Things to Do

Archive for "Things to Do"

A Week of Doing Good

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.

It’s that time of year again and we’re doing pledge drives at both of my jobs. At my primary job we have what’s called Your Gift Your Choice. It used to be the United Way campaign but we changed it a few years ago so that employees weren’t limited to donating to just the United Way. Now we have dozens of organizations to choose from which has actually increased engagement and participation. Sometimes we have folks who don’t want to give to United Way but they’re passionate about other causes. The new Your Gift Your Choice format allows us to support those causes via payroll deduction.

Here’s what our participation looks like just a week into the campaign. Amazing!

At my part time side-gig for the Greater Wichita YMCA we have pledge drives for both United Way and the YMCA annual campaign. Since I’m donating to the United Way through my primary job, I didn’t pledge anything on my YMCA paycheck but I’ll be donating almost all of my classes back to the YMCA through the YMCA annual campaign.

Here’s my friend Teresa installing a computer at La Familia Senior and Community Center. We met Dr. Carla Lee, Executive Director of La Familia, last year during our Leadership Wichita community service project. She told our team that she needed help with technology and wanted some computers that work. They had several computers at the center but they weren’t connected. Last week my teammates Teresa, Jason, and I installed computers that were donated by High Touch (Jason’s employer). We spent Wednesday afternoon connecting all of the computer terminals. Jason even got on a ladder and fixed network cable through the ceiling tiles.

High Touch donated CPUs, keyboards, mice, and cables and then we just salvaged the existing monitors that the center already had. The monitors weren’t pretty but they worked just fine.

On Thursday morning several colleagues and I attended the United Way campaign kickoff at Century II. The theme this year is “Readers Become Leaders” and we created about 400 reading kits during the kickoff event.

It’s amazing considering we assembled the reading kits in just 10 minutes.

Some of the books that went into our boxes were previously donated and were already at our table but all of the event attendees were encouraged to bring a copy of their favorite children’s book or books. I didn’t get the invitation to attend until the day before so I didn’t have a chance to go to the store to buy books. I had to give up a copy of my favorite children’s book which I grabbed from the bookshelf in the office.

I was bummed that I had to give up my copy but also felt good that I was donating it to a great cause. I ended up ordering a few more copies of The Little Prince on Amazon. This isn’t the first time that I gave a copy of it away and it probably won’t be the last so I thought I better stock up. One of the copies is earmarked for my little sister. The two books I’ve gotten her for her birthdays have been Dork Diaries books, her favorite series. I’m thinking it’s probably time that I got her a copy of one of my favorites. It’s funny that it took the United Way campaign kickoff to make me think of it. I should have thought of giving her a copy sooner.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up my busy and rewarding week. This week is more of the same — lots of work with volunteering and donating and fundraising sprinkled in.

No Comments

Labor Run 2015 and Race to Remember

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Ching under Things to Do.

We had the annual Labor Run for the Treehouse last Monday, September 7, at Sedgwick County Park. Kidzcope Good Grief 5K was going at the Waterfront and then I think there was another run at the park also that same day, which was kind of a bummer. The last couple of years we’ve enjoyed being the only running event on Labor Day.

Participation was down this year but all the important people came to support the Treehouse. The Dills, Aharon, and Alison were all there. Alison even took first in her age range. You can check out the full race results at Oz Endurance.

I know Labor Day weekend is a popular time of year for out of town trips so for my friends who were busy and unable to participate in the run last week, you have another chance to run around Sedgwick County Park for a great cause. The Kansas DUI Impact Center is hosting our second Race to Remember DUI Victims and Survivors event which will be held at Sedgwick County Park on October 17.

If you are unable to run but would like to support the Kansas DUI Impact Center, please consider donating by sponsoring my fundraising effort. Your donation dollars make a difference toward reducing the traumatic effect a drunk driving crash has on victims and their families and increases awareness of the human consequences of drunk driving. Thank you in advance for your generosity and support!

No Comments

Murphy’s Law

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Ching under Life, Things to Do.

Figures. I finally pay off my car and I mess it up. In my defense, it wasn’t my fault. It was because of the poorly finished parking lot at the Hill.

The parking stalls right next to the restaurant have these cement parking blocks. Most of them have been properly constructed/finished except for a couple that still have rebar sticking up out of them.

There’s one in a handicapped parking stall. The other is in the very first parking stall, which is the one that snagged my car.

I was paying attention to Brian’s car that was already parked and I was just relieved to find a parking spot right by the entrance so I didn’t notice the rebar. Plus, it wasn’t really noticeable. I mean, who leaves rebar sticking out of a parking block like that?

I didn’t want people who were pulling into the tight parking lot to hit the back bumper of my car so I pulled in all the way. Normally I have no problem clearing those concrete parking blocks so I typically pull in all the way until I feel the block against my front tires. Anyway, the front fender has some give so I didn’t feel the rebar going in. I didn’t realize what had happened until I was pulling out of the parking spot after lunch and I heard a crunching sound.

I called Brian who was taking grandma home first. I told him to please check my car when he got home because I thought I messed up my front bumper. I was hoping for the best but prepared for the worst, which is sadly the case. Brian confirmed it as soon he got home and was able to inspect the car. I messed up the clips so the front bumper needs to be replaced in order to get Alex back to normal.

Half a dozen quotes later from various body shops around town, we found out that it’s going to cost at least $1,000 to effectively fix the damage. Cheapest quote was Auto Paint Repair at $855. The most expensive quote was $1140 from Carstar. I initially wanted to go with the lowest price because I didn’t want to file an insurance claim and risk losing my good driver discount; however, Brian really had his heart set on Carstar. They fixed Bebot after our rear-end collision last year and they did a really good job.

Twelve hundred dollars is a lot of money so I decided to sleep on it. A friend at work (Derek) told me that the front end doesn’t look too bad so I could probably wait to get it fixed. It’s just that I’m afraid to wash the car or nudge the front bumper in some way because I don’t want the bumper to fall off or worsen the damage. Lately we’ve been trying to drive around in Bebot more and not use Alex as much so we don’t make things worse, except on days when we’re both working because then I don’t have a choice but to drive Alex.

I’ll eventually need to get Alex fixed but hopefully I can postpone it long enough to where I have enough money saved up so I won’t have to settle for the least expensive quote and I can get it done by Carstar (Brian’s first choice). Getting Alex fixed may just have to be my birthday present this year. Sigh.

If you have some spare change and would like to donate to the Alex repair fund, clickity click the donate button on the right. Thanks in advance for your generous donation. I really appreciate it.

No Comments

Labor Run 2015

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.

Looking for something fun to do on Labor Day? Come join us at Sedgwick County Park for Labor Run 2015. It’s a fun run/walk event that benefits The Treehouse, an organization that offers mothers and babies a brighter future through sharing God’s love, basic necessities, education, and genuine personal care. Please help us make this event a success by participating. Brian and I are helping with the run again this year so we hope to see you guys there!

Click below to see pictures from Labor Run 2014.

Click below to see pictures from Labor Run 2013.

No Comments

Lost Sock II Laundromat

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Ching under Things to Do.

There are laundromats and then there are laundromats.

We learned about this holy grail of laundromats from our friends Reby and Aaron after seeing some posts about the place on their Facebook. This laundromat has several old school pinball machines and classic arcade games and most of the games only take a quarter to operate.

I’ve never really been fond of laundromats except when we need to wash our comforters. We’re generally in and out and don’t really have a desire to linger. This is the first laundromat we’ve ever visited without needing to do any laundry. We specifically went for the games. Lost Sock is kind of a strange place to take a date but, if you’ve been with your boyfriend or girlfriend awhile, this would be a great place for a cheap date.

It’s a lot of fun and, the best part is, they’re open 24/7. If you ever need to wash anything, I highly recommend checking out Lost Sock. Or you could go just for the games like we did. Here are some photos…