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A whole new level of feeling appreciated

I am, fortunately, involved in groups that frequently thank their volunteers. Hardly a church council meeting goes by without thanks being expressed for people’s time and insights. The AILG board, on which I’ve been serving for at least 6 years, just received an award from MIT. As Abigail noted, they held a nice dinner with hundreds of other alums, where we could be duly applauded. I even got some much-needed kudos at work from my supervisor for tackling some difficult challenges this week. I know they say hard work is its own reward, but getting heartfelt compliment, thank-you note or the occasional public recognition really keeps me going.

Yesterday was a whole new level of appreciation. Normally when I cook for Otherworld I get plenty of personal compliments and thanks. I admit I often brush it off a bit – people are tromping around the woods having adventures, and of course they are happy to have warm food when they return to the tavern between activities. For those who haven’t cooked for large groups of people, it can be daunting to think about scaling recipes and prep for 120 people, but it’s really old hat for me and I have a ton of help. At the end of the event when we do “curtain call” it’s gratifying to receive a round of applause for the work we’ve done. This year, it finally sank in that I am personally appreciated by this terrific group, not just my cooking.

Otherworld recognizes 5 years of volunteer service with stories about the person’s involvement and a gift of an engraved silver chalice. It was my 5th year, so I was very curious about what might be said. I don’t interact with participants much, and my role as the food captain/cook is a bit different from the other volunteers. As she seems to do for each of us, Kristi knew what would be most touching. She said the award was really from the whole group, that while most staff get to interact with a subset of the participants, I influence the experience of everyone who comes to an event. She started passing the chalice around the room for everyone to hold before it made its way to me. It is a very similar practice to a tradition we have at my church; we send a teddy bear around the congregation for each person to hug and pray over, so the recipient will be reminded that we all care for them and are sending our thoughts and prayers to them. When I received the cup, it was warm from being held by each person, which was really moving.

While it was being passed around, Kristi lightened up the mood a bit by sharing a few funny stories and anecdotes about the history of cooking at OW. As I came forward for a hug, I also got a standing ovation. I was floored, beaming inside and out.

I know we say that Otherworld is about giving the participants a great experience and helping them to learn more about themselves, but the staff keep volunteering because we all get so much out of it too. Whether it’s seeing someone approach a challenge in a new way, doing something we didn’t think we could do, or interacting with a group of amazing people, we all get so much more than we give.

We all need nudges and encouragement now and then. I have a full cup of encouragement to take home from this weekend.

Comments

Comment from Lance
Time: October 9, 2007, 11:52 am

Oh, heavens, Susan. You’re right that a group like us might appreciate pretty much anything warm after tramping around in the woods. But we don’t have to get just anything; we get you. The hardest part of sitting around grumpy and depressed by the state of the world at Saturday dinner was staying depressed while eating what you’d cooked.

Or, look at it this way: we go out there because it’s so much fun to interact with everyone and be monsters and such, so generally speaking, we wouldn’t particularly *want* to stop and come back to the basement. I can’t imagine a group of monsters saying “C’mon, hurry up so we can go eat” if what you had waiting for us wasn’t just as good as whacking people with swords.

And that’s true of more than just the food: you wouldn’t hear people saying “Let’s hurry up, I’m due for kitchen duty soon” if we didn’t have someone so warm waiting for us there. (I actually saw people *disappointed* that they didn’t get to spend time with you in the kitchen; heck, include me in the bunch.)

So, yeah, if you ever need to feel encouraged, take a look at the chalice you got. Your cup is a reminder; our cup runneth over. Thank you.