Great Lakes Coalition

10,000 MEALS IN UNDER 60 MINUTES!

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." ~Sir Winston Churchill

Let's talk about food for the soul! An amazing event took place on Wednesday April 29th in the Brownell gym. It was like a moment from the Dr. Seuss' story How The Grinch Stole Christmas!. You may remember the scene where the whole town of Who-ville is standing around the center of town with no food to serve, no ornaments on the tree or presents under the it, actually no tree, nothing apparently to celebrate. But still all the Who-villians break out in song to celebrate the moment.

Well, as one of the parents organizing the Kids Against Hunger (KAH) project with the Grosse Pointe Public Schools, it was my job to plan and anticipate every moment of the event; to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible; to see it through the students' eyes; to make sure that every kid that walked into the gym Wednesday afternoon would walk out knowing they were making the world a better place.

So, as everything that could go wrong, did go wrong (I will spare you the details); the straw that broke the camel's back happened. Instead of a small group of 120 students being introduced to a wonderful project, close to 300 students arrived to participate! Preparations were made to handle an extra 25, maybe 30, but an extra 180?; I don't think so...

As the bedlam and chaos heightened, I turned to Parcell's Principal Mark Muholland and told him I was going to ring his neck later (His school sent 45 more students than expected). What happened next was the equivalent of little Susie Who starting the celebration song at the Christmas ceremony. Mr. Muholland looked all around and said "Isn't this great?". I thought "great; are your kidding me?!". Then it occurred to me. He was absolutely right! There were close to 300 students giving up their free time to help package food for individuals they would probably never meet. Kids that have likely never experienced hunger in their lives, worried about kids who do. They didn't care about the chaos or the waiting around time. They were there to make the world a better place.

The excitement and enthusiasm the students brought to the event were all that was needed. The kids just wanted to be part of something amazing and little did they know they were the most amazing part of it all. Because of these outstanding young people, 10,000 meals will feed the hungry. One third will go to a local pantry within our community, another third will go elsewhere within the state of Michigan and the last third will be sent to the Kwa Watoto Center, a K-12 school of over 1500 students in Soweto, Kenya, on the outskirts of one of the poorest areas of Nairobi and affiliated with the Warm Hearts Foundation.

As with any successful event it takes many people to make it work and if it were not for Dr. Klein and the Grosse Pointe Rotary, none of this would have happened. It was Dr. Klein's vision to bring the Kids Against Hunger project to the school district and to present the idea to the Grosse Pointe Rotary Club, who in turn generously donated the funds to finance the project. Helen Srebernek and Lisa Vreede provided the much needed backbone of the project. Dr. Dib graciously offered Brownell to host the event. The Brownell custodians and Mrs. Rose's art classes provided much of the muscle needed to set up and clean up. Mr. Buslepp, Mr. Muholland, Dr. Dib, Mr. Clark, Mr. Diver, Mr. Sloan, and Ms. Kennedy introduced the program to our schools and provided support. We were very fortunate to have the help of many teachers ( Patti Cohan, Darlene Lovelace, Dona Reynolds, Debra Duffy, Steve Zaranek, Carol Houlihan, Toni Abud, Deb Peck, Brian Aulph, Wendy Spredier and Jill Davenport ) who gave of their time to provide a better experience for their students.

We were blessed to have the help of many parents (Sharon Drew, Shaun Fennessey, Steve Llorens, Cindie Casazza, Cathy Leverenz, Patty Groezinger, Susan Ames, Elaine Schweitzer, and Molly Brooks) and Rotary Club members (Paul Rentenbach, Mark Wilson, Theresa Divirgil and Mark Brooks). Our schools, local reporters and photographers shared the news of this wonderful event. Delicious pizza was provided to all the volunteers by Fresh Farms Market. Ice cold bottled water was donated by Mr. C's Car Wash.

We were so fortunate to work with Mike Burwell and his father Dr. Don Burwell from Kids Against Hunger who worked with our students with ease and grace. Also I am very blessed to have a husband who let his secretaries help with last minute to-dos. Everyone played such an important role in this project, your kindness and generosity are so greatly appreciated. On behalf of Helen, Lisa and myself, thank you. This is great food for the soul.

Warmest Regards,

Alicia Carlisle