Thanks For All The Food!

To all of you who recently attended Dickinson's Little Vaudeville's Food Pantry Benefit Show at Patton School in Arlington Heights, we appreciate your enthusiasm! We were able to donate 10 bags of food to the Wheeling Township Food Pantry!

Our Palatine-based kids troupe, "The Palace Revue," has been doing benefit shows for 19 years. The generosity of our audiences never ceases to amaze me. The Vaudevillians love being on stage and their parents, relatives, friends and me (of course) enjoy watching them perform. However, it's always been my hope that while everyone is having fun my young entertainers also learn of the important role they play by helping hungry families. Especially in these days of high unemployment.

I decided to interview the Vaudevillian who has been in our troupe the longest to see how she feels about being a participant in our food pantry benefits.

Lindsay joined Vaudeville at age 3 and is now 13. She has performed in 66 Vaudeville shows. Here is what she said about the importance of food donations: "Well, when I was only 3 to age 5, I remember my parents carrying a bag of something to each show I was in. I suppose I thought it held my costume pieces or props. Then one day I remember asking my mom, as we were getting ready to leave for a performance, why we were bringing a bag of groceries. She told me we always brought food for people who weren't as lucky as us. This made sense to me. Sometime when I was in grade school, I remember occasionally seeing strangers pushing shopping carts loaded with black plastic bags. They looked unhappy and poor. No one at school ever talked about these people. No kids at school ever said they never had enough to eat. Then I got older and learned that there were actual homeless people in our town. They had to get their food from the pantry a lot of the time. I felt bad for them. I also felt proud to know that me and my Vaudeville friends had put some of that food in the pantry. Over the years I've gone to the pantry with my parents to deliver the bags of donated food. Sure I'd had fun on stage being in the Vaudeville shows, but I knew we also did something good for people who hadn't even seen the show. I feel good that we help fill the shelves at the pantry. Speaking for myself, I eat 2 apples a day. I don't know what I would do if my parents told me they just couldn't give me those apples anymore. Being hungry and knowing you don't have enough food at home would be the worst!"

On behalf of Vaudeville, I'd like to thank Lindsay for contributing her thoughts on donating food and I'd like to thank her parents, Gail and Mike, who transport everyone's bags of groceries from our shows to the pantries. I'd also like to thank the rest of our troupe (present and past) and their families, who are always eager to donate.

Now you can again help us to help those in need. Join us for our Annual Christmas Food Pantry Benefit Show! Our stage will be at Living Christ Lutheran Church, 625 East Dundee Road, in Arlington Heights on Saturday, Dec. 17. Show time is 2:30 P.M. This is a FREE old-fashioned variety show, suitable for all ages, kids through seniors. There will be dancers, singers, musicians and comedic acts performed by kids, ages 6 though 17. Please bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Wheeling Township Food Pantry.

For additional information, or if you know of a food pantry that could use Vaudeville's support, call me, Donna Dickinson, at Vaudeville in Palatine at 847-632-0890.