GRAND Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 39) Provorse. As a photographer, Wyatt can get the perfect shot by ducking under trees and climbing around branches to shoot from just the right angle. After their day, Wyatt sits at the computer with Provorse to pick the best photos, crop and size them, and send them to the Make a Difference Day office. The photos show Provorse just what’s important to his grandson, and he is often pleasantly surprised that “we as grandparents greatly underestimate what our grandchildren see in the world.” doesn’t have time for small talk. She is so focused, Oleson says, “I have to remind her to take a lunch break.” North Texas Food Bank, Dallas, Texas Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts Volunteering at Perkins School for the Blind, a residential school for students with visual disabilities, seemed inevitable for Linda Oleson. After growing up with parents who worked at Perkins, spending time at the school when she was young and even meeting her husband there, it was only natural that she’d end up working at the volunteer office. Following in her grandmother’s footsteps, Oleson’s granddaughter, Lynnette, started helping at the school by assisting the residents with small tasks during an occasional barbecue or party. She officially joined as a volunteer while she was in high school; now a junior in college, she continues to come a few hours each month to help with mailings, data entry and computer work. The experience has taught Lynnette to approach people with disabilities the same way she would anyone else, says Oleson, who has been impressed with how hardworking her granddaughter is, even when it comes to relatively dull tasks like data entry. At home, the two chat about school, but at Perkins, Lynnette When Janice Westbrook needed something to help fill the long summer hours with her grandchildren, Hannah, 14, Holly, 11, and Ryan, 9, the four went online to find volunteer opportunities in the neighborhood. Eventually, the four agreed to spend Monday afternoons packing boxes at the food bank. The first time they went, they sorted and packaged damaged goods, deciding whether or not an item could be used or if it had to be discarded. Westbrook was surprised at how interested her grandkids were in the task. They asked where the food was going and how it got to be damaged, and what happened to the items that were thrown away. “They’re capable of more adult thinking than I thought,” she says. Westbrook took the opportunity to talk about the importance of giving to elderly people, and what it would be like if you lived on a fixed income and couldn’t afford groceries. “I hope they’re learning that [volunteering] is part of our tradition,” says Westbrook, “and I hope they learn about what things need to happen in our society.” On a more practical front, Westbrook found volunteering was a good way to fill the summer months. Back in school, Holly and Ryan bragged about the experience to their friends—in the paraphrasing of their grandmother, “It was like ‘We’re people of the world now; we know all about that.’” G (Top Left) Janice Westbrook and her grandchildren pack boxes at the North Texas Food Bank. (Top Right) Make a Difference Day volunteers painting a house, photo taken by Wyatt. (Bottom) Wyatt holding his camera at a cleaning project. NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2008 GRAND 39
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