“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them
feel.” - Maya Angelou
I chose to
serve food for the military veterans at Veterans Village for Thanksgiving. I
was
responsible for bringing enough mashed potatoes to serve
forty or more people. I actually like
mashed potatoes a lot, but I had never prepared such a large
amount. As a bachelor, I generally
prepare instant mashed potatoes, so I don’t think I quite
knew what I was getting into. I ended up
using a little more than fifteen pounds of potatoes. One
thing I found funny, was you always see
soldiers peeling potatoes in these old war movies and here I
was at eight in the morning doing
the same for the veterans. One thing I severely
underestimated was the amount of time it would
take for fifteen pounds of potatoes to boil and how long it
would take until they were soft.
Within thirty minutes of having to be at Veterans Village, I
was still mashing potatoes, which
worked out for the best as they where still warm. Other than
my food, we had quite the feast for
the veterans. I couldn’t thank the gentlemen enough who
brought the two turkeys pre-carved, it
really helped a lot. Also, your ham was truly delicious. I
was also really impressed with the
young lady who brought all those pies, she must have been
baking for days. Overall the food
looked amazing and I think any family would have been proud
to have it as their Thanksgiving
dinner.
I chose
this project because my dad was an Army veteran and I know he would of really
liked me helping the veterans. To be able to give help to
anybody who is in need, in a day of age
where people seem to only care about themselves, is great. An
ex-girlfriend of mines father was
a tunnel rat in Vietnam, who suffered from what I considered
to be an extreme form of PTSD.
By the time I came into contact with him, he was homeless
and dying from lung cancer. The
effort I saw from the V.A. in assisting this man was truly
great and to now know there are
organizations such as Veterans Village stepping up to get
these veterans of the street is also
inspiring. Veterans deserve all the assistance the
government and citizens can give them. We
might not always agree on why we are fighting a war or
support the president that is in office,
but we can all agree these men and women deserve our
respect. I’m glad that at least in todays
day in age for the most part, America supports and even
loves their veterans, so that we will
never have a repeat of the Bonus March. There always seems
to be at least one veteran in
every family, which gives people a real reason to support
our troops.
The
veterans we served on Thanksgiving were all great to be around and so full of
life. It
was cool to see how upbeat they were and how happy they were
to get a home cooked
Thanksgiving dinner. Once the food was all set up and the
veterans were all lined up, we began
serving the food. Once we did start serving the food, it
went in a blink of an eye, there fully fed
people everywhere. I served all the meats, while your professor friend (who was an immense help) servedall the side dishes, the young lady dispensed her pies, and
the young man gave out drinks. I did
find it funny that all the students there were from the
Sarasota/Bradenton area of Florida. I even
went to the same high school as the young man, just many
years earlier. I do wish I got to
interact with the veterans a little more, as we all know
veterans like to tell a story, which
sometimes the best medicine is having somebody to talk to.
After we were done a few of the
veterans stuck around to help clean up and help make left
over plates for those who weren’t able
to attend the dinner. All in all, the time I got to spend
with the veterans was amazing. I think we
really made their days and if anything showed that there are
people out there who truly do care.
Yet, as a society there is more that we can do and I hope to
see this change in the future.
What you do
to help support these veterans is truly inspiring, sometimes people just need
to be shown what they can do to help and where they can
start. I hope what you do inspires the
kids you have taught through out the years to be proactive
and donate their time in some way.
Giving that plate of food to homeless man, was inspired by
the day and the lesson you were
trying to teach each student, which is we can always do
more. My original major was Radiology
Technology, but I ran into a road block. I am now one more
semester away from completing my
A.A. degree. I choose Rad Tech because I wanted to help
people and still make a decent living.
Hopefully in the future whatever path I choose allows me to
help people and live a good life.
People just need a chance to succeed and I hope places or
organizations such as Veterans
Village, continue to give people a chance to succeed.
I am so
sorry, but in the rush of the day, I never thought to take a picture of myself
and
veterans at Veterans Village. Of course, I would forget
something. Well thank you for a great
lesson on how our actions can affect a group of people in
such a positive way. I will continue to
do what I can in the future and try to teach that same
lesson to any kids I might have in the
future.
