Service Learning Log 1, Jessica Rast

For this volunteer experience, Katie and I participated in Project Angel Heart’s Dining out for Life. This was an awesome experience. We were ambassadors at a restaurant called Shells and Sauce just north of Cherry Creek near 12th and Josephine.

When we got to the restaurant there were no customers there, only the staff getting ready for the evening. The building was pretty small, a one room dining area with a bar; they were able to cram 15 or so tables for 2-4 in there though, many could be pushed together for larger accommodations. It was a very modern surrounding, light wood chairs and tables with yellow walls and modern art, each piece with a plaque under it stating the title and the artist.

When we walked in, we asked for the manager and introduced ourselves. George Pappas was a very nice man, although slightly shy. We reminded him we were from Project Angel Heart and told him we would be approaching tables and explaining about Dining out for Life. He seemed very glad to have us there, but after that we did not see him again.

We then proceeded to the bar. One of the waiters introduced himself to us and we then met the rest of the staff. Every single staff member at Shells and Sauce is male. They all seemed to appreciate the fact that we were there however, and they wore the pins we gave them without too much grief, and were very, very friendly.

The bartender Jeremy was the first to accommodate us. He gave us water and m&m’s and a place to store our “Take me With You Bag” (the bag with the donation envelopes and pens and Angel Heart information). We sat at the bar talking to Jeremy and a few of the waiters for 20 or so minutes before the first customers came in around 5:30. While sitting at the bar, Jeremy asked if we were hungry, we both said no but he didn’t believe us. He ordered the special of the night and gave it to Katie and me. He said to leave him whatever we didn’t eat for his dinner.

Around 5:30 when the first people started coming in, the whole restaurant began to get really busy. By 6:00 every table was full and people were beginning to wait at the front door.

The first person I approached about Dining out for Life was actually a man sitting right next to me at the bar before the restaurant and bar proceeded to fill up. He was an elderly man in to order at the bar and take out. After he order I started talking to him and asked if he knew that tonight was Dining out for Life. He said he wasn’t aware but said he would fill out the drawing to win the TCF gift card that was being offered as a way to try and get donations and involvement. He was hesitant to fill it out because as he said, “I forgot my eyes,” so I helped him fill out the form and told him where to put the vital information. He then proceeded to pull a 20-dollar bill out of his wallet and hand it to me. This was the first donation I received, and I was so excited. What touched me the most was his generosity even though he didn’t know anything about Project Angel Heart. It just seemed such a simple thing for him to hand me the money, yet he was being a part of something so much bigger. This was a very good start to the evening.

Katie and I would take turns approaching tables, talking to diners after they got their water but before they got their food (the suggested timing by Project Angel Heart). We were really busy for a while but after all of the tables filled up, there was a very slow turnover. This was due to a few things: first, the kitchen was backed up, and second, this restaurant had the kind of atmosphere that was very conducive to eating slowly and sitting and talking/drinking for a long time. One of the tables of a party of 7 stayed for three hours!

Very surprisingly to me, most of the diners we approached after introducing ourselves and asking if they were aware that it was Dining out for Life, said that yes, that was in fact the reason they were there. This was wonderful to hear, that so many people were aware of this event and were purposefully participating.

Other customers were unaware of the event and hadn’t heard of Project Angel Heart either. At these tables, I explained a little bit about the organization and said that Dining out for Life was the big fundraiser of the year. Dining out for Life is expected to raise 25% of the annual budget for Project Angel Heart this year, an expected $450,000. This information amazed me, and I said that to every table I approached (a little bragging for donators and the organization). Three hundred and twenty restaurants participating and hundreds of thousands of dollars in individual donations--that truly is amazing. If diners were interested, I would explain as much about Project Angel Heart as I knew; many times they did indeed seem interested in learning about the organization, which was wonderful to hear.

The restaurant was busy the whole night and not until 9:00 were there any open tables. The last people left around 10:00.

This experience was wonderful because I met so many wonderful people; there were great diners there to support Angel Heart and volunteers as well. It is so refreshing to see people doing something good and giving back, dining out for life. It was wonderful when tables said that they were here for this purpose, to dine out for life. I loved hearing this even though it meant that I would not be able to run off my Project Angel Heart statistics.

The best part of the night was the people I met, both the diners and the staff. This staff was so fun and so receptive to the idea of volunteering and donating; on more than one occasion different members of the staff came up to me and told me what a wonderful thing it was that I was doing. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything, just having fun telling people about a wonderful organization and hoping they would want to help out too. Even if a diner could not donate or chose not to, it was still an opportunity to inform him or her about Project Angel Heart and promote knowledge and perhaps future volunteering or donation.

I think what I most learned from this experience is that many people are very receptive to the idea of volunteerism. The diners in this restaurant were there to sit down for a while, to enjoy their dinners and to have nice conversation; for the most part, they had time to listen to us explain about Project Angel Heart and were more than glad to listen while they waited for their food. This does not mean that everyone we approached was interested or even open to listening to our spiel, but many people were. I was thanked by diners for being out and promoting such a wonderful event and many people seemed very excited to be there and supporting Project Angel Heart by eating at that restaurant. I am sure that some of the diners felt as if they were being solicited, and I sometimes felt that I was soliciting, but for the most part I knew that this was for such a great cause. I think that a lot of the diners felt this way as well, that this was for a good cause otherwise they would not have listened to me list off Angel Heart statistics and goals. Now I see that people are interested in volunteering and are glad for those who do, but generally do not think they have time or the resources so they don’t do it themselves. In our interview with a Project Angel Heart volunteer (Jude Aiello), she said something that pertained very much to this state of mind, “When you think about what you are here for in life, you are really here to help other people and the environment. Those are our priorities and they just have to be there. They have to come first.” More people should have this outlook, maybe then we would all have the time to volunteer and not just praise those who do.