Service Learning Log 1- Austin Pollak

Dining Out For Life only reassured my by belief in the ignorance and lack of compassion within society.  All the hype and excitement surrounding the Dining Out For Life fundraiser made it appear to be more grandiose than was my experience with it.  From the moment that the event started to the time that we deposited the money at the police station, I was unimpressed by the turnout and amount of donations that were given.  I can only hope that my experience was unusual and that the fundraiser as a whole was tremendously successful.

For the dining Out For Life fundraiser, Karen Friedman, Michelle Kwan, and myself choose to represent Project Angel Heart at Chez Jose, a whole in the wall Mexican restaurant in Cherry Creek.  From the moment that we walked into the restaurant I knew that fundraising was not going to be easy.  We had virtually no support from the management or wait staff, and to make matters worse, there were not many customers in the restaurant.  Another difficulty in the fundraising that I had not considered was that the location of the restaurant mattered.  As I reflected on the experience it occurred to me that one of the reasons it may have difficult to raise money was due to the types of people that frequent restaurants in Cheery Creek.  From my previous encounters with citizens of Cherry Creek I was able to determine that it is an upper class community where people tend to keep more to themselves and are very introverted.  Realizing this, I would have approached the dinners differently in order to get them to donate money. 

Once we entered the restaurant and introduced ourselves to the staff, we set up out equipment and met as a team.  We discussed what we were going to say, how we were going to approach the people eating, and how we were going to sell the product.  Once we devised a plan of action we began to approach the customers and inform them about Dining Out For Life. 

I am reluctant to admit that I was unable to receive any donations from the customers.  As a matter of fact, all the people that I approached were rude, inconsiderate, and ill tempered.  I had people tell me that they were not interested in dining Out For Life, and that they were not going to donate because they did not want to give out any personal information.  These types of remarks infuriated me.  After many failed attempts, I decided to let Karen and Michelle take over.  It was amazing to see how people respond to girls in a more proactive and cheerful manner.  Karen and Michelle approached the customers, informed them about what Dining Out For Life is, and then almost effortlessly either got a donation or talked the customers into taking the envelope to consider donating.  After several hours of this, we were able to raise some money, albeit not a lot.  The encouraging thing about fundraising though is that every bit helps. 

When we delivered the money to the police station all of the Dining Out For Life staff and volunteers were overwhelmed by our commitment to the fundraiser.  The funniest part of this whole process though was the fact that they could not stop talking about Michelle.  The wanted to know how Michelle did, how much money she raised, if people recognized her, and so on.  Despite this, it was rewarding to know that we had helped to made a difference in the lives of so many.