So now you have a basic framework for why I volunteered to be the go-to guy for this year's Angel Tree effort at work. My job would have been to get 15 tags from the Salvation Army, give them out to sub-coordinators, wait a few weeks, then collect and deliver the bags, but I wanted to see how the whole thing was run from beginning to end. Getting the tags and waiting around is just the middle part of this process.
The Salvation Army is always looking for volunteers to do this and that so it was no surprise to me when the local rep told me they needed people to "process applications". I said "Cool. Sign me up." and picked a two-hour shift from the available times. I figured I would be sifting through a pile of paper or electronic forms in some back room somewhere.
No.
I showed up at the local SA and stood outside with a crowd of other folks waiting to get in - the door was locked. After a few minutes someone recognized me through the glass and showed me in to the gymnasium. The door was promptly relocked.
The gym floor was divided into three sections by tarps and dilapidated wooden equipment shelves. The first section contained 140 folding chairs and was where the interviewees could sit and fill out their paper applications. The second section, behind the tarp, was where after-school kids could play basketball or whatever until someone came to get them. The third section is where people like me would be interviewing people and approving or disapproving their applications on a case-by-case basis.
After a short training session the doors were unlocked and we (the interviewers) were sent off to our tables. Most of the other SA employees there were clustered around socializing - there really wasn't much for them to do except hand out the occasional clipboard or write a name on a list. They were just doing what any close group of co-workers would do during their downtime, but I am not quite sure what they were doing there in the first place or why six of them were needed to do it.
We (I and the other interviewer) had both come directly from work and were dressed as such. Way, way overdressed for the job of looking over hopeful applicant's paperwork and pawing through birth certificates, social security cards, letters of Power of Attorney, gas bills, and whatever other evidence these sometimes-clearly-sometimes-not-so-clearly needy folks had to present to be allowed the chance of getting a couple of new shirts or a winter coat or a cheap RC car for their kid(s).
I felt like a 1930‘s banker. I felt like a fraud.
As I would peruse these documents some folks were obviously embarrassed to be going through this. They were nervous and sad and would spontaneously go into great detail about why they were there as I was going down my checklist. Some of the stories were truly heartbreaking - especially ones involving the newly born or the newly departed. It was plain the person just wanted someone to sit and listen to them for a while. 2011 has been a hard year for a lot of people.
That said, for every one of these terrified and nearly apologetic applicants that I saw, four would come through that were deadened or otherwise ambivalent to the process, and one other would come through vocally annoyed that there was a process at all - this program was their God-given right, after all.
For what it's worth, I didn't turn away or recommend against anyone being helped during my shift. I mean, even if someone didn’t demonstrate the proper level of need (they all did, FWIW), who the hell am I? I’ll tell you who - I am just some overdressed jackass with ten minutes of training who is one cosmic coin flip from sitting on the other side of the interview table.
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