Working on a Saturday

Well it is a beautiful Saturday morning in New York City and I am currently writing this blog post from my office at ABC. Now normally I don’t work on Saturdays, but today is a special occasion. One of my biggest projects so far has finally come to fruition. In the beginning of January, I received information in a newsletter about the American Italian Cancer Foundation’s Mobile Mammogram Van. The AICF provides free breast cancer screenings for women, including those who are uninsured. I thought that our community’s population in East Harlem would greatly benefit from such a service, so I scheduled a visit.

Little did I know, this would turn into an enormous project. I had to arrange a minimum of 30 appointments, and the women had to be over 40 years old. Considering my main contacts in the community are the parents of our Head Start students who are all very young, I soon realized that I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone and reach out to the wider community.

I started slowly by posting flyers at local libraries, laundromats, and schools. When we were still short on appointments with less than two weeks to go, I realized I had to get more involved. I went to the local Salvation Army building, reached out to East Harlem’s City Council representative, and formed linkages with several of the other service organizations in the area. I went back to the laundromats, libraries, and schools, but this time I tried to engage any women I met there. I learned their stories and they helped spread the word through word-of-mouth in the very close-knit community. Suddenly, the appointments were pouring in.

Before this project, I was definitely an outsider in East Harlem, but now I feel genuinely connected to the community. It has been a really special experience in my fellowship and totally worth coming into work on a Saturday.