Village in the Ville enjoyed a lovely meal together following a few volunteer hours at the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resources Center food pantry on Saturday. While Christine helped coordinate reorganizing the men’s and women’s apparel with the amazing Key Club Students (Kiwanis Club for High School), I helped teach 5 eager Circle K Members (Kiwanis Club for College Students) from Bowling Green, John Carroll, and Muskingum College how to use the Japanense system of 5-S (Sort, Set in Order, Standardize, Shine, Sustain) with our messy bookcases. They completely reorganized them into a masterpiece of usefulness and ease for our food pantry customers and after school kids clubbers to enjoy!
- Sort- Eliminate whatever is not needed by separating needed tools, parts, and instructions from unneeded materials. Students removed garbage, loose papers, outdated files, and 2019 calendars from the bookshelf and placed them into a shopping cart.
- Set in order- Organize whatever remains by neatly arranging and identifying parts and tools for ease of use. Students creatively used our food pantry bins to divide up the remaining useful books into groups: child, young adult, adult fiction, adult non-fiction, and media (Audiobooks, DVDs, CDs, VHS).
- Shine- Clean the work area by conducting a cleanup campaign. Once the bookshelves were clean and the non-useful items in the shopping cart were placed in the recycling, Circle K redressed the bookshelf in a logical order for the patrons, placing children’s books closest to the bottom for browsing. Adult books were placed on top for ease of not bending over. They were so proud of their work!
- Standardize- Schedule regular cleaning and maintenance. Fingers crossed that the CRC team can tidy as needed, given this was a quick service opportunity.
- Sustain- Make 5S a way of life by forming the habit of always following the first four S’s. It can feel really good to know the contents of your belongings and see them clearly in a well-organized manner. Kitchen cabinets, next?
After their hard work, our Village members came to enjoy a Valentine’s Day brunch with the students. Delicious food, good company, and a morning of time together well-spent.
