Moment of Grace, Moment of Gratitude

It is United Way campaign season and this year I volunteered to help give workplace talks to encourage employees to sign up for payroll deductions. This morning I did my first talk at the huge diaper factory on the edge of town.

The diaper factory runs 12 hour shifts that start and end at 6:30. I was there to talk a few minutes about United Way. There were about 100 employees - both permanent and temporary - in the "Town Hall" as the shifts ended and started.

The diaper factory is a grueling place to work. The work is hard. The main factory floor, brightly lit and immaculate appearing, is noisy. Everyone wears ear plugs. The shifts, which follow a 2 week cycle, can throw your body clock to pieces if you are not prepared. I know because my son Sam and some of his friends worked there last summer, thinking they would make "real money" now that they were 18 and could work anywhere. Sam's body clock was so thoroughly wrecked after a few weeks there that he finally quit because he never knew whether he was coming or going.

So I was doubly appreciative of the men and women finishing their shifts who came in to listen to the pitch. They're tired. They're ready to drop. I suspect some of them, especially the exhausted looking teen in the front row, may have been doing it because they didn't have to clock out until the meeting was over. But more employees than I would have guessed were there because they believed in United Way.

How do I know that? Because after the campaign video and after my brief remarks, the campaign coordinators for the factory passed out the enrollment forms and many of the men and women in the room proceeded to fill them out.

That was a moment of grace.

What floored me the most, bringing tears to my eyes, was that a number of the temp workers (distinguishable by t-shirt color) also filled out forms.

That was a moment of gratitude.

Temp workers don't have it easy. They get no benefits; they usually get less pay; they often have little chance of being made a permanent employee at a job site. Currently there are rumors that this factory will be cutting back shifts and laying off workers. If that happens, the temps are on the frontline of expendability.

Yet here they were, filling out pledge forms, committing to helping out the 2009-2010 campaign.

Our local United Way funds 20 community organizations, many of which are integral strands in the community safety net. In the few moments that I spoke, I touched solely on that topic: these agencies bind our community together, we are going through tough times, and helping United Way strengthens our community.

I have a feeling, looking at the faces, that my few words were unnecessary. The workers filled out the cards because they believed in the power of standing united.

As I left the factory, the sky was reaching a crescendo of colors just before the sun slipped over the horizon. I turned onto the highway back towards town and the colors just washed over me. I thought about what I had just seen, I thought about the temps filling out their pledge cards, and the tears came back.

Moments of grace, moments of gratitude. This morning I witnessed both.