As I scanned the 1st
floor of the Polish Home Hall I smiled to myself thinking “wow, I can’t believe
it’s finally here”. Just a few hours earlier my classmates arrived, questioning
how the day’s events would unfold. The hall was essentially empty with stacks
of folded tables on the floor. We got to
work quicly and the set up time flew by. When I
stopped to look around the place looked much cozier than we found it, and everything
felt ready. The tables were arranged, the bar was stocked, and the floors had
been swept. The three pillars that segmented that space had been wrapped in a
festive garland.
One o’clock still seemed far off
when our guest began to trickle in. I was surprised, my biggest worry was that we wouldn’t
have a good turnout. Those doubts were quickly stashed when that trickle of
people turned into a steady stream of people waving money in Elaine and Haley’s
faces. Working the food station gave me a sense of how many people actually
came. The line of people appeared endless, but the food had to have been
delicious because more than one community member approached us asking questions
along the lines of “what do I have to do to get you to give me some more of
that pulled pork… it was amazing”.
While the food line was dying down
I could see and feel that the event was flowing well. I enjoyed hanging back
several times just to see everything that was going on. It was nice to see my
class mates engaging with the people around them smiling from ear to ear, and
even while I was doing my scans people would approach me to ask about my
experience in the class, and to congratulate us on the event.
