From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey!

 

From Beale Street to  Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey!

This is the title of a series of upcoming photo/video collages that I've been working on for the photos and videos taken during the all expense paid volunteer trip to Memphis, Tennessee, US that took place August 2008. 

  You may have already seen the couple of videos I'd previously uploaded. In fact, the first ever video that I uploaded to YouTube was from this particular trip. 

Billy Bob playing with a local band in Memphis, TN, USA - August 3, 2008

https://youtu.be/Eo-bxR0gSPM?si=yMvAPV1HIp3Qi6Pm

The two other videos previously uploaded that you may have already seen, were from another volunteer, Zhil, who flew in from Shanghai, China.  

Meeting Bullseye at Target House - August 2008, video by friend Zhil

https://youtu.be/bpTB5ksuqo8?si=kOheYI-s7VBhhj31

Silly String Fight at Target House - August 2008, video by friend Zhil

https://youtu.be/p65sKj6PfK0?si=vKp2s2NfakfDxdRg

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - https://www.stjude.org

About Target House - Target House is a Long-term lodging facility. Patients are assigned to Target House if their treatment is scheduled to last more than three months. The facility is made possible by Target Stores and their commitment to give back to their communities

https://www.stjude.org/care-treatment/patient-families/campus-information/housing/target-house.html

Read about this trip from when it was originally blogged:

Why did he go to Memphis? 

https://elkirbster.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-did-he-go-to-memphis.html

Off to Memphis - August 2, 2008

https://elkirbster.blogspot.com/2008/08/off-to-memphis-august-2-2008.html

Memphis, Little Rock, and Billy Bob! - August 3, 2008

https://elkirbster.blogspot.com/2008/08/memphis-little-rock-and-billy-bob.html

Civil Rights Museum, Meet & Greet, and Bullseye! - August 4, 2008

https://elkirbster.blogspot.com/2008/08/civil-rights-museum-meet-greet-and.html

Memphis Trip - August 5th & 6th

https://elkirbster.blogspot.com/2008/09/memphis-trip-august-5th-6th.html

Goodbye 2008, Welcome to the new year!!

What a year two-thousand eight has been. From mourning the passing of my grandma the previous x-mas to Reventon Superestrella to Memphis(follow link for one post of various) and volunteering(follow link for one post of various throughout the year), diversity events(follow link for one post of various throughout the year), LGBT issues, moving/not moving, the economy, the election, a new job position, and everything in between. What a year!!! is all I can say. Let's hope I have learned from my mistakes.

New year's resolutions: save money, better diet/exercise, get organized, move, go green, visit family, at least one vacation, love, purge, and so many more... really I'm just listing things I would like to do that are not necessarily going to happen.


Here's some photos of this past year:




To the coming two-thousand nine, you be good now!

Quick recap of October 2008... and September...

This October there were just so many things... and I wanted to blog about them as they happened... I did try keeping up the first part of the month, but then there were a few weekends in a row where I had things to do on both Sat and Sun that it didn't happen. Either way, I think that I like blogging about things once they have happened more than about when they are coming up... Seems like when I talk/blog about things before they occur the majority of the time they end up not happening or the initial plan changes... Anyway here is a quick(maybe not so quick) re-cap of October... and a bit of September...

So really where to start.. So I did blog about the Sept. 3rd WNBA MERCURY vs Lynx game, and during the same post I talked a bit about the Hispanic Heritage Month event on Sept 17th, that I helped put together for work, as well as a brief get together on Sept 20th at Pedro's house, that was nice, but one can only take so much karaoke in one night...

I missed talking about Sept 5th... I made brownies and banana bread for a school event. I placed generous portions on a foam plate and individually put them inside plastic baggies tied with a red raffia bow. I thought they came out really nice. I also donated some hot dogs and hamburgers for the event. There were various booths at the event, although it was a bit dusty... Note for next time, make signs with info on what is being sold and at what price.

Sept 21st was the HAPA concert at the Orpheum Theater...

Sept 25th I did a presentation at work on my Target House Trip...

• Meeting Bullseye at Target House - August 5, 2008, video by friend Zhil 
• Silly String Fight at Target House ~ August 5, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 2, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 3, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 4, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 5, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Naomi ~ August 3-5, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Robin ~ August 5, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Amy ~ August 3-6, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Danette ~ August 4-6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Zhil ~ August 5-6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Other Volunteers ~ August 5-6, 2008

Sept 27th was a day trip from Phoenix to northern AZ and then back down to Phoenix.


Then October...


October 1st went Halloween shopping, didn't buy anything, just browsed to see what kinds of halloweeny stuff was out this year... I'll have more on Halloween in ab it...

October 4th went to a Muslim Festival in Tempe... there were booths with crafts, food, travel booklets, there was also a museum like information that was put together of the history of Muslims in AZ, and a stage. Browsed for a bit then went to the Rainbows Festival. At this one there were tons of booths with crafts, food, travel info, other events info, etc. It was packed.

October 5th I participated in the City of Hope breast cancer walk. This walk went through the Phoenix Zoo. This is the second year I have participated. Last year I was focused on walking and finishing as fast as possible. This year I took time in order to take more photos of the event and the zoo animals, specially the zoo animals :)

October 12th was the Tempe Tardeada... On my previous post I just put a link to their site and a brief that the event celebrates Tempe's Hispanic culture and community history. So when I got there, I browsed through their craft and informational booths, food booths, and their stage. There was a mariachi, I think from Tucson, playing when I got to the stage area. I drank a Coca-Cola made in Mexico. It's sweeter than the US made Coke. It brought me back to the weekends I would be at my grandmother's house. I want one just thinking of it...

October 17th... Not really an event that I went to, but this day is when I voted early... Just thought it needed at least a line about it... I took a photo of my ballot before I voted and after I voted.

October 18th.., This day was packed full of events and wish I could have done all. There were three really that I wanted to go to, but only got to do two of them. First, the one I was not able to go to was Tucson Pride. I would have needed to wake up super early to drive to Tucson and then would have only been able to be there a couple hours before I would need to head back. Maybe next year. So the events I did go to... During the day I went to the Roosevelt Row Harvest Festival. It was great to see many different types of art and artists. I wanted to take photos of everything but I didn't as I thought maybe the artists may not want photos of their artwork out there. So I took just a few photos of the event, but I did take one photo of one piece of art though, a dress where the bottom portion was made out of cut up plastic bags. Later that day, I participated in the Light the Night Walk @ the Tempe Town Lake. Seems that there were less vendors than last year.

October 19th began the Childsplay's 2008-09 Spectacular Season of Theatre for Young Audiences and Families @ the Tempe Center for the Arts. I helped to put stickers on the book The Velveteen Rabbit which is one of the upcoming shows. This night they previewed the play called Getting Near to Baby, based on the book by Audrey Couloumbis. I got to stay and watch the play.

Octber 25th I helped at the St. Mary's Food Bank. It was my first time helping at a food bank. I got to help in the sorting of food donated my various different stores. They have to be sorted and weighed one store at a time, reason being each particular store wants to know how much they donated. So from noon to 3pm I helped out in tossing the donated food that was unusable. I am so glad I got to participate and help out, however it is amazing how much food goes to waste.

October 26th I helped put together walker packs for the JDRF walk that took place on Nov 1st. I got there a bit early, but I was able to start putting together the packs. It was to take us about 5 hours to put together the packs, but we were able to do it in 2 hours. I wasn't able to go to the walk itself.

October 31st... Was able to get off work about an hour early to come home and give out candy and frights.

Visit my myspace, Facebook, or livespace for photo albums... :)

Hope you all have a happy start to the Holidays!

2026-08-06 Update: Added link to Facebook and removed link to livespace which doesn't exist any longer. Removed some outdated links and some replaced with links to their corresponding YouTube videos from my channel.

2026-08-18 Update: Added link to the short video I created for the YouTube channel for the JDRF Walk Super Sunday Volunteer event and links to the various videos and photo video collages form my visit at Target House.

Memphis Trip - August 5th & 6th

So the last 2 days of my Memphis Trip were the volunteer days. The night before I met the the other 34 volunteers(had drinks with some at Stax) and Bullseye, who would make an appearance at Target House later.

August 5th:

So after breakfast we all went to St Jude and saw the preparations that were already taking place at the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion, where the festival, themed Pajama Jam, would take place the next day. We were to take a tour of St Jude and afterwards help with the setting up of the event. We had a couple of hours before the tour guides would arrive. During this time we had the chance to go to the St Jude store, where all the proceeds go right back to the hospital, and the garden around the Danny and Rose Marie Thomas Memorial Garden, which is right behind the pavilion. After a quick visit to the store and the garden, there was a lot of time, so some of us started with the preparations, and soon after all volunteers were putting something together before we even took the tour.

Once the tour guides arrived, we were split into 3 groups. We were allowed to take photos inside only making sure we weren't taking pictures of children unless permission was obtained by the parent or guardian. I chose to not take photos inside the hospital. The hospital is HUGE!

After the St Jude tour we went back to the pavilion to continue with the setup and to sign up for the station each of us wanted to help out during the event. I chose the craft section.

We then headed to Target House. We met the house mama, who took us on a tour of Target House. Dinner with parents and their children followed. We helped with the remaining setup of a craft table. It was an informal dinner gathering where we got to know some of the parents and children. Some of the children at Target House would be going to the Pajama Jam the next day.

A silly string fight was to follow. It would be a free for all fight including the children and volunteers who wanted to participate. It was so much fun!

Back to the hotel after this. Several others were going to meet up to go to Beale. I had been there already each day i had been there, so this time I opted to go to sleep early as the next day would be an early and busy long day with the Pajama Jam and then flying back to Phoenix.


August 6th:

After an early breakfast we all headed to the ALSAC Pavilion at St Jude to rap up the last of the setup before the festival was to start. We took group photos and the festival started. The craft section consisted of 3 crafts, door hangers, rainmakers, and dream catchers. I helped with the rainmakers. I spent quite a bit of time in the rainmaker section, after which I was replaced so I could go have lunch. I really really wanted to go to the Guitar Hero section. So after lunch instead of coming back to the rainmaker section I went to the Guitar Hero station and helped children play and i myself played against one kid who beat me at all but the last game. I was so enthralled in this station that I didn't notice the festival had ended and everyone was tearing down the event while that one kid and I played Guitar Hero. Eventually they told us that it was time to stop since the event was over and they were putting away the games and what not.

I did a quick stop and shop as the St Jude store. We were then driven back to the hotel, from which we would then be driven to the airport come our flight time. Everyone had different flight schedules depending on where they were flying back to. My flight was scheduled until around 7pm, so Robin and I went to the Peabody and an early dinner at PaPa Pia's.

Our flight back was smooth except for the last 20 minutes or so where we experienced turbulence. It was probably the most turbulence I have experienced on a flight.

Now:

Now I am working on a small presentation for work on the trip :)









... Updated 02/14/2010, added link to PaPa Pia's http://www.papapias.com

Why did he go to Memphis?

If you read my May's stuff post, then you know that I was selected to go on an "all expense" paid trip to Memphis. The paid part was the flight, hotel, meals, transportation from August 4th - 6th, however since I chose to fly in 2 days early on Saturday, August 2nd I had to make my own accommodation arrangements for those 2 nights. I chose to go early so I could get in some touring in Memphis, since the other days were already planned with events. I'm glad I did.

Now I didn't elaborate then how I got chosen or what the trip was for, so I'll do it now.

The trip itself was to tour Target House, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and participate in a couple volunteer events. One was a meet and greet at Target House and the other was a festival for the the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. More specifics on those on later posts.

In order to be considered to be selected, I wrote brief essay like answers to 3 questions. What volunteer events had I participated in the past 12 months, what my passion for volunteering is, and why I wanted to participate in this volunteer trip. (Haven't decided yet if I want to post what I submitted) I don't know how many other co-workers submitted for consideration, but I was ecstatic when I found out I was one of the four from our location to participate.

In all it was 35 volunteers, including the event coordinator, that came from various locations. The majority were from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I was one of the four from Tempe, Arizona, USA. There was also a co-worker from Seoul, Korea and another from Shanghai, China and a few others from other US cities/states.

So if you did not know why I went to Memphis, now you know. :)