Happy Birthday!! :)

This morning, the staff went to volunteer at one of the partners we have in DC that we will be bringing groups to on a consistent basis this summer. Food and Friends serves 1.400 clients who have been diagnosed with any sort of terminal disease. The organization started by providing meals to individuals affected by HIV/AIDS, and as time has progressed and the organization has developed, they have expanded to include other diseases, such as cancer.

I love Food and Friends. Typically, as a CSM host, when I bring groups to Food and Friends, I don't have the ability to volunteer in the kitchen because I have to bring a driver around DC, Maryland or Virginia to deliver meals that have already been prepared to clients. Today, because we didn't go with a youth group, our staff got to volunteer in the kitchen.

My task was to work with Kat and Ashley to put together meals that will be delivered tomorrow. Even though I was paired with Kat and Ashley, the whole staff was working together around one large table. The Food and Friends employee who was working with us was named Les. As Les was walking away, he told us that if any of the bags we were putting together had the words "B-Day Cake" on them, we were to grab him, and he would add a birthday cake into that individuals bag with a drawing from a student.

My first reaction was probably expected: I love birthdays. This meant that for each piece of cake we packaged, we not only wished that person a "Happy Birthday" but sang to them, despite their not being present. I thought it was so sweet to celebrate these clients birthdays. My second reaction ran a little deeper. I had forgotten that each individual who we were preparing a meal for has been diagnosed with a disease that is slowly and usually painfully, killing them. The fact that these individuals will be celebrating their lives through their birthdays, and the fact that Food and Friends is encouraging them speaks to much louder than a mere piece of cake. Food and Friends is reminding their clients that they are still alive and worth celebrating. They clients they have are still valuable and even though they are dying, they have not died, in fact, they're still very living. To be able to participate in providing these individuals with a cake to remind these clients that they have lived for another year was such a blessing. As someone who LOVES birthdays, I loved even more the fact that we got to celebrate the birthdays of each of these clients.