The Best Panara Visit EVER

So last night as a way to welcome our new housemate, Don, to Elgin we all went to dinner at Panara Bread. So we all piled into our totally awesome white, eight passenger van and headed off to Panara. We got there and were up at the counter to give our orders, and I had actually already started, when one of the guys behind the counter (pretty sure a manager of sorts) started asking questions about who we were. Apparently we looked a little odd strollin in together as a group of young adults. I started listening to their conversation and completely forgot that there was a worker trying to take my order!

So the guy asked who we were. And so we told him that we are a group of volunteers in the Brethren Volunteer Service all working for the Church of the Brethren. He got really excited and started telling us about his daughter who is spending 11 months volunteering in the Kentucky mountains. We had a good, yet brief conversation with him. (And for those of you who are wondering, I did finally finish ordering my food.) As the rest of us ordered our food I asked the guy if he had any discounts for volunteers. I asked it half joking and half serious. He responded that there might be some brownies involved with our meal at some point. We all laughed and got rather excited about the prospect of free brownies. You know, as volunteers we REALLY like free things. :)

So we were at our booth eating our dinners having a great time. Lots of laughter was involved to say the least. Anyways, suddenly there he was, he popped his head over the end wall of our booth and started talking to us again. Not gonna lie, it startled us just a wee little bit! He asked us how our food was and then asked if we had room for a treat. We all looked around at each other and said 'uh, yeah!' He told us to create a space in the middle of the table and he set down a tray that had seven or eight different kinds of pastries on it. It was absolutely awesome!! We looked at each other and at him almost speechless. He kept talking to us, asking us more questions about what it is that we each did as volunteers and asking for more information. It was funny because everyone looked at me because it's my job to talk to people about BVS!

After the question and answer time, he finally left us to dig into our goodies. It was funny because we each had staked out which pastry we wanted almost before he had even gone. And they were all pretty much delicious!

Needless to say it was the best Panara visit ever.

And the point of the story: tell people that you volunteer! It just might mean getting something delicious for free!!