I went to Cradles to Crayons on March 3.
I went to the place as a volunteer. There are many kinds of clothing, books, and toys for kids who are suffering from a lack of these products. Volunteers sort these things into different age groups, sex, and size. When I went there, I was in charge of girls’ clothing. At first, checked if it was the exact size, there is no soil, pill, or hole. Second, I gathered pants, shirts, sweaters, and dress into a plastic bag. Then, I put these bags into a big corrugated board. If there is clothing that has some name of specific area, holiday, and country, I have to throw it. I had no idea why I had to do it. However, now, I realized that the reason is diversity in the U.S. Volunteers have to care about children’s races and religions. I think if these volunteers work in Japan, they don’t classify clothing into these categories because, in usual, Japanese people don’t mind these categories. So I felt the cultural difference in this volunteer. Also, there is another reason. That is because of poverty or another family issue, some children can’t celebrate the holiday. So volunteers need to care about their feelings.
Through this volunteering, I realized there is a lot of people who don’t have enough clothes. I thought I’m going to throw almost all the clothing when I’ll back to Japan. But I decided to donate it. And, I like children and clothing. So I really enjoyed it. I’m going to join this volunteering again.
Mei Igarashi