I joined nearly a thousand people who had gathered at a downtown hotel in DC to fete Mrs. Obama at the Congressional Club’s 102nd First Lady’s Luncheon. The décor? Silhouettes of the White House chandeliers from paper cutouts to printed Kravet tablecloths. The theme? Shining a light on the nation’s volunteers. Get it? Chandeliers…shining a light. Yeah, they may have taken it a bit far, but it was lovely and the message was certainly inspiring: “It is so important for children to see men and women of power stepping out of their comfort zone by volunteering,” the First Lady said from the dais. “We teach them to set goals and that we value them.”
But it was her actions that spoke louder than her words.
The next day the same people who’d honored Mrs. Obama at the chic luncheon, traded their Manolos for Converse and were working right alongside her at the Adams Morgan neighborhood elementary school. Word has it, volunteering was part of the lunch deal.
Children from two arts and humanities-related non-profits—both recipients of the White House’s Coming Up Taller awards—were on hand while Mrs. Obama and her lunch companions painted murals and created both butterfly and vegetable gardens. “It’s so good that everyone has made a commitment to step out of our tea dresses and away from the crystal and to roll up our sleeves and be ready to paint and to get a little dirty,” the country’s volunteer-in-chief, the First Lady, said.
No one seemed to mind the grunge under their manicures and while the kids were overjoyed, the Congressional spouses had a ball. “A volunteer opportunity like this is a great way to do something good and get together with women we really like,” said Debbie Dingell, the former head of Global Outreach for General Motors and wife of Michigan Congressman John Dingell talking about volunteering with friends who happen to be other Congressional spouses at the Marie H. Reed Learning Center in Washington, D.C. “We just don’t get together enough.”
Mrs. Obama and her gal pals were engaging in what so many working people pressed for quality time crave—spending time with friends while giving something more of themselves.
I can’t sustain a book club for the life of me, and the idea of a leisurely lunch with my girlfriends is a laughable fantasy, but I don’t doubt my girlfriends would jump at the chance to take their kids to volunteer with me and my kids for a couple hours this weekend. Perhaps we’ll head to a farm to glean, a garden to mulch, a park to pick up after or even a food pantry to stock. I get the sense we’d all feel a lot more fulfilled, and a lot more connected to each other. Hmm… Maybe we can all take a page from Michelle’s playbook and make volunteering part of the deal.
By Karen Somer Shallet, editor of DC Magazine.
