Last week in DC was a learning experience for me. In the past I have done community service, but nothing like I experienced in DC. Typically I am used to doing community service where I have little to no interaction with the people that I am directly helping. On the first night of the service trip the group of Lincoln students prepared and served dinner to the homeless. We all worked in the kitchen to prepare chicken, vegetable stir fry, cole slaw, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, and brownies for dessert. The dinner from the preparations until the last person was out the door lasted about 4 hours. Not only was it a wonderful experience to see the people in our class on this trip work together to prepare the meal, but the most magical moment of the night was seeing everyone interact with a new friend. I took a few moments to myself and just glanced around the room and there was not one guest at our dinner that didn't have a smile one. It was a very heartwarming experience. The next morning my group was assigned to serve breakfast at Thrive DC. Again we prepared the food under the orders of a very strict chef, and we were able to serve around 150 people that morning. At Thrive DC I over heard a man telling a group of his friends about the wonderful chicken that he ate last night. Immediately we recognized the man and became reacquainted and he thanked us tirelessly for the wonderful meal. It was great to see first hand how much these people appreciated the work we were doing and how they passed the news along to their friends. Of course my group also painted a very long fence one morning and also chopped hundreds of potatoes, onions, and scallions, but the experiences I had directly with the people I was serving were the most inspiring to me.
This trip has inspired me to do more service in the future. Although I like the interaction during service, I also don't mind shopping thousands of vegetables because I know that no matter what, the people I am helping are thankful. Our generation has the ability to change many of the problems in the world, and every little thing helps.
Kelsey Puddington
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