Saturday, October 24, 2009

These College Days (From Luke)

Tonight was volunteer night at Cornell University. Isaac, Allie, Hannah, and I were part of a group of 200+ students cheering for the Cornell Alumni who had came to hear the president speak this evening for 2 hours (the conclusion of Alumni week at Cornell).

Before we were told our task for the evening, we were invited to a dinner at Barton Hall. When we arrived at 7pm, they were serving three different types of subs, chips, soda, fruit and cookies. We had just finished eating our own meal at home of meatball subs, baked apples, and vanilla cake (we were stuffed) but as college students do, we decided that this free food could not be passed up.

When the time came the four of us to go through the food line, we all took one of everything and headed back to our table. We sat down and looked at ourselves and wondered what we were going to do with all this food after eating a big supper. Well thankfully I had brought an empty small backpack and we loaded it up. But as the time passed on Isaac and I noticed that there was a lot more food left over. Although none of us had eaten anything, we headed back for seconds. This time we came back to the table and packed more into my backpack (that now seemed to be getting smaller as we added each sandwich to the sack). Then, as we were waiting for instructions on what to do next, a staff member came to our table and encouraged us to go get more food and take it with us if we chose. So... Isaac and I went back for the third round! When we came back to the table this time the girls were laughing wondering what we were going to do with it all. So to the best of our ability we found room for our next round of food in our coat pockets.

We waited around for 10 minutes until we were given the instructions that we would be walking a few blocks to Bailey Hall for the main event of the evening. But as we got up out of our seats Isaac and I noticed that there was still a lot of food and soda left, so we made one final dash through the line before leaving Barton Hall with food and drinks coming out of our ears. When we got outside we realized that me had a big dilemma, "Where do we store our stockpile of food?" We headed across the street and up the sidewalk and looked for a bush to hide the overloaded backpack and full coat pockets of food. We found a bush that was behind a three foot high wall and dropped it off there for the evening. We then headed to Bailey Hall.

When we got to Bailey Hall we found out that we were going to be a cheering committee for a group of 400+ alumni who were coming to hear the president speak to thank them for their support of Cornell. Upon instructions, we were seated in the balcony of the lecture hall because the alumni would be seated below. We were told to cheer for these individuals like we were at the best Cornell hockey game ever.

So when the alumni came in we cheered like no one else! We stood up, jumped up and down, and put our hands together! We got many looks from individuals sitting in front of us but we decided that these people needed to feel special so we gave it our all. Isaac then got the wave started and it made it around the auditorium and the house was rocking. We chanted "Let's go! Big Red! Lets go!" and "Thank you Cornell!" We waved the glow sticks that they had given us and clapped until our hands were numb and shouted until our voices were gone. We ended the night by all singing the school anthem.

When the lecture was over we had to get our food out of the bush. So Isaac climbed down behind the wall and pulled out all of our food and we headed home.

When we got home we counted our goods which came to the following: fifteen cans of soda, eleven subs, ten big cookies, five bags of chips, two bananas, one apple, and four $10 College Town Bagel gift cards that they gave each of us for coming out. The grand total for the evening goodies was $125. What we didn't get paid in wages we got paid in food!
This was a night to remember... I am having a great time up here making the most out of a great educational experience. I am grateful to be here and thankful for all you back home.

- Luke Angell