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Earlier today (literally… I worked the midnight to 6 a.m. shift), I got the chance to be a volunteer on the build site for Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The show is helping out Oregon School for the Deaf, building a new boy’s dorm and remodeling their well-known haunted house that is a big fundraiser for the school.

My friend Rachel called me about 1 p.m. yesterday and told me that she heard on the radio that they needed more volunteers for the late night shift. They had online registration to be volunteers, but I had forgotten to register so I wanted to jump on the chance. We showed up around 10:45 and waited for an hour, wondered if they would even call us down to the work site. Those who had registered had first priority, and then those of us who just showed up were on first come, first serve basis. Turns out, they wanted all of us.

Now, don’t get me wrong: it was cool to be part of, it was cool to see so many workers putting this structure up so quickly and I willingly showed up when I could have been sleeping. But I honestly felt slightly, if not totally, worthless almost the entire night. They told us that we were there to “be there” in case help was needed. We stayed in a holding area, waiting for someone to get us when help was needed. My duties consisted of the following: “hole patrol,” VIP tent security and garbage cleanup. Yep. Riveting.

“Hole patrol” (I came up with the name) consisted of sitting next to a fairly large uncovered hole in the ground and making sure no one stepped in it or drove machinery into it. There was a large cone to mark it, but it was dark. It was rather boring… well, except for the possum incident. Yes, as Rachel and I were sitting there, a possum just strolled right in front of us, no more than three or four feet away. You know when you get the creepy chill where you say something to the effect of “bleahhguh” (that’s the exact spelling, by the way) and your skin is kinda crawling? Yep that was pretty creepy. I’ve never seen one so close before and I’m fine if that’s the last time I see one ever again.

VIP tent security wasn’t any more exciting. There was a VIP tent that had been closed up because who would host a VIP party around 3 a.m.? I mean, you could host one… but who would come? Anyways, there were silent auction items and whatnot in there, so they wanted pairs of people to sit by the entrance to prevent thievery.

Garbage cleanup… self explanatory. We went around with plastic bags and filled them with loose construction scraps and took them to a dumpster.

I know I’m making it sound like a terrible time, but it wasn’t so bad. I got to hang out with Rachel and we had some pretty good laughs at things that are only funny when you’re on no sleep in the wee early hours of the morning. The possum incident was both hilarious and creepy at the same time. And we had fun chatting with our volunteer leader, who’s name I didn’t get. We never ended up introducing ourselves, but he was grateful for our help nonetheless.

But the more I think of it, it was a really cool experience. So what if I didn’t get to be on camera and I won’t be able to look for myself when the OSD episode airs around Halloween? It’s kinda cool to part of a project where you work alongside people you don’t even know and haven’t a clue what their name is… but you’re there volunteering to help some people out — also who you don’t even know. It was pretty cool to see how all these little jobs added up to some cool stuff for these students at OSD. And though I didn’t put up a wall, tack on any insulation or hook up electrical wires last night, I got to be a small part of a very cool project.

Rachel and I after getting our shirts and helmets, guaranteeing that our services were needed.

Our shirts made us legit

The view from our spot in front of the VIP tent

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