Today a group of people from my work volunteered to prepare and serve a meal at The Hope Lodge in Boston. I copied the following paragraph from their website to explain what Hope Lodge is.
Facing cancer is hard. Having to travel out of town for treatment can make it even harder. Yet the American Cancer Society has a place where cancer patients and their families can find help and hope when home is far away - an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge.
Each Hope Lodge offers cancer patients and their families a free, temporary place to stay when their best hope for effective treatment may be in another city. Not having to worry about where to stay or how to pay for lodging allows Hope Lodge guests to focus on the most important thing: getting well.
And a Hope Lodge offers so much more than just free lodging. It provides a nurturing, home-like environment where patients and caregivers can retreat to private rooms or connect with others who are going through many of the same experiences.
I volunteered to cook ribs. I made 12 racks of back ribs. A new record for me. It turned out to be wayyyyy too much as not as many people were there as we were told. But those who were raved over them, which made me feel pretty good.
The ingredients. Missing from the picture is the sliced pineapple garnish.
Poor "Old Red" was full to the gills. I had to move them around a couple times to make sure they cooked evenly.
After 2.5 hours in the cherry/apple smoke. There were too many to foil individually so I cheated and put them in foil pans in the oven with a splash of pineapple and coke at 230degrees for 2 hours.
The finished product with grilled and brown sugar coated pineapple. The ribs were sauced and carmelized on a nice hot grill for a couple mins. They were devoured and the residents heaped some pretty high praise on me, which I must admit felt great.
Talking to some of the residents made me realize that what I thought were major problems in my life are nothing compared with what these people were going through. It was truly a life changing experience and I highly recommend checking if theres a Hope Lodge near you and volunteering.
http://www5.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/hopelodge/index.asp
I was affected in ways I never thought about, and can't wait to go back and do it again. The genuine appreciation they had for us taking time out of our lives to help them out in some small way was overwhelming. One gentleman in particular, David, really had a great attitude and outlook on life for someone in his situation. He was inspirational without even realizing it.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Just had to share this great experience while it was still fresh in my mind.
Facing cancer is hard. Having to travel out of town for treatment can make it even harder. Yet the American Cancer Society has a place where cancer patients and their families can find help and hope when home is far away - an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge.
Each Hope Lodge offers cancer patients and their families a free, temporary place to stay when their best hope for effective treatment may be in another city. Not having to worry about where to stay or how to pay for lodging allows Hope Lodge guests to focus on the most important thing: getting well.
And a Hope Lodge offers so much more than just free lodging. It provides a nurturing, home-like environment where patients and caregivers can retreat to private rooms or connect with others who are going through many of the same experiences.
I volunteered to cook ribs. I made 12 racks of back ribs. A new record for me. It turned out to be wayyyyy too much as not as many people were there as we were told. But those who were raved over them, which made me feel pretty good.
The ingredients. Missing from the picture is the sliced pineapple garnish.
Poor "Old Red" was full to the gills. I had to move them around a couple times to make sure they cooked evenly.
After 2.5 hours in the cherry/apple smoke. There were too many to foil individually so I cheated and put them in foil pans in the oven with a splash of pineapple and coke at 230degrees for 2 hours.
The finished product with grilled and brown sugar coated pineapple. The ribs were sauced and carmelized on a nice hot grill for a couple mins. They were devoured and the residents heaped some pretty high praise on me, which I must admit felt great.
Talking to some of the residents made me realize that what I thought were major problems in my life are nothing compared with what these people were going through. It was truly a life changing experience and I highly recommend checking if theres a Hope Lodge near you and volunteering.
http://www5.cancer.org/docroot/subsite/hopelodge/index.asp
I was affected in ways I never thought about, and can't wait to go back and do it again. The genuine appreciation they had for us taking time out of our lives to help them out in some small way was overwhelming. One gentleman in particular, David, really had a great attitude and outlook on life for someone in his situation. He was inspirational without even realizing it.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Just had to share this great experience while it was still fresh in my mind.
