52. VoluntEAR

So Disney plans volunteering outings and calls them VoluntEAR opportunities, because Mickey is a mouse and mice have ears and Mickey ears are a big thing for some reason so they made a clever name for it. So on Thanksgiving, I went with some people I work with to a homeless shelter to serve food. My mom has always wanted us to volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving so when I heard about the opportunity I was pretty excited to be able to say I've already done it the next year she tries to skip out on making a turkey.

We got to the shelter around 4pm and started unloading all the food, which came from the kitchens of the All Star resorts, where all the volunteers work. We had a regular Thanksgiving meal, with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, and small personal pumpkin cakes. After setting up all the food and drinks, we went to serve the women and children, and then men seperately.

We served the food in an assembly line, where I did the turkey and gravy for the women and children, which was kind of a mess because I kept having the put the plate down and switch hands when doing the gravy because I'm not coordinated enough to use both hands at once. Somehow, we lost people in the line in between the different buildings, so I ended up serving green beans, corn, turkey, and gravy for the men until an angel stepped in and took over turkey and gravy for me. The people I was serving with all worked really well together, and we were able to get the food together and out really quickly, which also made the time pass quickly. I really liked the fact that we were able to give seconds and thirds to anyone who wanted any because we had so much food. Every time we started to get low on something, we would just shout it out and more would be in front of us within ten seconds.

I actually really enjoyed spending part of my Thanksgiving helping people who wouldn't have otherwise been able to have one. Another plus: the pretty cool shirt I got.