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Volunteering Valentines

It was Valentine's Day and yet a group of volunteers have their eyes closed trying to find their stillness before the chaotic rhythms of a day of serving takes place.

A guest made an appearance in the beginning and paid it forward right away by bringing some tulips to tag the guests with in lieu of Valentine's Day and our theme of the day: Renewal.  We saw the theme play out time and again throughout the day from massive waves of guests coming and going to a hurting child renewing her positive energy through a generous act by another guest.

The day started off slow but accelerated an hour into it to bring the day of three waves of guests.  These waves also proved to be generous by arriving at times when the previous wave was just leaving.  Therefore these waves of guests were generous with their impeccable timing and definitely the dishes crew that consisted of Keith and Pancho.  These two spoiled us into thinking we have an unlimited amount of dishes always at hand.

Lachmin and Joanna realized another world in KK of serving the guests.  They both along with Yvette and her everlasting smile, realized that KK is about serving guests extra helpings of generosity with a side of smiles which goes down extra smooth with a cup of mango lassi.

A large group that included six children came in from the park, with one of the girls crying from a bleeding lip.  She was calmed down as one the KK guests provided the grieving girl and her friends with finger puppets.  There is no band-aid that could have healed that lip faster than those finger puppets.  This is a direct result of the ambiance of generosity at KK.

First time platers, Jessica and Tammy, kept the servers on their toes by churning out those plates.  I noticed that they came up with an efficient method of keeping the peas (pun intended) on the mound of rice by putting the peas first followed by rice in the bowl before inverting it on the plate.

First time volunteer, Paul, was put in charge of the daunting task of interface which seemed to be a role he was born to do.  Usually naan is a bottleneck but not this time. Shannon showed an excellent performance in realizing what people want and making it readily available, that was the mango lassi.  Dipa blessed us with her savior role in bussing.  She has the patentable hook, which houses the naan baskets so they don't touch the dirty dishes.

Thank you!

In service and in health,
-Mukul

--MJ on Feb 23, 2010




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