The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 1990 Page: 4 of 20
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4 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1990 THE RICE THRESHER
Chipping away at the
paint— little by little
by Josh Daniels
Sid Richardson College senior Chris Meade works for Rice Recycling during Outreach Day.
Outreach Day turns out large numbers
by Erica Ollmann
Over 550 people, choosing from
29 different activities participated in
the Rice Student Volunteer Pro-
gram's Outreach Day Saturday, Oc-
tober 27.
Projects students could choose
ranged from tours and orientations
to hospitals and crisis centers; other
projects were more activity-oriented.
Home repair for the elderly proved
as popular as in previous years.
About 80 students turned out to paint
homes and do yard work for two
homes in Houston.
"I'm really pleased with the way it
turned out. Most of the evaluations
are really positive," commented
RSVP Director Paul Winkler. "We
had a good time while learning a lot
about the agencies in Houston."
Another activity centered around
the Human Resource Development
foundation, an organization spon-
sored by Rice Chemical Engineering
Professor Joe Hightower that pro-
vides free apartments to families of
patients in the medical center. Stu-
dents baked bread for the residents,
weeded, trimmed hedges, and did
other small repairs.
SRC sophomore Kelly Muldoon
visited a center for Alzheimers pa-
tients and was exposed to a great
deal more than bingo. They were
really happy to see us; they don't get
many visitors," he said. "But it was
kind of depressing. Onewoman'kept
asking 'Is it nice outside? Is it nice?
Someday I'll get better and I'll go
outside again...'"
"One goal of Outreach Day is to
expose people to the opportunities
available for involvement beyond the
hedges and perhaps inspire them to
continue with it," explained Julie
Langenbacher, chairperson of
RSVP.
Several students decided to stay
on for further work at the center they
visited while others enjoyed helping
out for a day. For more information
contact the RSVP office.
I remember asking a friend why
he didn't participate in Outreach
Day last year. He said something like,
"Outreach Day gives you one day to
work off twenty years of white,
middle-class guilt." I think what he
meant was that some problems, like
homelessness, seem so huge that one
day's work can't possibly make any
difference. If you're only going to
work for one day, what's the use? I
remember thinking that there might
be something to that argument, but
somehow it didn't sway me from
working at Casa Juan Diego this last
Saturday.
A quiet, unassuming man named
Ken whom we later learned to be the
assistant director of Casa Juan
wasted no time in finding us work as
soon as we arrived in the early morn-
ing. The small yard surrounding the
square, brick building had become
Brown College freshm.-in Kristen Pauley takes part in an Outreach Day activity.
littered with trash and Ken sent a few
of the group ("some youngladies," he
suggested) to clean up the area. He
found a few pairs of old, rusted gar-
dening shears and relegated a few
more of us to clearing the path be-
tween Casa Juan and the medical
clinic which stands adjacent to it. He
armed others with scrub brushes and
buckets and they trotted off to clean
the bathrooms. Ken handed me and
five others some paint-scrapers and
brushes and sent us to the dilapi-
dated medical clinic next door to
scrape the cracked, peeling paint
from the outside walls and repaint
the place.
The work started off well enough.
The place looked to be a small house,
maybe a three-bedroom job, which
had been converted into a clinic.
Each of us picked a section of the
house's walls and eagerly started
work. It was beautiful outside; time
passed quickly, and it seemed that I
was making progress. The three-foot
square section whose paint I was
scraping was begin to look pretty
bare—ready to be repainted. But on
stepping back to survey my handi-
work, I realized that while my section
looked good, as did the other five-
sections, most of the house was yet to
be scraped. We had been spending
far too much time working on our
smaller problems and hadn't taken
the larger one into account. As we
realized the enormity of the work we
faced, we became distressed and be-
gan to wonder about the point of
doing so little work on such a large
house. Our eagerness faded, and by
lunchtime I was checking my watch
every five minutes.
After lunch, we went back to
scraping. This time we had a new
game plan: to scrape a little paint
from most of the house, rather than
concentrating so much on a few small
spots. This procedure certainly
helped our morale; it's much easier
to work when you can see the prog-
ress you're making. But someone in
the group soon pointed out that if you
don't get at the paint that's peeling
off, you're not solving the real prob-
lem.
When someone comes along to
paint the walls again, the new coat
will peel and crack just as quickly as
the last one did becuase the scraping
hasn't been done right. The new
paint will just be covering up the old
problem, and that old problem will
eventually come back in the form of
more cracking and peeling paint.
And so the dilemma: did we want
to cover a lot of ground, and see the
progress in terms of quantity, or
cover a little ground, and see the
progress in terms of quality? In the
end we paint-scrapers settled for the
first route. Having covered a lot of
ground makes it a'little easier to face
those like my friend who argue that
just one day's work, like Outreach
Day, isn't enough to do anything
worthwhile; if you've scraped lots of
paint off the surface, it's easy to show
someone the effects of your work. But
scraping off the stuff underneath,
that's what helps solve the real prob-
lem and keep it from happening
again. Sure it takes longer, but
there's always next year.
RESTAURAN
&
CATERING
For 25 Years, we've been
exporting America's
most valuable resource.
The men and women of the Peace Corps. Dedicated
volunteers who help people in developing countries live
better lives.
It's tough, And it takes more than just concern, It takes
motivation, Commitment.
But for 25 years, being a Peace Corps volunteer has
been a chance to stop dreaming about a better world
and start doing something about it.
Peace Corps
The; Toughest Job You !l Ever Love
See Peace Corps Representatives on Campus
Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, November 6, 7, 8
INFO TABLE
Student Center
9 am-4 pm
FILM SHOWING
Nov, 6*2 pm
Nov, 7*7 pm
Student Center Conf. Room
INTERVIEWS
Nov. 8
By Appt Only
Career Services Center
pis bring filled-in app
tV OUH FA vS an
CHICKEN MARSALA:
Boneless Breast Of Chicken Sauteed W/Fresh £ ^ Q5
Mushrooms & Marsala Wine, Served
^ W/Fettuccini Alfredo & Garlic Bread.
J Open All Day, Everyday! # # A - mm r
rtl 6811 KIRBY@ H01C0MBE 666-4047[ft
Allied Health
Professionals &
Administrators
Plan a future that soars.
Take your science-related degree
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are needed.
In short, you'll gain more of every-
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and the Air Force. Launch now-call
USAF HEALTH PROFESSIONS
COLLECT 713-271-8638
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, November 2, 1990, newspaper, November 2, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245766/m1/4/: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.