Kevin Cresswell's Service Learning Reflection, Delivery Shift

We started by delivering food last Saturday throughout the East Denver area. My fellow group members Zach, Charlie, and I were not really sure what to expect walking in. After a brief run through of our tasks and signing a few waivers we were presented with a map, directions, and several bags of food. From there, we set out to make the deliveries. Most of the houses we visited were in areas of Denver that I’ve never seen before, and didn’t even know existed. They were run down, needed fresh paint, had poorly kept lawns and in the driveways sat old, beat up cars. It was clear a lot of the people were well below the middle class. To my surprise the types of people who answered the doors were from a bunch of different backgrounds. At some houses, once the doorbell was rung we heard something quickly racing to the door, and we’re greeted by young kids all happy and cheerful to see us. Some houses almost seemed abandoned and after waiting for a few minutes at the door, no one knew if anyone would come. Then, the door handle slowly turned and a man appeared beyond the screen. It was very obvious that maneuvering around his house was not easy for him and you could almost see proud in the way he greeted. When arriving at one of our last stops, the man who lived there was already on the porch waiting for us. He was very cheerful, asking us a few things about ourselves, and even asked that we take his old bags back to PAH to be used. The common trait all these people possessed was their cheerfulness. This came as a surprise to me given their current living conditions. Knowing that people who face life threatening illnesses everyday and who don’t receive much help from their community or government can still be cheerful and grateful towards us was inspiring. After seeing that, it will be hard to look at my life and find anything that I feel has been unjust and complain about it. Not only do these people battle disease every day, but they do it with a sense of pride and dignity that is truly moving.

After this past week working with Project Angel I feel greatly rewarded. The experiences we’ve had were not only fun, but they created a real sense of community within the organization. It might sound a little conceited, being that all we had to do was deliver bags and prepare food. However, while volunteering it was quite obvious of how important Project Angel Heart really is. The people it serves truly are in pain and need assistance anyway they can get it. It was also, interesting to participate in two different aspects of the organization.