During the early morning I helped other staff members prepare for the influx of volunteers on the second floor of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.\u00a0 This meant that I had a clear view of the Civic Center Plaza early in the morning\u2014specifically before 7:30am when participants began lining up for wristbands.\u00a0 I can definitely say that the image of hundreds of people lined up outside around the plaza was a very humbling one.\u00a0 It also gave me a powerful visual of just how many<\/em> individuals are currently experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, I knew that these individuals represented only the tip of the iceberg that is problematic homelessness in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n Later, during the Volunteer Rally, I heard Kara excitedly announcing the addition of the Lava Mae shower busses to this year\u2019s services.\u00a0 Kara invited the volunteers to think about their personal confidence during times when they hadn\u2019t been able to shower, and to consider how this feeling might affect their confidence in a professional setting.\u00a0 After having spent the entire previous day setting up for the event and otherwise exerting myself, I could only imagine how I would feel that day, speaking to hundreds of people, if I hadn\u2019t been able to shower the previous night.<\/p>\n However, new as I was to the team, even after having showered I wasn\u2019t at the height of my own personal confidence.\u00a0 When the occasion arose that I was stumped by a volunteer\u2019s question and had to reveal how new I was to the job, all of the volunteers were extremely polite and understanding.\u00a0 Throughout the day I was able to see that the volunteers\u2019 politeness and understanding extended beyond just me.\u00a0 Everywhere I looked there was a great deal of kindness and courtesy exercised by volunteers and participants alike.![\"V44A1239\"](\"http:\/\/projecthomelessconnect.org\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/v44a1239.jpg\")
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