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\u201cMillennials are awful and they never volunteer and they think travel sports is more important than Cub Scouts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yeah, that was my gripe when I was engaged in trying to find a replacement for my job as Cub Scout committee chair.\u00a0 Finally did, after reaching out to the one individual I thought had the best shot of agreeing to it.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019ve undertaken another effort, and it\u2019s sputtering out again.\u00a0 For nearly the past decade, one couple has nearly-singlehandedly managed the after-mass Coffee & Donuts, that magic source of bribes for impatient children and opportunity for adults to socialize and, as they say, community-build.\u00a0 They recruited various church ministries to hand out the donuts and coffee (e.g., Men\u2019s Basketball, Knights of Columbus, etc.), but they did the set-up, the clean-up, and the donut-ordering and supply-management.\u00a0 Now they\u2019ve moved out of town, and they tried to find someone through word-of-mouth, but were busy with their own move, and there wasn\u2019t really anyone to carry forward because they\u2019d been doing it pretty much themselves.<\/p>\n
So I heard about it, I said, \u201cI have more availability to do this sort of thing now so I\u2019ll step up,\u201d and collected the necessary information.\u00a0 And I said to myself, \u201cI\u2019ll just have a request for help in the bulletin, and the school weekly newsletter, and the CFM announcements, and I\u2019ll send an e-mail out to the general contact list for all the ministry heads asking them to come early for set-up and stay later for clean-up, and I\u2019ll find some people to help out, so that it\u2019s not too big a task.\u201d<\/p>\n
As you can imagine (or I wouldn\u2019t be venting), it didn\u2019t quite work out.\u00a0 I got replies from one woman with small kids, who can help with donut-serving but can\u2019t easily stay the whole morning, and another reply from someone who volunteered to do some of the set-up but does Communion for the Homebound so is limited in what else she can do, a third reply from someone who said they\u2019d be able to help starting sometime in November, and that\u2019s pretty much it.\u00a0 Oh, and also someone else who said, \u201csorry I can\u2019t help, but thank you for doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
And I am one person.\u00a0 The S\u2019s were a couple who were able to be at church all morning, most mornings.\u00a0 Yes, I can ask my husband to come sometimes, but (a) he\u2019s the scoutmaster and has scout outings once a month, including this Sunday, and (b) he\u2019s not actually Catholic; he comes to church with us some Sundays but now always.<\/p>\n
Yes, if I were an extrovert with a large social circle I\u2019d just make a few calls, or maybe recruit helpers at my regular Girls\u2019 Night Out (is this a real thing that people do?), and I\u2019d be all set.\u00a0 And I may yet pick up the phone and make a few calls to a few people I feel comfortable calling, but that\u2019s a small number.\u00a0 So instead I put the link to the sign-up website on my Facebook page and asked people to share it.\u00a0 And I\u2019m fantasizing about cancelling for this coming weekend (the last two weekends were organized groups) and putting out a sign instead:<\/p>\n
\nBecause you all thought that SOMEONE ELSE would volunteer to help, there is no coffee & donuts this week.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And of course it\u2019s not just coffee & donuts.\u00a0 I cannot tell you how many times I\u2019ve had to bite my tongue when someone at the monthly CFM meeting starts talking about how many ministries there are at our church and how much Catholics do to help others, and I want to say, \u201cyou have no effing clue, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n