Last week, on October 3rd, I was pleased to be part of what I considered a real connecting of communities. I was able to share in an event including young mothers in recovery and their babies, IBM professionals, yellow and green paint, donuts, and juice—sounds like a poorly written and confusing riddle, doesn’t it? Well, for one Wednesday morning, it was a reality—and a fun reality at that!

Thanks to United Way’s Days of Caring, a team of IBM employees came to Las Amigas, the women’s residential treatment facility run by CODAC Behavioral Health Services, Inc. Las Amigas is one of just a few women’s facilities which allow children to stay with their mother during her recovery. Their nursery hadn’t been painted in at least ten years and not even the stenciled purple bears lining the walls could keep the room looking cheerful anymore. In fact, it looked quite dreary! We were lucky the IBMers were there, and not a minute too soon!

After a many laughs, a few donuts, and lots of blue tape, the Las Amigas nursery was bright and cheerful, bursting in lively yellow and green.
The program directors and members of Las Amigas were very pleased with just this small change and it never would have been painted so quickly without the fantastic, hard-working volunteers from IBM.

United Way is kind of like a dating service in October... They serve as a necessary liaison between two entities that may have never even met. I’d say our “blind date” went off without a hitch. (The only mishap was that I came away with quite a bit of bright yellow paint in my hair.)

We made some new friends and the IBMers were introduced to a place in Tucson’s community which they may otherwise have never seen. The location of Las Amigas is kept out of the Public domain for the safety of CODAC’s members. I hope everyone was able to gain a little perspective that day… on life, family, or maybe proper painting technique.