Winner Update: Positive Community Kitchen
Hello, everyone. My name is Shanna Hutton. I am Board Director of Positive Community Kitchen. We’re a local organization in town that provides free, organic meals for people that have been diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. We hiked Kilimanjaro. It was an amazing experience. It was the most humbling experience of my life. Here you are just trudging up this mountain and barely able to take one more step. Every night that you got back into camp, as you were walking into camp, there would be these porters that would huddle together and they would start singing and chanting these amazing African songs. It really motivated you. It made you feel like you were the hero that was the one that was coming into camp because you made it. If you don’t know much about the hike, summit night is really the hardest part about it. You start at about midnight and you hike until 7:00 A.M. You summit at 7:00 A.M. It’s cold and it’s dark. About 4:30, all of our team, there was 11 of us in the team, all of our team didn’t know if we were going to be able to make it. I mean, we were hitting a wall. All of a sudden, the 15 guides that were with us started singing and chanting the same African songs. I cannot tell you the amazing power of motivation that it gave us. I mean, I could tell you that it was not of my own volition that I made it to the top of this mountain. It was the wonderful songs and chants that literally carried us up this mountain. I don’t think you have many experiences in this life that really, truly you are able to feel the power of people motivating you and carrying you to be a better person. I felt it on that mountain. We try and emulate that within PCK with every meal that we deliver to our clients and I felt it here. It was an amazing experience to receive those donations because I couldn’t have reached that mountaintop without those porters and we can’t do what we need to do without you. It’s you that are singing on the sidelines and chanting and yelling, and really inspire us to continue what we do here in Eugene. So, thank you, thank you so much.
