Guest Blogger: Mike Schramm
Mike Schramm is a Chicago-based freelance writer. He is usually up to something mischievous at his website, mikeschramm.com.
When I first started volunteering at 826CHI, I had but one goal in mind: to serve and educate the children of Chicago, and help them do
their very best in their academic studies.
No, I’m only kidding. I just wanted to meet Dave Eggers.
I liked the guy’s work, and I wanted to ask him about his days at Might magazine. I wanted to ask him what was next for McSweeney’s
(and specifically why they hadn’t ever accepted any submissions of mine). I figured I’d come in after school on Thursdays, help the
little kids with their little homework, and bide my time until I got to shake the hand of the man the New York Times called “talented–
yes, staggeringly talented.”
A few months in, we had a volunteer meeting, and sure enough, he was there. Afterwards, I walked up and introduced myself. But strangely enough, I didn’t talk to him about work at all. I talked about the kids. I told him how I’d seen one little boy’s face light up like a pinball machine when he discovered he knew how to multiply two three-digit numbers together. I told him how I’d seen these kids read
their work to a rapt audience at the MCA. I told him about a terrific story one of the older guys had written. Sure, it was about Little Red Riding Hood parachuting into a nest of giant spiders, but I’ll be darned if you couldn’t see, clear as day, every little hair on their giant arachnid legs. The kid had a gift for description, and thanks to 826, he was using it.
Eggers nodded knowingly the whole time. He’s been doing this for years. He knows the power these kids have, and why it’s so valuable not just to have 826 here for them, but to have them here at 826. I totally forgot to ask him about Might.
Now, I’ve been volunteering at 826 for just over six months. McSweeney’s still hasn’t gone for any of my submissions (although I’ve got a “VH1’s Best Week Ever Written by Edgar Allen Poe” piece in the queue that I’m sure they’ll love). But every Thursday, I get the priviledge of serving and educating the children of Chicago, and helping them do their very best in their academic studies. And as secondary goals go, I guess that one’s not bad.