4 Monday, October 5,1998
PSH pitches in with United Way Day of Caring
By Lauren Capitani
Staff Writer
Fifty-six Penn State Harrisburg
faculty, staff and students gave up
part of Fri., Sept. 11, to volunteer
for United Way’s Annual Day of
Caring. Volunteers gave their time
to one of three sites: the American
Red Cross; Goodwill Industries;
and the Allegheny Valley School.
Several companies in the area
Jesse Gutierrez --
PART II
Pop, crack, snap. Eugene’s spine
tingles as the skin bunches up on his
forehead and his shoulders raise. He
drops his fork and quickly looks across
the table to his daughter Sara, who sits
at the table night after night with her
headphones on ... chewing gum and
performing occasional drum rolls with
her fork and spoon. She wears too
much makeup. Her hair is pulled
behind her ears and her gaudy earrings
bounce as she crushes the gum in her
mouth. Eugene starts to breathe
heavily. Sara slops the gum from one
side of her mouth to the other. Chewing
like a horse, each bite snaps the gum.
About every thirty seconds she
stretches the gum from her mouth and
then wraps it around her thumb,
finishing off by scrapping the gum off
her thumb with her teeth, slurping.
Eugene’s heart kicks him in the ster-
also volunteered their time at the
sites all fed with a special break
fast at the Zembo Temple in Har
risburg.
Various tasks completed at each
site included stuffing envelopes,
taking inventory, cleaning, ground
maintenance, staining and painting.
Terri Noss, human resources
manager of the Allegheny Valley
School (AVS), said, “There is on
going maintenance work available
num. All he sees is her mouth ...
chomp, chomp, chomp. Sara just
stares down at her dish and pushes her
food back and fourth on her dish. Her
fork screeches like a car sliding into
another, over and over again. Eugene’s
head twitches as he focuses on her
mound of food.
A sudden explosion snaps him from
his trance, he look at Sara’s face as
she peels the gum away from her chin
and nose.
“Sara darling, why don’t you eat
some of your dinner,” Eugene says in a
soft tone.
She doesn’t hear him. She just keeps
popping her gum, almost in rhythm with
the mother’s filing and clipping. Sara
then sits back in her chair and allows
the cat, Mittens, to jump onto her lap,
then onto the table.
“Sweetheart,” he says, “maybe you
5h0u1d....”
“Get that fucking cat outta here,” yells
NEWS/FICTION
(at AVS).” Formerly known as the
Children’s Care Center, the school
provides for handicapped children
and adults.
Volunteers were given a tour of
the facility to see how the it oper
ated. Then they were divided up and
sent to different group homes in the
area to work on their projects.
Noss organized the day for the
AVS with help from many others
at the school. From the tours to the
collection of supplies to the
lunches, teamwork was a necessity
to make the day go smoothly.
With so many volunteers work
ing so efficiently, Noss added: “We
accomplished more than I thought
we would. [The day] was very suc
cessful and very organized.”
Even with their blue T-shirts spot
ted with dirt or paint, most of the
volunteers said it was a Friday well
spent.
"Silence, At Last"
Chad, his son. Sara doesn’t hear him
over her headphones. By this time
Brenda has started on her toenails, not
paying a lick of attention to what is
going on around her.
“Chad,” he says, ‘Watch your lan
guage, please. Don’t swear like that in
front of your mother.”
Chad just laughs and continues to
eat, shoveling his food into his mouth.
Chad sits with his face about three
inches from his plate and literally
shovels the food into his mouth and
onto his chin and cheeks. He holds his
spoon with a fist. His chewing sounds
like a cow walking through mud. Every
once in a while he comes up for air and
decides to chug some Kool-Aid to help
wash down the unchewed macaroni.
Some runs down his chin and some
goes right back into the glass ...
accompanied by a few particles of
backwash. He then continues to chew,
with the intensity of a caveman.
Eugene starts to sweat. His hands
are cold and clammy. His eyes are
wide open like a zombie. Eugene sits
back in his chair, palms flat on the
table. His cheek begins to twitch. No
one in the room notices his condition.
The sanding echoes in his head. The
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The Capital Times
Michael Behney pitches in during
the United Way Day of Caring
popping, the snapping, the slurping, the
scraping, the clipping ... like a broken
record, but louder. The cat licks herself
as she sits carelessly on the table.
Eugene’s hands tremble as he covers
his ears. He presses hard but the
sound still remains. He presses so hard
that his temples begin to throb. Eu
gene, with his eyes crunched together,
stands up and staggers out of the
dinning room ... unnoticed.
END OF PART II
Part 111 will appear in the next issue of
the Cap Times
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