Hmmm, I have the time & the opportunity to volunteer again.
When I was in high school I did a lot of volunteer work. I've helped build houses with Habitat for Humanity & participated in Christmas in April (or June, we did this many times during the year). I've adopted needy families during the holidays & helped them decorate the christmas tree that we brought along with presents. I've also helped in the kitchen at the local homeless shelter. It felt great to be able to help others when they needed it the most.

After I graduated & got married, "real life" took over. I was consumed with work & didn't have time to clean my house, let alone help others. Years went by before I had another opportunity to volunteer. Last spring one of my clients asked me to come to her 3 rd grade class to teach the kids about muscles & working out. I was pretty excited. This was going to be a lot of fun. I answered questions that they had prepared on sticky notes. I taught them how to stretch & a few exercises they could do at home & what muscles those exercises were working. We all had a blast. The whole class wrote me thank you notes & my client brought them to me at her next session. These are a few of my favorites:

Dear Kristin,
I love the different muscles in our body. The exercises were so fun. Did you have fun with our class? Is my teacher a wimp? Your workout was interesting. Where is your gym? Finally thank you for coming.
Your friend,
Zach

Is my teacher a wimp? Ha, Ha! Yes, she is actually. We still had fun in her sessions though. She would've done better if she followed her nutrition plan & pushed herself in her "homework" workouts.

Dear Kristin,
Thank you from all of the class. I appreciated you coming in. I learned something new about the muscles. You were right in the morning. I was sore. I could barely stand up but after a while I could stand & walk. After dinner, we went on a walk & I did some of the stretches you taught us. Then we went to the basement to have a workout. That was really fun. I hadn't had a workout in so long so that helped the problem.
Thank You,
Shelby

Ok, my intention wasn't to cripple these kids! It's obvious that the childhood obesity trend is out of control & they could really benefit from more physical education.

Dear Kristin,
Thank You for coming to my class. I loved it when I felt like I was going to break in two. Boy, those crunches were hard. After class, wow, was I thirsty. Thank you again for coming to my class. I loved it.
From,
Tesia

This whole note is funny. Break in two? I don't even remember what exercise I gave them that might make her feel like this!

Dear Kristin,
Thank you for coming to our school on your day off. I really liked the workouts you taught us. My favorite was when we acted like we were in a chair. You sure know a lot about muscles. How did you learn so much? I want my mom to take me to the gym. My mom was really amazed that I knew so much about muscles. I said I got it from you.
Love,
Alex

This letter was cool because now the kids are telling their parents that they want to go to the gym & workout (they'll have to wait until they're 12 though).

Dear Kristin,
Thank you for coming to our class to help us stretch & workout. I think it was generous of you to come & waste your time & workout with us. I hope you can come again. I taught my parents your cool stretches. You have a cool job. I think I should workout more.
From,
Alex

Waste my time?! That was funny. I didn't feel like I wasted my time at all. Especially since they were inspired enough to teach their parents about the workouts & thinking that they needed to be more active as well.


It was a ton of fun to be with these kids for the afternoon & it made me miss volunteering. On my early maternity leave I had thought about doing it again, but when push came to shove, I didn't even have the energy to shower let alone help someone else. The day after Logan was born, someone from the TEDDY study (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young) came in & asked if they could use Logan's cord blood to test for genes that increase the risk for type 1 diabetes & it would also help them study the disorder to work on a cure. I didn't think much about it at the time. You know, after just giving birth, I wasn't thinking about much period.

We got a letter in the mail from them yesterday. The results from the test indicated that Logan has the higher risk gene for type 1 diabetes. This doesn't mean that he'll develop diabetes, but his chances are increased from 1 in 300 to 3 in 100. About 90% of kids don't develop diabetes, but the study is working on finding out why. So TEDDY sent this letter along with information about type 1 & asked if we would continue to participate. They would like to do physicals, draw blood & review diet records. If he does start to develop diabetes, they will know pretty far in advance & give us the heads up on what to look for at home. The benefit is that treatment can start early.

We also received a letter from the State Department of Psychology at the University of Denver asking if we would participate in studying the growth & development of infants & children. These studies are like mini-play sessions. They are trying to find out how Logan learns new things, when he starts to form memories that he will have for the rest of his life & how emotional experiences & social interactions influence his development.

I thought that these are interesting opportunities, being the health science geek that I am. With TEDDY, we would help the study & also benefit if Logan does end up developing type 1 diabetes. With the University study, it would help them learn new things about child development & it gets us out of the house & Logan interacting with other people & kids. I'm not sure if we are going to participate quite yet though. It is another opportunity to volunteer, however my only concern is making Logan feel like a lab rat.