【53】Toys for Tots @ Guardian Self Storage Warehouse, Liberty Avenue

I grew up in a village in China, didn’t remember I had a toy until started my elementary school in a township where my father  had worked in the past nearly two decades. I remember I only had two toys that I shared with my sister : a pink pig, and a white bear. They both were  small. My sister and I used the pink pig as a pillow for many years.

I didn’t get a chance to ride Merry-go-around until I was in my senior high school year either, and didn’t go to a real amusement park until May 25th of 2013 when Matt treated me a trip to Kennywood along with my brother and sister in-laws’ family as a graduation gift. I don’t intend to complain about those many experience I didn’t have during my upbringing,  in actuality, my grandparent, parents and sister gave me so much great memories that can’t be put on a price tag.

I was just thinking maybe every person has a dream of never growing up and in that dream, there must be a companion position fulfilled by some kind of toys. It might be a stuffed animal, a Smokey Ranger Bear, a Barby, or an Easter Bunny………

When we moved to our new home, my mother-in-law, at the time was still reasonable to be around, gave me a Smokey Ranger Bear from Matt’s childhood. I carried that cute creature around the following several weeks while trying to put things together in this new home. Not until then, I realized that how wonderful for a kid to have toys, a lot of them, growing up.

For this very personal reason, I want to share a wonderful program that is active in Pittsburgh community: +Toys For Tots , made possible by U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Corporate America, Many Donors, and local volunteer organization +Pittsburgh Cares .  Fortunately I was part of Santa’s team in 2013’s Christmas gift give-away event.

Every year, Marine Toys for Tots Foundation would accept toys or cash donations from corporate America, retailing stores, and individual donors from all over the country to prepare a large reserve of toys for the annual give-away events in many cities. Locally in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Cares, is the volunteer managing organization helping with the toys selection, application processing-nonprofit and individual, warehouse management, volunteer recruitment/management, and toys distribution. Marine Corps Reserve soldiers would help and manage a big portion of the application processing, toys inventory and distribution, and entire program management. Starting from early December, those nonprofit applicants start to pick up required gifts for the population they serve in their community, towards the end of the give-away event, there would be 2-3 days open house event for individual applicants to pick up gifts for kids in their family. It’s the open house event that I was part of.

In 2013, the warehouse for the Toys for Tots event was Guardian Self Storage building located on 2839 Liberty Avenue in Strip District of Pittsburgh. It was so very cold in the warehouse and even colder outside on the street, the line of people waiting to pick up gifts was already so long before the door was even open. The majority applicants are African Americans, some White folks, and few internationals. But nevertheless, they are all people who needs this type of help. Who doesn’t once in a while in our lifetime?

The entire Pittsburgh Cares crew--from Executive Director Ms. +Deb Hopkins to us +AmeriCorps VISTA s, along with those many Marines were all pumped to have a tough yet fulfilling day. Somebody even got a chance to be  Elves to deliver the gift from “North Pole” (5th floor of the storage building) to Santa’s warehouse in Pittsburgh (First floor of the building where Santa Marines deliver the toys to parents/grandparents). I guess it is those parents and grandparents who will ultimately be the Santa to sneak the gifts down through the Chimney until they rest under the Christmas tree waiting to be opened by curious Children the very next morning after Christmas Eve….Like they always do.

I absolutely loved the spirits. Many kids were volunteering to run back and forth from North Poles to Santa’s Pittsburgh Warehouse to help those other less privileged kids for the Christmas. I thought this is so wonderful. +Amanda Trocki , the manager of this program on Pittsburgh Cares side for the night, the Business Cares Director of Pittsburgh Cares for the day, lovely person, granted my desire to be at the reception table to check in people. I got to have first-hand experience with those folks. They all seem to have a hell of a life that has something worthy of being told, unfortunately I didn’t get chance to know any of them. Our goal was to check in as many people as we can,  collect some basic demographic data, then move on to the next one. Later on, a Marine offered me to serve as an Elf for a while, and I jumped on it just to experience more. So I started to run from 5th floor to the first floor via elevator of course (Americans prefer taking elevator to climbing stair steps for sure. I thought American Elves must take elevators too when they have an option.) It was fun!

Bike is the most popular gift most people desires. The majority don’t have preference, as they said,”We would appreciate whatever we can have.” . Not having a preference in life may not be a bad thing. But if you read newspaper, those big names in Hollywood always use unpaid interns for many rewarding work as well as many unrewarding menial work such as finding a particular type of candle with the exact desired scent, picking up a particular type of lunch from a particular store, and shopping for a special brand of pillows for editing room so that when they have to stay up late, they won’t kill their back, and etc. Those privileged folks seem to have the most standards and preference in life.  Maybe not having a preference is not necessary a bad thing, but if it is connected to lacking of choices and resources, then it might be BAD, then people may be better off working hard to change the situation.

Anyways, back to the Toys for Tots event. I loved it completely. Amazed by the Pittsburgh Cares morale and the Marine Corps Reserve’s spirits. They are thinking to maybe change a location for the warehouse next year due to the distance between North Pole and Santa’s warehouse, as well as the harsh coldness in the working area all volunteers and applicants have to endure. But I know for sure, that spirits and morale of getting kids toys for Christmas will never change however cold the weather is or wherever they will be checking in folks, distributing lucky numbers, and shouting out those numbers parents/grandparents are hopeful holding to be called upon.

Beer winning trivia @ Toys for Tots

Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. The program was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks who was inspired by his wife Diane when she tried to donate a homemade doll to a needy child but could find no organization to do so. Their efforts were so successful that, in 1948, Toys for Tots was launched as a national campaign. Hendricks used his position as director of Public Relations for Warner Brothers Studio to enlist celebrity support, as well as have Walt Disney Studio design the red toy train logo. Until 1979, Marine reservists and volunteers would collect and refurbish used toys. In 1980, only new toys were accepted, as reservists were no longer able to dedicate drill hours to refurbish toys, as well as legal concerns and the mixed message of giving hand-me-downs as a message of hope. In 1991, the Secretary of Defense authorized the creation and affiliation with the non-profit charity foundation. In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve. As of 2013, 469 million toys have been distributed.

ID @ Toys for Tots

Where is Deb in the picture?

【52】It’s more than a hair Salon @ Ming’s Jazz Cut, Oakland

If you Google “Ming’s Jazz Cut Oakland”, (depends on your geographic location, you may also want to accordingly add Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) the first link would be the hair styling place I am about to share with you in this neat experience.

Back in October, I had a hair-cut way-----overdue. At the time, Matt and I were getting ready for the last stretch of our house deal over weekends and we both were very busy with our own work during weekdays, so didn’t really make time for driving to Monroeville to have a haircut.  Not left with many choices, I started to search hair salons in Oakland within walking distance. There were several seemed interesting but only one has very strong reviews that stood out to me. As Matt often suggests, if you want to make a decision via internet, you want to look into the reviews. So I did and chose Ming’s Jazz Cut.

It turns out that I was also bothered with a confusing problem during that period of the time and felt having a need to just be around somebody who can construct a world that is not immediate to mine and allows a temporary escape from my own. Sitting in Ming’s chair, listening to her talking about her religious belief, thinking this encounter was meant to be, I knew I can find the way back to my path strong and clear.

Ming is of Korean origin, came to the country 20 some years ago, married to an American computer engineer, switched her religion from Buddhism to Christianity, opened her own hair shop, and thereafter started a life that seems very fulfilling in this land of freedom. However, life hasn’t always been pleasant, there were many bumps and hurdles along Ming’s journey. Ming told me in a semi-joking tone that  she was a very devoted Buddhist, would always make a point to go to temple when she was in Korean and pray to the Buddha to make her life easier and make things better for everyone. But no matter how hard she prayed, no changes were felt on her end, and she was never able to image a two-way relationship with Buddha. Same thing lasted quite some time after she moved to the U.S.,  eventually she started to practice the religion her husband is devoted to. She found peace and fulfillment.

She told me that whenever you felt life is so hard on you, you should know that you are so much loved and wanted by “God” (I believe in the higher-level of existence but just don’t know his/her name, yet.) because every difficulty is  a test as well as an opportunity for you to understand yourself and maybe the relationship with the God you believe in.

For some reason, that resonated with me so much that I felt I needed to hear it so very urgently. As long as we know we are loved and wanted, there is a meaning and hope in whatever we do, whoever we are with, and however we are proceeding in life’s many directions. That makes me brave and have a clear mind.

After that, I went back several times and will continue to go back. The first time I walked into the store after our October conversation, I saw my name was pasted in a book and she was praying for me. That was just so lovely.

I think this is part of Pittsburgh’s culture now, that you bump into an encounter randomly and yet may get something very profound and meaningful out of that randomness. People here just seem to have a heart for strangers. They want to know you, your story, be moved by those sharings, and sincerely wish you to have a great day.  

Maybe I am not the only person who feels this way nor the only one receives such kindness. Take a look at a review left by one of Ming’s customer: “Very nice lady, and her hair cut technique is awesome! She told me her story about coming to Pittsburgh 20 years ago and encouraged me to study hard :）She is so sweet! Strong recommendation!!!!”

I would have left the same review myself.

Beer winning trivia @ Jazz Cut, short hair do

1920s America was going through many social and cultural changes. Many social phenomena were defined by those changes, or vice verso, those changes defined the many witnessed phenomena as well. Short and stylish hair cut was one of those phenomena, and together with women’s suffrage movement, they caused quite a commotion in that period of the time, and even today’s world. Before 1920s, women used to having long Victorian style long hair do (In today’s Chinese culture, long hair for women is still a desired expectation and the majority of the women do live up to that expectation.), since the 20s, 5 major short haircut styles become very popular:  1. The Bob(Louise Brooks); 2. Shingle Cut(Anna May Wang); 3. Eton Crop(Josephine Baker); 4. Finger and Marcel Waves (Flapper Girls); 5. Cropped Curls (Coco Chanel).

ID@Ming’s Jazz Cut

Does Ming cut long hair do too?