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Brenden McNarland

Ms. Schaner

AP Language and Composition

12 Feb. 2019

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Culture is defined as, “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial,

religious, or social group”(“Merriam-Webster”). In the Mona Shores hockey program, we are

trying to change the culture of the Muskegon area by performing indigenous acts of kindness.

Every year, we (the Mona Shores hockey program) try to get involved in the community and

volunteer at least one event. In past years, we have volunteered at Kids Food Basket, we have

held learn to skates for the community, and we have participated in canned food drives. This

year, we were offered another cultural opportunity, to serve breakfast at the First Congressional

Church in downtown Muskegon on a Saturday morning. There were two sessions we could sign

up for, and I decided to sign up for the first session with my teammates: Andrew, Cole, Scotty,

Brennan, Jager, Cayden, and Colby; unfortunately the first session had an early start time of

7:30 AM.

When the day arose, Andrew (who lives close to me), picked me up and drove us to the

high school. Once we arrived at the high school, we sorted out the car pooling situation with our

teammates and hit the road. We followed Andrew’s mom to the church and on the way, we saw

a homeless man walking on the side of the highway with a walker. Little did we know that we

would later see that man having breakfast down at the church. The man walked a little over 2

miles just to get his breakfast. This shows that some people are not as fortunate as others and

have hard work just survive from one day to the next. Fortunately, I have been blessed to have
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a roof over my head, clean drinking water, and a healthy family and for that, I am extremely

grateful.

While driving to the church, we were discussing the housing market and real estate and

believe it or not, a classmate in my physics class is a real estate agent. He is only 18 years old

and is selling houses! He told me that in Muskegon Heights, the average home sells for

approximately $40,000, and some are as low as $20,000. Compared to where I live in Norton

Shores, the average price for a house is significantly higher and is approximately $200,000.

This shows how fortunate we (my family) are to have such hard working, passionate parents

who work everyday to make our lives as good as possible. According to datausa.io, the median

household income for people living in Muskegon Heights is $21,903, and the poverty rate is an

astonishing 43.5%(“Muskegon Heights”). Compared to Norton Shores, where the median

household income is $52,283 while the poverty rate is 8.76%.(“Norton Shores”) It is bewildering

to me that a neighboring city of Norton Shores is vastly different. When people think of

Muskegon Heights, they tend to associate it with poverty, African Americans, and violence.

Contrast that to Norton Shores where these stereotypes are relatively non existent. This

example shows that our society often makes judgement based on appearance, instead of

actually getting to know the people of a community. One of my friends, AJ Rodriguez, has many

friends that live in the Muskegon Heights area. From the couple that I have met and talked to,

they seemed like very nice people.

When we arrived at the church, it was around 7:30 AM and there were already people

lining up at the church to enter for breakfast, which did not open until 8:30 AM. We all followed

Andrew’s mom and she led us into a meeting room where all the workers were gathering. They

gave us the rundown of what was going to happen and what to expect. During a typical

breakfast approximately 400 people of all ages and ethnicities are served. After the speech from
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the lead worker, they walked us to our specific job posts. There was a dishwashing station, a

serving station, and a beverage station. I was assigned to work the beverage station and before

I started, I was able to grab a quick bite to eat. They had eggs, hash browns, sausage, and

applesauce. My teammates and I filled our plates and sat a table and ate while we talked about

our upcoming games. At first we were skeptical of getting so much food because the food was

not really meant for us, but the workers insisted that we eat as much as we want and that they

always have plenty of food left over after serving everyone.

After we finished our meal and washed our dishes and silverware, we went back into the

meeting room to pray. We all held hands while the workers led the prayer. I know many people

on my hockey team are not religious, but they all were respectful and joined in on the prayer

even though it may not appeal to them.

As it approached 8:30 AM, they opened the doors and people started piling in one after

the other. After a span of five minutes, approximately 50 people were inside the church with

another 200 more waiting outside to be served. It was interesting, but also sad to see the type of

people coming in the church. Teenagers with kids, people with missing limbs, and people with

canes or walkers. The people that stood out most to me were the war veterans. One by one, it

would seem that veterans of war would come into the church. According to the National Alliance

to End Homelessness, in January of 2016, there were over 39,000 homeless war veterans in

the United States and over half of them (54%) have a mental of physical disability. Although the

amount of homeless veterans has substantially decreased since 2010 (“Veterans

Homelessness”).

When people finally received their food and picked where to sit, it was my turn to help

them with beverages. The first table I served was a ​coterie​ of veterans, five of them to be exact.

I asked everyone what they wanted to drink and in unison they said, “I’ll have a coffee!”
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I told them I would be out in a minute because I had to go get the coffee pot. When I

came back and filled each of their mugs, one of them pulled me aside and said, “Thank you for

doing this, I know this may seem like you are not doing much by just getting us a coffee, but it is

much appreciated.”

After he told me this, he showed me his leg. He was missing one of his legs. I decided

not to ask him how his injury was caused because it seemed disrespectful, so I gracefully said,

“No problem, it always feels nice to help out in the community.”

After about 30 minutes of serving people beverages, a man came into the church and

went to the middle of the floor and started singing. He starting singing about how God is good

and will help you in times in need. He proceeded to tell a story about how he had no money, no

house, and no family. He said one night, he decided to pray to God and ask why God was doing

this to him. He said God’s response was “the best is yet to come.”

He went on to explain that later that same week, his life changed for the better, and he is

now the happiest he has ever been in his life. It resulted in a standing ​acclamation​ from

everyone in attendance at the church and talking about how God is good.

After this man’s little concert and speech, it had me thinking, why does it seem as though

African American people are closer to God than others? Is it because more are less fortunate

and hope to find fortune through God? Is it because of the way they were raised? Also, it seems

that African American parishes are more uplifting and more joyful in how they perform their

masses as compared to the Catholic church I attend, St. Francis De Sales.

After about an hour of serving the less fortunate, one of the workers came up to Jager

and I to tell us that they needed people to run the daycare downstairs at 10:30 AM. We told him

that we would gladly do it and we were instructed to head down at 10:00 in order set up some

game stations for the kids.

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After our talk with the workers, Brennan Dethloff, one of my teammates, showed me a

man with a hole in his neck. Since I knew that I was doing my cultural experience on this

volunteer event, I felt like this was a perfect opportunity to learn more about him. After the man

sat down, I went up to him and asked what he wanted to drink. He indicated that he would like

orange juice, so I went and got him a glass of orange juice and delivered it to his table. He said,

“thanks,” and before I left I said, “I am sorry about your neck injury, I hope it heals well.”

At first he started laughing, and I was rather confused. He then went on to explain that

he has the hole in his throat because he was addicted to cigarettes. I specifically remember him

saying, “It only takes one until you are addicted.”

This statement the man said is so true in today’s society, especially with the rise of

vaping. Vaping has become a big issue in today’s society. People think that they have to “fit in”

by vaping or if you do not vape, you are not cool. All it takes is one hit ,and some people are

addicted for life. According to the research article, ​Lessons on Addiction Messages from “The

Real Cost” Campaign​, 87% of adult daily smokers smoked their first cigarette before the age of

18. Also, three out of four young people who start smoking continue into adulthood (“Lessons

On Addiction Messages”). People think that vaping is harmless and it will do nothing harmful to

their body. According to a 2016 study, of the 27 case reports that were completed about vaping,

25 of them were negative. Some of the negative things reported about vaping included

gastrointestinal conditions, heart problems, nicotine poisoning, and injuries caused by batteries

exploding inside vapes (“Health Risks of Vaping”).

After my ​ephemeral​ conversation with the man, it was almost 10:00 so Jager and I went

downstairs where we met this lady. She told us what was needed to be set up. For example, we

had to plug in the air hockey tables, get out the LEGOS, get out board games, and get the balls

for foosball.
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The first people to come down was a little African American boy and two of his

counterparts​. They instantly starting throwing playful ​badinage​ to us about how they could

beat us in foosball. I gladly accepted one of their challenges and quickly put him in his place by

winning 10-2. Since he was your typical teenager and did not like to lose, he said, “that was a

warm up game, let’s play for real now.”

I gladly said, “Ok.”

I ended up winning that game 10-4. I briefly savored my moment of victory and then

realized that there were many other children who needed some help.

Next, I went over to a little boy and his big sister who were playing with the LEGOS. I

asked him if he wanted to build something and he said. “Sure.”

We ended up building a LEGO house as tall as me and he was so happy! To be funny,

when I was putting the final touches on the house, he decided to run into it and he made it all

collapse. He thought it was hilarious! At first, I was a little mad because I spent a good 20

minutes on my creation, but then I came back to reality and thought, “This kid is about five years

old and he probably does not have these experiences a lot at his household. After all, this is

supposed to be his playing time, not mine.”

At one point, and all of the sudden, I heard someone screaming and heard a sound that

sounded like someone got slapped. I looked behind me and saw two boys fighting because one

of them took the other’s turn playing foosball. This resulted in Jager and me breaking the fight

up and resolving the situation by making them take turns and supervising them more closely.

When their playtime was up, which was at 11:30 AM, Jager and I helped clean up the

games, and then went upstairs and helped clean there as well. We first had to spray down the

tables and clean them. Once clean, we had to fold the tables down and stack them up neatly

against the wall. Lastly, we had to stack the chairs and put them against the wall as well.
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After we were done cleaning up, the workers thanked us and gave us all t-shirts to show

us their appreciation for us taking time out of our own day to come help.

As you can see, many people in the world and the Muskegon area are struggling to find

their next meal. Whether it be because they took the wrong path in life, they grew up poor with

little money, or struggled with addictions. It is amazing to see all the dedicated volunteers each

one giving up time in their personal lives to feed the homeless breakfast.
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Works Cited

“Culture.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture.

“Health Risks of Vaping: What You Need to Know.” ​Benefits Bridge​, 6 July 2018,

benefitsbridge.unitedconcordia.com/health-risks-of-vaping-what-you-need-to-know/.

“Lessons on Addiction Messages From ‘The Real Cost’ Campaign.” ​NeuroImage​, Academic Press, 17 Jan. 2019,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379718322451.

“Muskegon Heights, MI.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/geo/muskegon-heights-mi/.

“Norton Shores, MI.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/geo/norton-shores-mi/.

“Veteran Homelessness.” ​National Alliance to End Homelessness,​

endhomelessness.org/resource/veteran-homelessness/.