Oliver Moss

I signed up for a Solve community clean up event pretty far from me, but it worked with my schedule. Way out in east Portland. But, the organizer never showed.

This was a partnered event. Some events Solve just does on their own, they are supply volunteers to other projects, like the cemetery restoration project. Yesterday's event turned out to be partnered with a program aimed at reducing gun violence, and one thing they've found that's effective in that is making sure kids actually have places to play, good environments, so they can build community and social skills. I ran into a guy there from the org we were supposed to be helping and we had a nice chat about how all that works.

One guy who showed had his own equipment and went to work. Some volunteers just get their own set of gloves and things after a while. I'd have stayed and done some de-trashing by hand, but due to my food allergies I do not touch garbage without a grabber. So I was like 'yeah... I get how that works. My own town had a big reckoning with that after an incident... ok bye!'

I felt bad, but without Solve showing with equipment, risking an allergic reaction would suck. I think Solve is usually solid and hopefully this doesn't happen again, but also I might buy some disposable gloves just in case.

My next scheduled event is at... Darcelle XV Plaza! It's kinda funny, we just opened it! But also it's in downtown so, yeah, by next week it will probably need some polish.