Today, Team Fink headed downtown as a flashmob of good. Armed with hotdogs, lemonade, and a smile they served 150 hotdogs in 45 minutes. They asked names, listened to stories. They connected.
Their teacher is still reflecting. While at the park serving hot dogs, a park director stopped to talk to him. He told Fink about the hundreds of heroine needles that were picked up in the park just today. He thanked him for what he and his students were doing, but mentioned that when food comes to the park, some of these homeless never have to leave the park and it can exacerbate the problem. Rather than leave the conversation there, Fink invited this park director to come to Anastasis and share the complexity of the homeless problem Denver faces. He wondered how Anastasis students might be able to help be a part of the solution. He also plans to invite our friends from the Denver Rescue Mission to be part of the conversation.
This moment of spreading good, will extend into inquiry and our students will attempt to connect and learn from a variety of perspectives. They’ll learn about unintended consequences and delve into design thinking.
Today, they reflected on the experience:
Feeling the joy in my heart, I can feel the memory of the outing-burn in the back of my mind. Looking at the once unknown faces turn into friends faces and their gleeful smiles light up the very park we were just in, handing out hot dogs and lemonade. At one part I was picked to travel around the park in search for people who maybe hadn’t heard the word about our hotdogs. Shifting my gaze from the sidewalk to the persons face, I saw grief and sadness. They also had their heads down, cigarette in on hand, slowly disintegrating. Walking up to them, feeling the fear build its way up inside my stomach and up to my throat. Hearing the shuffle of our feet their head slowly rose, looking at their eyes I can see sadness and, surprisingly, hope! Asking if they would like some food, I could see their eyes light up. One in particular was a old man with billions of wrinkles, but when I looked in his eyes, his eyes held me in a trance. Bright, bright sea-foam eyes! When we were going to move on he gave us a toothless smile and a wave. I smile back feeling happiness spread through out my body. In a way, I felt that this field trip changed me in a good way, seeing all of these people, who probably have been through so much, give us school kids smiles and hugs! Showing me that people who have gone through so much can still be rich at heart and soul. –Grace Love on people, give them food, and learn their story. Loving, eating, and telling stories are universal languages. When you combine them, spectacular things can happen. Like Andrew, he is a wonderful man, he shared about our opportunity we have as kids to be the change and the hope we give him. When flowers, butterflies, kids, and food are around, conversations spark up and smiles spread. When you give you are also the one receiving. When you serve people food you get a frown that turns into a smile, a story to listen to, and a lesson to learn from. I loved today and seeing smiles spread. –Noelle Just a smile can make someone’s day. Taking the time to look someone in the eyes and smile can do a lot. It can show them that they matter when the person doesn’t even know that themselves. It can make them smile at other people and have a domino effect. Giving someone a cup of lemonade and a hot dog brought out smiles in everyone. It showed me the caring person inside of everyone I met today. It didn’t matter what you did or where you came from. It was just a bunch of people smiling and eating hotdogs. –Ella A name is gift given at birth. A name like “Andrew” is the story of that human. If a name seems so precious and so easy to obtain, then why don’t we just ask someone for their name. If you refer to someone by their name then you can learn and grow in joy from the happy conversations. –Will