Hey All,
We want to give a huge shout out to American Red Cross in Kankakee and United Methodist Church in Aroma Park! Today, we were able to get a table and chairs along with some other things for our office.
American Red Cross is closing their physical doors in Kankakee. They look to better serve the area by using community locations for their meetings and blood drives. They will still be active in Kankakee, but they will no longer be paying for a building that is not used very often. Because they were closing their physical doors, they were offering most of their things for free to the businesses in the area.
While we were there looking at a few things, Rozine and I found this perfect table. We had no way of getting it back to the office, but we knew that there were two men with a trailer hitched to their truck. We asked them if they would be willing to drop this table off for us. They gladly replied with a “yes”. They were there looking for tables and chairs for their church, The United Methodist Church in Aroma Park. They are putting together a cyber cafe in their church for the community to use. They are also trying to find chairs so when they provide church-wide meals, there are enough chairs for everyone to sit and eat together.
As they were driving our table and chairs over for us, we made a left turn…The wind plus the turn took one of our chairs up and off of the trailer. The chair landed in the middle of the road and the wheels all popped off. The men stopped their truck, got the chair, and collected all of the wheels that went in every direction. Rozine and I stopped just ahead of them and by the time we were getting out to help, they had already collected the pieces and were ready to go.
We then were coming up to the dreaded train tracks…The same tracks that Rozine and I got stopped at by a train a few weeks ago, when we had to walk back to the office. Rozine and I knew this might not be good. We already had one accident. What would these tracks hold for us this time? Rozine and I made it across and then watched in anticipation as the truck made it up to the line. One set of wheels on the first track, then the second. The truck went up and down; then the trailer got to the tracks. Rozine and I held our breath while we watched in the rearview mirror. The truck was clear of the tracks and we just had a few more inches to go. The trailer made it! Rozine and I let out a sigh of relief and cheered for the truck. We made it to the office and the men were able to help us get the table and chairs off the trailer and fix the chair that decided it wanted to be a bird.
Because the American Red Cross is trying to better serve the communities and be fiscally responsible, and the men of the United Methodist Church of Aroma Park, we now have a table and chairs for reflective supervision in our mini conference room.
Tyler