Spagammi is an philanthropy event hosted by Gamma Phi Beta every year. For an evening, the house chef, Bob, prepares pound and pounds of spaghetti, bread and salad for the hungry students at the University of Denver. Each girl in the sorority is asked to sell 5 tickets, this amounts up to a lot of guests. Each tickets if sold for $6 and guarantees the diner an unlimited amount of food for the evening. They can come at anytime between 5 and 8pm on the designated evening. The money that is raised form this event goes to the Make a Wish Foundation. This year the money was specifically directed at a year old girl with Leukemia. It was her wish to go to Disneyworld in Florida and the money we raised will successfully send her there. As a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, I was asked to help out with this event. When I first arrived at the Driscoll Ballroom, we put on our matching t-shirts identifying us as the people in charge of the event. My first assignment, being that it was peak dinnertime, was to serve the spaghetti. It was done banquet style, so the guests picked up a plate and moved down the table receiving their food. The spaghetti was actually very hard to place in a neat pile on the plates. I got many complaints on portion sizing; some people wanted more, some people less. After that I did the bread run, running back and forth from the makeshift kitchen area to the table delivering cut slices of bread. We all laughed saying we felt bad because the bread was stale and there were many breadcrumbs everywhere. After I did some more serving it was time to begin the cleanup. I helped to dismantle tables and stack chairs in the closet. It was a fun, bonding experience, listening to music and working together to get the job done. Throughout the event we also made sure our guests had everything they needed and were enjoying the food. A few lucky latecomers to the event also got restaurant service where we brought their food to the table. I learnt the effectiveness of teamwork in such a situation and the picking dietary needs of many.
I can imagine that my experience in the food preparation side of the event was not dissimilar to the work at Project Angel Heart. I was serving food instead of preparing it, but it was still behind the scenes work of a community service experience. By the work I was doing I was not affecting a great quantity like at PAH, but rather one individual. However, in this instance, the quality of the gesture was astronomical. I was working to send one solitary girl to have the time of her life and make her one wish come true. She will forever remember that and although it won’t save her life it will give her something to look forward to in such dark times for her. In contrast to the volunteer experience I had through the delivery shift I did not feel like I was being of the same use during my work with Spagammi. I did feel that my experience was of the same significance. Getting off campus is definitely beneficial because of the new sites you are exposed to. You get to see the community of Denver and experience firsthand the people you are helping. The interaction with the clients of Project Angel Heart was so memorable and inspired me to continuing volunteering and helping out and even to encourage others to do the same. Staying on campus does not put you in a different situation to be able to reflect on what is going on and the difference you are making. Although both of my volunteering experiences had a significant impact on people of need, the meanings behind each were varied.
