Recognizing Our High School Volunteers

I had to keep Cheryl in this picture of our high school volunteers who helped today — Zane, Sierra, Sam, Micah, Ava and Ian. She gathered them together for the photo and I love the look on her face. It perfectly shows how proud we are of every single one of them and will miss them when they head back to school next week.

At the Wednesday Community Meal today we had to bid farewell to our fantastic high school volunteers since they'll be back in school next week.

It's been an exceptionally busy summer at the meal and quite frankly I don't know what we would have done without their help. Today we served 429 meals during our two hour service and there was a constant line to get inside — every volunteer was indispensable.

My friend Cheryl told me today, "Heidi, it's so hard to see them go, I've enjoyed working with them so much."

When I got home from the meal today, Cheryl sent me this e-mail that I want to share:

Heidi,  I just felt I needed to write some thoughts about the teens and I put this together. 

Today we celebrated the end of summer but more importantly we had a send-off to our teen volunteers.  This group of eight have consistently come for more than five years helping in our kitchen.  What a help they all have been: chopping, carving, making biscuits, checking the oven, prepping desserts, etc.  We are so grateful of their time, energy and willingness to pitch in and do whatever they are asked. This summer I have truly looked forward to the time we have with them: sharing what they did for vacation, learning about their families, what activities they will be doing at school and what their hopes are for after graduation.  Our photo has six teens (Nick and Eleanor are missing).  Four will be seniors, two are sophomores and two are freshmen this year. It has been truly a fun summer for me and a joy to share this time.  Today we celebrated not only their volunteer time but all our faithful volunteers with ice cream ( Sam chose the flavor - a yummy white chocolate raspberry!) and cake.  It was bittersweet for me and I will be missing them all next Wednesday!

The cake and ice cream for our volunteers

It's so hard to believe how fast the time has flown. It's been an honor getting to know our young volunteers, working with them and watching them grow.

All of them have kind hearts and an enthusiastic willingness to help that confirms my hope that they will continue to volunteer throughout their lives.