Twin Cities - Sharing and Caring with Children

Written By: Brett Dinkins

After a great day of activities yesterday the girls decided to start this morning off with a little bit of relaxation. Sarah led in the girls in sunrise yoga overlooking the lake and St. Croix River. Though the ground was damp, they managed to have a great time and spent the day slightly less sore from the kayaking than the rest of us.

We left Dunrovin to spend our day volunteering at Sharing and Caring Hands in Minneapolis. Sharing and Caring Hands (SCH) is an organization that runs strictly on donations focused on meeting the needs of the poor and homeless. They provide three meals a day Monday through Thursday, housing, clothing, dental and health care, and many other services to those in need. Mary Jo, the founder of SCH, personally greets each person who comes to eat or request needs of any kind. Mary Jo has never missed a day of work, she has never taken a paycheck from SCH and she uses the elliptical every morning during daily meetings. Mary Jo is an amazing woman.

We spent the day bonding with kids through various activities. Many of the kids have traveled numerous times throughout their lives. An 11-year-old boy we met had lived in seven different states, one of them being Missouri. One of the things that stood out most in our minds was how quickly the kids became attached to all of us. Instantly, the kids smothered us in hugs and hi-fives, asking us how long we were staying and when we would be back. After playing numerous games of basketball, foursquare, duck-duck-goose, and leapfrog we finally called it a day. We headed over to the SCH headquarters where we met Mary Jo, watched a video about the program, and then received a tour of their entire operation including the dining area and teen center.

After a long and sweaty day of volunteering (it got up to 80 today!) we headed uptown to browse some shops before going to the Walker Art Center. There we tried to knock out a few of our scavenger hunt photos with Truman at the sculpture garden before heading in to view some contemporary art.

We stopped at Michael's and Target after the Museum to buy supplies for tomorrow. We will be holding an Easter egg hunt for the kids at Sharing and Caring Hands and a picture frame-making event with some teens from Breaking Free.

We finally made it back to Dunrovin around 9:30 where we immediately dug into all the leftovers we could find after not having eaten for 9 hours. After munching on homemade ice cream sandwiches, we took our much-needed showers and called it a night.

Julia with the Spoon and Cherry