Image by Yellow Cap Data (Flickr)
It has come to my attention that I inadvertently misrepresented the funds used for the new flooring at SHARE. The grant was specifically written to improve infrastructure and when asked if it could be used for food the company offering the grant said no. So it was use the grant for its intended purpose or not get it at all and the new flooring is nice, well, except for the carpet which is still ugly.
So if I gave the impression that SHARE would choose new flooring when it could be buying food with that money, let me say that would never happen. SHARE does great work in our community providing the less fortunate with food and clothing.
This will be the last time I write about SHARE though. One of the board members read my September 5th post about getting the new flooring and grant money (I did not know when I wrote that that the grant was specific to improving infrastructure) and took issue with that particular sentence. (I have since deleted that sentence.) Apparently this woman also cherry picked something from another post about people (me specifically I guess) taking stuff home that was donated and she made sure all the other board members were shown these excerpts and were properly outraged. I was making SHARE look bad. I never took anything donated by HEB or Walmart, all the day old bakery products and produce and prepared salads and stuff, that I wasn't allowed to take. We volunteers were encouraged to take what we wanted of that stuff by the director because this stuff in on the edge or just past when we get it and wouldn't last another week even if we had room in one of the refrigerators. Many of the volunteers took stuff including the particular board member crucifying me. Anything I took was either handed to me or at the end of the day after we had served the last client and it was take it or it would get thrown away or given to another volunteer for chicken food. 99% of the stuff I took at the end of the day was given to a neighbor who has custody of three of their young grandchildren. They think my writing about that made SHARE look bad but I didn’t write anything that wasn’t true. If I made SHARE look bad by writing about that then the problem wasn't me.
Two and a half weeks after this board member got everybody riled up the board met on Monday morning and in a near unanimous vote, they kicked me out. I didn’t find out about any of this until Monday afternoon when the director called to tell me I was no longer allowed to volunteer. I was kind of shocked speechless at first and asked if it would matter if I apologized and wrote a post clearing any confusion about the grant and the flooring. She said she would talk to the board members Thursday and let me know. But, you know, I had all night Monday night (couldn’t sleep because my brain would not let it go) and all day Tuesday to think about this. And this is what finally dawned on me.
I have volunteered there for 6 years. I showed up every week, I did my job, I didn't take anything I wasn’t given or allowed to take, I never once was rude or dismissive to any of our clients, and I got along, I thought, with the other volunteers. The board and maybe even other of the volunteers had been chewing on this for two and a half weeks. Not once did a single person consider me friend enough or had the common decency to come to me and express their concerns about some of the things I had written or even just given me a heads up that the knives were out. I was never given a chance to apologize, edit my posts, or otherwise try to make amends. I had no indication from anyone Thursday of last week that things were amiss and four days later they stab me in the back. Silly me, I expected better from a group run by churches, from religious people I have worked with for six years (and they wonder why church attendance is down). Aren't they supposed to be all about forgiveness?
I don’t know who they think reads what I write anyway. No one in Wharton reads it, even though I do post a new entry on FB I’m only connected to two people in Wharton on FB, one of whom is the board member that instigated my removal. She sent me a friend request shortly after she started volunteering and I accepted. Had I known more about her at the time I would not have.
So, yeah, I no longer am allowed to volunteer at SHARE and I don't think I would go back even if they changed their collective mind. No one cared enough about me to come talk to me before they cast me away. I don't know how I get over that. How do you work with people again that voted you off the island. I have to say though that the director stood up for me, she tried to calm them down at the meeting and then talked to them again on my behalf to no avail and she hated having to tell me of their decision.
