Sam's Recital

Our friend Sam played a recital at The Royal Conservatory of Music (on Bloor Street West, just west of the ROM) on Saturday. It was for his graduation.

A few of us that volunteer with him at the Out of the Cold program at Knox went down to watch him. He play quite a few different selections for a total of 1-1/2 hours. It was very good. He's quite a talented pianist.

I didn't take very many photos because I didn't want to cause too much of a disturbance. It's funny how a little click from your camera carries throughout the auditorium. Quite often I would wait, wait, wait with my finger on the shutter release until he played a loud stretch of music before taking the picture.

After the recital a few of us went to Chinatown for dinner (with some other people from Knox). Sam joined some other friends. I'm sure we'll see him another time. His presence was sought by many this evening. Mr. Popular for sure.

OOTC Dishwashing Crew - 2011

This is a photo of the 2011 version of the dishwashing crew at the Out of the Cold program at Knox Presbyterian Church. From left are Sam, Yonni, Pattra and myself. Missing are Harim and Daphne (who took the picture).

These guys have been great helping out. Sam and Yonni are great with the dishwasher. Pattra, Harim and Daphne put the clean dishes and pots and pans away. While I'm at the double-sink pre-scrubbing all the gunk off the pots and pans before we run them through the washer. We run like a well-oiled machine.

Still, at the height of the rush, things can get pretty intense. Piles and piles of dirty dishes flood in after the youths finish eating. We really have to move quickly otherwise things will pile up in one area or another. Thanks to the extraordinary effort of this great team we always manage to squeak by.

Over the five or so years I've been helping at Knox, I've met a lot of wonderful people. Many of them have moved on, but there are a few stalwart volunteers. Vicki and Bill (the organizers) are two of course. And there's Pat and Holly who prepare the food, and Darlene who runs the sewing clinic. Pat has been around for a long time. He's a real trooper. I'm certainly blessed to have met all these amazing people.