Pitt students gain more than grades from charitable project

hough he towered over them, Trevor Clinkscales could relate to the children racing around the… Though he towered over them, Trevor Clinkscales could relate to the children racing around the game room in which he stood. Their families all belonged to New Foundations or Sojourner House — two programs that aid families dealing with homelessness, drug addiction or mental illness. His easy grin, accented by a single dimple, seemed a testament to enduring and overcoming a childhood of homelessness and poverty.

“Being homeless and being in all these situations and being in different childhoods, it’s a difficult situation to be in … and just knowing those kids are cut from the same cloth, it’s humbling to be in the same room as them, to be able to give back,” the Pitt junior said.

A project for his applied developmental psychology major brought him and four other students to Hosanna House, a Christian community center in Wilkinsburg, last Friday night. There they planned games and crafts to keep children busy during the after-dinner portion of the third annual Babette’s Feast — a free “five-star” dinner the center puts on for the clients of family aid programs.

The dinner takes its name from the eponymous movie of one woman who uses all she has to make a feast for friends. The invitation to the event read, “Babette’s Feast is a story of grace, a gift that costs the giver everything and the recipient nothing.”

For the Pitt students, a volunteer church group and several other organizations, the event was just that: an opportunity for charity.

“A big focus of this dinner was to let everyone know and feel that they’re deserving and that they’re just as deserving as any other person in the whole world of this dinner … and this time with their families,” said Pitt junior and group member Meredith Feldman. She also enlisted the help of her sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma, for a toy drive and participation at the event.

More than a project

Though professor Amanda Hirsch assigned them the work as an assignment, the group became personally invested from the beginning, said Clinkscales. It was particularly evident as Feldman cradled 6-week-old Akina Hatcher, cooing and kissing her tiny, balled-up fingers.

When Akina’s 2-year-old sister Aniyah began to bawl, Feldman and her group members squatted down to comfort her all at once, all trying different tactics from soothing voices to asking her to smile for pictures to just trying to make her giggle.

“I have a lollipop in my purse that I just know will do the trick,” Feldman whispered. But she respected 34-year-old mother Anika Hatcher’s wishes to keep sweets for after dinner.

After Hosanna House program director Janene Hayes led the tearful little girl to calm down in her office, teacher Hirsch quizzed the students on why she took this course of action. “It helps with stranger anxiety,” they said. Hirsch added, in this teaching moment, that moving out of the room curbs the overstimulation.

As the feast time neared, attendees and their children filtered into the auditorium, where a mass of round tables had been set up hours before. Volunteers from Fiore Londino’s men’s church group, The Band of Brothers, arrived earlier to dim the now amber-lit auditorium — already swathed in the right sort of dark maroon from the carpets to the curtains — to create a restaurant atmosphere. Fall-themed artificial flower arrangements and fruit bowls from Pitt’s student group brought color to the expansive, crisp table cloth draped over each of the 20 tables. They were set with plain white china, earthy mugs and amber cups the volunteers bought or borrowed.

Lining the back of the room sat a row of gleaming silver serving trays. A row of waiting volunteers stood behind them, prepared to spoon out prime rib, fish and chicken. The Band of Brothers had the culinary leadership of a one-time executive chef of Steelhead Grill. They’d planned the menu keeping the guests in mind — well done prime rib instead of medium, because, Londino said, that’s what the attendees would eat.

Londino’s group began to prepare for Babette’s Feast about two months ago. He guessed that if he could calculate the receipts, the men’s group spent $2,000 out-of-pocket on arrangements and food from the Strip District. Even then, the overall cost was defrayed by people who donated and loaned out material, such as kitchen supplies and china. For him and his group, taking on projects similar to Babette’s Feast represents an important part of their Christian faith and desire to do good.

“It’s really about the giving back, and even when you do a lot of work through something like this, even when you’re giving, you end up getting more back than you gave intangibly,” Londino said.

This sentiment was echoed in Hosanna House Executive Director Leon Haynes III’s speech, in which he remarked, “All things are possible through you.” He then handed the microphone over to a woman to sing the Lord’s Prayer, signalling the beginning of the meal. Volunteers donning white shirts and black pants began serving the partially empty room.

Overcoming odds

For those who attended, the various organizations’ generosity meant a lot for struggling families. It’s a chance for mothers to spend time with their children, who witnessed their parents’ struggle. And more than that, it’s an opportunity to show them something positive, said participant Aushiai Tyler, who came with her 10-year-old daughter, Elizabeth.

Tyler spent 17 years of her life addicted to crack; she said this May will mark her third year of sobriety. She said she tried numerous times to get clean, always only succeeding for a few months at a time. It wasn’t until, with a drug addiction and lung disease, she was faced with the decision to get clean or die, did sobriety stick.

“I struggle everyday. I don’t feel like I fit in the world. I struggle. I don’t know what normal is … It’s like I’m a baby learning how to live again,” she said.

The mother of three daughters, aged 10, 20 and 21, Tyler said she regrets the time she missed of her children’s lives. But she feels fortunate that she still has time to raise her youngest, Elizabeth, and build relationships with her older daughters.

“It’s the first time in my life I really feel like a mother,” she said.

After the meal, her daughter, along with the other children, participated in the Pitt students’ games and crafts. They giggled as they drew hand-turkeys on cards for their mothers, got their nails done or participated in a video game tournament. The youngsters were split up into different rooms that featured age-appropriate activities.

The Pitt volunteers chatted with the children, asking about their goals and hopes. Twelve-year-old Precious Jackson wants to teach math to fourth- or sixth-gradersbecause, she said, those were her best years.

Hirsch said she’s seen remarkable changes in her students; they now understand on an experiential level what it’s like to work with diverse people with a variety of needs. She explained that it isn’t unusual for these projects to impact students personally, so much so that they continue their volunteer work long after their grades come out.

Clinkscales said he had wanted to share his experience with the kids at Babette’s Feast, to explain that he’d worked hard despite moving from school to school as a child, living in shelters at times and being on food stamps. He said he wanted them to realize that, according to his history, he should not be a successful college student, yet he is.

“I’ve been through this before. I’m a college student, and statistically, I’m not supposed to be graduating high school and then going on to college. But dreams can still be attained no matter what past you’ve come from, no matter if it’s poor, rich [or] homeless,” he said. “People give up sometimes because of where they’ve come from, but there’s hope, there’s always hope.”