Pulling Weeds

I've learned two more things about volunteering. 

#1: It's hard to fit it into your schedule. 

I can bake bread or pin felt on a wreath at 5am or 11pm if I need to. 

I can only volunteer when the organizations have events for me...

...and I am free.

I'm not making excuses. This doesn't mean I can't do it. I just have to be creative, and put effort into scheduling. And not let a social invitation get in the way.

#2: Many volunteer opportunities want you to commit anywhere from once a week to once a month for an entire year.

While this would probably be very gratifying, I would hate to bore my blog readers, or myself, so I'm trying to vary it up.

This requires me to be even more creative, and find a volunteer opportunity that I can do without committing to a year or needing a background check, that is offered on a date when I am available. 

Which brings me to my weed pulling...

I was perusing the Arlington Volunteer website looking for an opportunity that fit the above criteria, and with a busy month for me full of summer school, bridal showers, and trips to Charlottesville, Tennessee, and Chicago, I was ironically very lucky to be able to pull weeds ;)

Gulf Branch Nature Center in Arlington was looking for people to come late one Sunday afternoon to help them control the weeds in their park.

Apparently this culprit...

...is a Perilla mint weed which is single handedly taking over the parks in Arlington with no purpose in life except to poison animals and take up space that could otherwise be occupied by plants that help the food chain rather than hurt it.

Who knew?

So we (myself, along with an overzealous Environmental Science major who just so happened to be from UVA and now leads these clean-ups, and 4 or 5 other community members) headed off into this forest full of Perilla to pull it one bunch at a time.

Was it exactly what I wanted to be doing on a hot Sunday afternoon? Not really.

But I learned something new, met a few iiiiinteresting people, and have a new appreciation for people who take care of our parks.