A favor, please? (Dan H.)

DanHolohan

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/002-1268799-5348837?%5Fencoding=UTF8&id=12PCFLKD9BUMP">Book List</a>

We need these books for the women who live at the Icahn House West shelter in NYC. It's one of the reading clubs that we support here on the Wall.

If you can help by buying a book for the ladies I'll send you an autographed copy of my book, <i>Working</i>, as my way of saying thanks. Just email me after you buy the book.

When you get to the Shipping part of the Amazon.com site, choose New York Cares Literacy Program as the Ship To choice.


Thanks for helping the ladies!

Constantin

Done... bought three books... step right up!

...even though I don't particularly like supporting plagiarists like Yann Martel...

Currently, there are two book choices left. However, as the program is looking for multiple copies of each book (something I didn't notice at the time), you have yet an opportunity to buy some more to qualify for free shipping and all that.

DanHolohan

Just two there now

Thanks! Let me know where to send Working.

mailroom@heatinghelp.com

Alan R. Mercurio_3

Two more books just sent their way and it feels so good!

Your friend in the industry,
Alan R. Mercurio

www.oiltechtalk.com

DanHolohan

Thanks so much, Alan

Working is on its way to you.

Alan R. Mercurio_3

You're very welcome Dan. And thank you! Working is one of the books I don't have a personal copy of. I guess now I can say, didn't have

Your friend in the industry,
Alan R. Mercurio

www.oiltechtalk.com

DanHolohan

bump

;-)

Mike T., Swampeast MO

One More Down

Mike Thies

DanHolohan

Thanks, Mike!

Let me know where to send your autographed copy of Working.

Steve M

one on the way

I have a copy of Working, I highly recommend it. They only need 3 more copies of The House Gun.

Jim Bennett

I'm in

Done

Unknown

Ok.

2 more books on their way to New York Cares Literacy Program. One of each:)

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DanHolohan

Thanks SO much, lads

We have only two copies of The House Gun to go. Think we could fill that tonight?

Thanks so much.

DanHolohan

I'll share this with you.

I'm giving a little talk at a New York Cares event in December. This will give you a better sense of what this is all about Here 'tis:

My daughter, Meghan, who works in Annual Events for New York Cares is the sort of woman who wraps everyone around her in the sweetness of life. She is impossible to turn down. So when she told me one day that I was going to be the Site Captain at a school in Queens on New York Cares Day, and that I didn’t have to worry about not knowing what to do because she would be there to advise me, I just nodded my empty head, and I smiled. First-timer.

The walls of that school were the color of stale toast, and they’d been that way for generations. As Site Captain, I first got to be the cheerleader for a team of talented mural artists who showed up one lunchtime and worked on into the night, drawing characters from their imaginations all across those bland walls. We were all kids that night. The children came to school the next day and saw what my wonderful artists had done. I wasn’t there, but I heard about it. All these small voices gathered in wonder that morning. They walked to their classes and they looked at the walls. And there was something new and exciting about their school that day.

The following Saturday, about 80 volunteers, a real mix of New Yorkers, came to the school and spent the day painting those murals. Most of the volunteers didn’t know each other. What we had in common, though, was that we were all there together, working for free, and for children we had never met.

At the end of the day, I was bringing out the trash when a young boy and his mother came walking up the block. The boy, who looked to be a second-grader, stopped by the open front door and looked in at the brand-new rainbow of colors that soared up the main staircase. His eyes went as wide as saucers and he shouted, “Mom! They colored it all in! They did it!” He pointed frantically and he jumped up and down, and I thought he might faint. And then I thought about how the rest of them would react the next day – all those small voices.

In one day, we affected the lives of New York City children for the next 50 years, kids whose parents haven’t even been born yet. We affected them. That’s the wonder and the magic of volunteerism. It’s this idea of small voices coming together to be heard.

There’s a shelter on East Sixth Street and another on East Second Street down in Alphabet City and I team-lead a project in both of them. On East Sixth we take kids from Nazareth Housing to the library on a Saturday each month. It’s one of those glorious old Carnegie libraries where the light flows like honey through the tall windows and makes you feel like anything’s possible. We read to the kids and we listen to their small voices as they read back to us. They follow the words across the pages with little fingers, often mixing the English with the Spanish and making that scrunched face that kids make over the tough words, and we tell them that they are beautiful and smart and strong, and I honestly believe we’re changing the world when we do this. You never stand so tall as when you stoop to help a child.

On East Second Street the people in Barrier Free Living are older. They’re all disabled but they play a mean game of Bingo. That’s what we do there. We play Bingo. And for an hour or so each month we laugh and we compete for little prizes – a bar of soap, a deck of cards, a small radio. Sometimes we’ll play for the entire island of Bermuda because our prizes are unbelievable (they really are), and that makes them laugh, and that laughter is beautiful to hear because it doesn’t come along nearly enough.

A friend once asked me if those people in the shelters are scary. I explained that the only difference between them and us is about six paychecks, or the lack of a good medical plan after a devastating illness.

Life is fragile and so sweet, and the small voices of the kids on East Sixth and those of the folks on East Second constantly remind me of that. And this is also why I volunteer. There’s a gulf of years between my library kids and my Bingo people, and we need to be there in those years because life is so fragile.

Last September 11, I had the privilege of representing New York Cares in the Honor Guard at Ground Zero. My wife, Marianne, was also there with me that day. At one point, a man came around and talked to each of us in the Honor Guard. When he got to me he noticed my New York Cares shirt and he told me about his wife. He said that she used to send her old coats to the coat drive. He was so peaceful, carrying a single rose, and he spoke of her with such love. He was smiling and thanking us over and over again for just being there. I'm glad that I was.

At one point, we were walking out on a change of shift when they rang the bell. This was the moment when the North Tower fell. Everyone stopped and stood very still. It was incredibly quiet and then I heard someone sobbing. Once the moment was over, I turned to see who it was. He was about 40 years old and he was holding the hand of a young boy. All the grief in the world was on his face. I wrapped my arms around him and just held him. So did the woman who was to my left in the honor guard. I didn’t know her. We just hugged him, and he hugged us back. And we spoke to him in small voices. We’re so sorry for your loss. We’re so sorry. We’re here for you.

And I think that's probably why I was there on that day – to hug that guy. I told this to Oriana Palumbo at New York Cares because she was the woman who sent us there that day. If not for her, that guy might not have been hugged, and in that way, she was there as well. And so were you. We were all there because we are New Yorkers, and New York Cares.

Isn't life so sweet? And isn't it wonderful how circumstances can come together to turn terrible sadness into love? How it can help a child to read, or a disabled person to laugh, if only for just a little while.

Each of us is but a small voice, but when we join those voices together we have the power to help others, and in doing so, we change the world.

And this is why I volunteer.

DanHolohan

bump

Thanks, lads.

Unknown

Thank you

for sharing that with us Dan.

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Gary Jansen_2

books

3 on the way from the fabulous Lauren and me

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G Averill_2

Books

Two more on the way, Dan. Thanks for the opportunity to do something good today.

eric_2

1 more

House Gun on it's way. What a great way to kick-off the weekend.

Steve_35

Wish List

Has the list been filled? I jsut went there and nothing shows up.

Dave Yates (PAH)

Wish list

Well, color me blind as a bat, but I can't find any items on the wish list. No matter which link I click on, I get re-routed to the opening page. Have all the books been sold or ordered?

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DanHolohan

Done!

Thanks for being there for me, folks. You're wonderful people.