The weekend started off with a fundraiser breakfast for Joshua's work, CCOP, which was a great event and also a nice time for me to meet all of the people who occupy Joshua's time during the week. As expected, they are a great group. No wonder Joshua is so committed to working at CCOP and within community organizing.
Even though I cannot name everyone in the photo by name, I can tell you that from left to right we have Rev. Wiggins, the mayor of Camden, a NJ State Senator, two community leaders, and Rev. Willie.
After the breakfast, we rushed off to Baltimore for some events at my school, Loyola College. It was a celebration for the alumni of the Center for Values and Service. During college I worked at "the Center" as a student coordinator for Beans and Bread, a meal program in downtown Baltimore, and also worked closely with other students to get the entire student body to volunteer in the community. Loyola boasts a 75% rate of non-mandatory participation in volunteerism, which is pretty awesome. First, Joshua and I attended a lecture and reflection about how to keep community service as part of our lives. Then we had a nice reception and dinner to celebrate the 15 years that the Center has been serving the community. It was so much fun to see classmates and it was revitalizing to know that there are others out there who are sticking in the non-profit world and seeking a community of like-minded friends.
We stayed the night with my friend, Heather, who is always a gracious host and always willing to convert her living room couch to a bed for us when we want to crash in Baltimore. On Sunday morning, we volunteered at Beans and Bread and had mass with a Jesuit priest who also served the meal with us. I have not been back to B&B since college and it was great to show Joshua the place I speak about regularly and fondly. It was also nice to see some of the regular guests who I be-friended during college. They seemed to be doing well so it was nice to reconnect with them. In general, it felt really refreshing to be back in that environment.
After serving the meal, we got a quick bite to eat before going sailing in the Inner Harbor with Heather. Here is Joshua getting excited for our voyage:
Yeah, the area is pretty polluted because the Inner Harbor is where all of the run-off from the city goes. For example, if you drop a bag of chips anywhere in the city and it goes into the drainage system, it seems to pop up in the harbor's waters. The whole thing doesn't look like this, just the edges of the water.
Sailing was really fun, if not just a little stressful because it was so incredibly windy. We haven't sailed since we came to the East Coast and I guess I either got used to sailing on inner-city lakes like Lake Union or sailing larger boats that have enough weight to handle large amounts of wind on the Puget Sound. Sailing in the Baltimore Harbor is usually obscenely windy and the boat that we borrowed is a bit "over-powered" in terms of the sail area to the size of the boat. We were really flying across the water and kicking up a healthy-sized wake. It was pretty rad.
We were able to get home early and relax with a book and a game. (Can you guess who did what? Ha ha ha, it is good that we have our own ways of relaxing!)
We both were excited by what a fun weekend we had. It is starting to feel like the beginning of summer and I am excited about all of the fun plans we have.
Next weekend: New York City for a black tie event at the Knickerbocker Club in the center of Manhattan.
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