Jamie Hughes- Service Learning Log #1

April 12, 2007
Hour worked: 2

For this service-learning experience, I delivered the food Project Angel Heart volunteers made for their clients with life threatening illnesses. Marissa, Keren, Megan, and I met in the Halls lobby and carpooled to Project Angel Heart. While driving there we were talking about what we thought it would be like and how excited we were to help. I was looking forward to seeing the smiles the clients had on their faces. When we got to Project Angel Heart headquarters, we listened to Russ tell us about what were suppose to do and answered any questions we had. He told us that to greet the client we were to say “it’s nice to see you today.” After we had received our three bags of food for our three clients, we headed off. It was difficult for us to read the map though, because none of us are very familiar with the area. All four of us tried reading the map, and we finally figured out which way to go and we realized it was right near DU. Keren and Megan delivered the first bag of groceries, but the client wasn’t home so we had to call in the office to tell them. The second house was for Marissa and me. It was a rusty red color with a white fence around it. We saw on note on the door telling us to knock hard because she was in the shower with assisted care. We knocked and waited. Somebody came to the door and cracked it open to see if we were Project Angel Heart. We said we were and she reached out to grab the bag. We didn’t see inside the house or even very much of the client. She hid behind the door. I though the clients would have been friendlier than she was, but I realized that that woman had a lot on her mind and she didn’t have time or energy for small talk. I left her doorstep a little disappointed in the fact that she took the food so fast and that the whole delivery only took about 1 minute. Then we headed off to our 3rd house. Keren and Meagan took this house, because they hadn’t the opportunity to meet any clients first hand yet. They said it went alright, but the apartment was really smoky. In the car, we didn’t talk too much about Project Angel Heart, just made casually conversation about school. All four of us also live in a DU Living & Learning Community so we talked about the LLC and how they were different from each other.

This project helped me to understand the public good and what volunteering was all about. In the past when I have volunteered, I have mostly just volunteered in elementary schools working with young children. In that type of volunteering you see rewards at the moment they happen with a look or smile from a child. Delivering for Project Angel Heart was a new type of experience for me, and I didn’t feel the instant satisfaction of giving my time. I assumed before the outing that there would have been some sort of gratification, but the only aim of delivering food was to give somebody a meal. Reflecting back on the experience later that afternoon, I realized that it was helping somebody who couldn’t provide for themselves. I learned that even if it wasn’t rewarding to me, it meant a lot to the people who it was helping, which is what volunteering is all about. This was significant to me because being only 19, I’ve grown up my whole life without worrying about where my next meal was coming from. Seeing somebody who had a life threatening illness that has my made his/her life not as easy as it was made me realize how bad things can happen to anybody and how we shouldn’t take our next meal or life for granted.