TIMAV: Dismas House
I know I’ve written before about my weekly outings to Dismas House, but I thought you all could use a reminder about this great service opportunity so near to campus. It’s definitely my favorite extracurricular activity, other than telling you all about my life through this blog. I also really missed it while abroad.
The Dismas House is a halfway house for recently released ex-convicts. It’s conveniently located barely two blocks away from the Commons, and is always welcoming of volunteers. Every Friday, I lead a group to the house, where we put our culinary skills to the test in cooking dinner for the residents and then we eat it with them. The last part is obviously my favorite, but not just because of the food.
In eating dinner with the residents, you get to learn their stories. You learn how they ended up in prison and how they are trying to change their lives. You learn about the everyday struggles that ex-convicts face in our society. You also just get to meet some people who are pretty different from those you run into on campus. It’s such an interesting dynamic, and I’d really say that I’ve learned a lot and been really inspired by these men.
This is my third year going to the Dismas House, but my first year organizing everything. This means that I’m in charge of recruiting volunteers, menu-planning, grocery shopping, and checking out everyone else’s cooking abilities. It’s a stressful position to say the least. I’m not sure how my mom did it every night, but figuring out what to cook for dinner is next to impossible. Then, buying enough food to feed sixteen people is a Herculean task, consisting of math, guessing, and a big dessert. This week we made Biscuit Pizza Bake, which was delicious, with a healthy salad and gooey brownies for dessert. We like to indulge ourselves a little bit on Fridays apparently.
I feel lucky that we have such interesting opportunities for service on campus, like going to the Dismas House. I also feel much supported by Vanderbilt through their annual funding of this activity. I think the overall lesson is this: wherever you are, find some service that is meaningful and fun to you. You’ll make some new friends, learn a lot, and hopefully be inspired to keep on giving to the community. That’s certainly what has happened to me at Dismas House.
*TIMAV = Things I missed about Vandy. Keep checking for more posts about what I missed most while studying abroad.