academy--where Accenture focused its efforts–boasts graduates the likes of Dick Butkus, Bernie Mac, and Chicago’s very own Dean Richards. Along with an impressive list of graduates, CVAC is a beautiful campus in the Avalon Park neighborhood. Built in 1941, it was temporarily “borrowed” by the U.S. Navy after the outbreak of World War II to train mechanics to repair airplane engines. The keys were handed back to Chicago Public Schools in 1946 where it has been in continuous operation since.
Along with my Accenture colleague Nestor, we tackled the painting of classroom 239 with several more awesome Accenturites working hard alongside us. We transformed two hues of aging and battered Pepto-Bismol pink, into a bright, modern classroom full of light with two coats of white paint.
It was an honest day of work: moving desks, taping, more taping, still taping, enough with the taping, putting on the first coat of paint, quickly inhaling lunch, putting on the second coat, cleaning up, high five-ing colleagues, falling asleep on the bus on the way back downtown.
It was a day full of amazement, fulfillment, and redemption–for an optimistic cynic. Hearing the staff, principal, alumni and the alderman express their earnest and heartfelt gratitude reinforced the feeling that we were doing something important. Another reason I know the work we performed is important? How sore and achy my body is!
