Yearly Archives: 2011

A big thanks to Pat, a 2 Places employee for sharing his experience from our company-wide annual volunteer day: As you know, our company's volunteer day theme this year was to assist senior citizens.  Therefore, on Friday, September 23rd I volunteered my time and services to SAGE Eldercare in Summit, New Jersey.  Please see the attached document that provides concise text of what this organization is all about. My efforts were dividing into two parts.  In the morning I assisted Daniel, an experienced driver using his own car, to provide hot lunch to fifteen seniors in the nearby town of Springfield, NJ.  These people are either shut ins, low income or unable to prepare meals for themselves.  For most of  them, the person delivering lunch to their home is the only human that they will interact with during that day.  The vast majority are extremely appreciative of the efforts of the people bringing healthy meals to them on a daily basis. It was an eye opening experience as it showed me how many people that are living near me who require food assistance. In the afternoon I worked with Priscilla at SAGE's facility to create organized food bins to store a large amount of food that the organization recently received from the general public after Hurricane Irene. This mundane project had us sort cans, bags and packages of food that had been stored helter skelter in a very unorganized manner.  Our completed effort made the director of volunteering very happy.  She now has an inventory of easy to access food that her group can quickly utilize for whatever purpose they need it for. I left SAGE feeling very good that day because I saw how my efforts provided a small, yet positive, impact on

My first job was working at a hair salon for blue-haired old ladies when I was 14 years old.  My job included washing and folding towels, helping customers in from their cars, and carefully covering their ears and hairline with a protective layer of cotton before placing them under a dryer to roast.  Most people would think that spending the summer surrounded by women older than my grandmother while my friends were spending endless days lounging by the pool talking about boys would be sheer torture, but not me.  I found these women fascinating!  After all, they had lived! Tales of the Great Depression, Kennedy’s assassination, and the Civil Rights movement were spinning in my head every day. But it was more than that. I read about all of these landmark events in history class.  The real stories were about how these monumental events shaped their everyday lives.  I learned of victory gardens and the personal decisions to treat people with dignity in the face of danger and alienation.  I saw how someone who did without as a child appreciates all that she has some 50+ years later and is quick to share with others as others had done with her.  I saw in the eyes of these women that a dream doesn’t die with an individual person but lives within all of us.  I saw passion, resilience, conviction, and a quiet strength.  I saw teachers who were willing to accept me as their pupil and I consider myself fortunate to have had one short summer to learn from these masters. When 2 Places At 1 Time, Inc. wass celebrating its 20-year anniversary, I  paid homage to the lessons learned from the past.  To do so, I propose that

When Americans’ work-life balance is disrupted, families bear the brunt, according to the StrategyOne 2010 survey of 1,043 Americans; however, most report that family is of greatest importance to us.  Think about your day to day life.  What responsibilities do you put off when you are short on time?  Do you find yourself having to decide whether to take your car for that much needed oil change or eat lunch?  How about the common American dinner time dilemma of opting for take-out as the only means of fitting in both a meal and time to help the children with homework?  How often do you find yourself short on time….weekly or daily?  It happens to all of us.  Although there isn’t a cure, there are several small things that you can do to lessen the frequency of these time-crunched frenzies. The first thing is to be realistic about what is really reasonable to accomplish in a given day.  Stop saying to yourself, “If only I could get my work done quicker, if I didn’t get stuck in traffic or in a line at the grocery store...”  These obstacles are out of our control and ever present in our lives.  Second, plan for the busy week ahead.  This is the very reason Rachel Ray’s new show “Cook 1 Day, Eat for 5” even exists!  If you can find a block of time, it is more efficient to shop for the entire week at once and spend 2 hours prepping the week’s ingredients.  During my 2 year olds Saturday nap, you can usually find me in the kitchen creating homemade marinades, prepping meat and chopping vegetables to be thrown into steamers or salads throughout the week.  However, the