My Take Action Project Experience.

It was Saturday night and I just got back from my grandmas. Tomorrow was the day of my big cadette take action project for girl scouts. Me and Vivian, another cadette, were making around 160 éclairs to donate to The Family Supportive Shelter in San Jose. An éclair is an airy French dessert that is filled with whipped cream and melted chocolate drizzled on top. We were making it from scratch the next morning, Sunday, January 11^th 2013. Boy, was I nervous! Even though I was sure we had everything ready for the next day, I was a little worried on how they would turn out. So my family decided to make them that night. I was actually relieved. So we made them with our ingredients that we went and bought for the family. J I took a lot longer than I expected though. So I got all scared that we wouldn’t have enough time to make 160 the next morning. So I gave Vivian a call that there probably wasn’t going to be enough time. Vivian was supposed to come to my house at 9:00 am in the morning. When we planned it, it seemed pretty early, but after baking it with my family, not so sure. So I gave her a call that night to tell her about the things I was concerned about. So after a long conversation about that we finally made some new decisions. I would make one batch of éclairs that night using the ingredients that me and Vivian bought with the money Chi Phuong gave us and she would come an hour earlier, at eight. So I made one batch that night with my family while watching “Miss USA”. They turned out pretty nice but were a little flat. Lucky for us when we filled it up with cream and they became puffier. Since last time I attempted to melt chocolate failed, I admit, I was VERY nervous about how it would turn out. I learned a few tricks from last time (we burned the chocolate last time).So I went to sleep kind of late that night, baking éclairs and watching TV.

It was Sunday morning and I was sooooo TIRED! I woke up to knocking on the front door, I was wondering who would come so early but then I saw the clock and I literally jumped out of bed. It was Vivian, ready to bake, but I was still in my PJs . -_- I guess the alarm didn’t go off. I hastily brushed my teeth and changed into some khaki pants and my girl scout green LDVN shirt. After that we started to bake, I really am grateful that my parents and sister, Kristine, and Chu Thien were there to help me and Vivian. We made the dough first and instead of following the books instructions on how to set the dough on the platter, we did it our own way. So when the éclairs baked, my mom made the whipped cream while Kristine melted the chocolate. But that was the easy part. Filling and topping, was kind of a nightmare. It was hard keeping clean but we always had towel ready. Some people filled it with cream and some topped it with chocolate. The cream turned out really well and the chocolate was just perfect. But the pastry bags for the cream and the spoon for the chocolate weren’t cooperating. I kept thinking to myself that they tasted better than they looked. And that was true. We were on our second to last batch when we got a call. Turns out the older girls had some sort of problem with the food that they were going to serve so they asked us if we could bring some tooth picks and chicken powder. Fortunately we had chicken powder right in the pantry, but what we didn’t have was toothpicks. So my mom rushed to the store trying to find toothpicks while my dad stayed to help us. Chu Thien had left to do something so only my sister, dad, and mom were still helping. When my mom came back from the nearby store, we were almost finished but we were kind of late with timing. We started putting everything in the containers and then started to help cleanup. Since we thought we were late, we decided to just clean up lightly and finish the rest later. So we drove there and at first couldn’t find it because the building looked so nice! I was totally shocked. When my parents dropped me, Vivian, and Kristine off, we got in pretty quick. We then gave the éclairs to the seniors so they could serve it since they were the servers. After that, it was pretty boring. We had to sit in the kitchen and wait until we could eat our lunch which was potato salad, a sandwich, fruit salad, chicken noodle soup , and éclairs for dessert. It was really delicious. Even though we were inside the kitchen we could still see the football game in the TV outside in the dining room. Falcons vs. Sea hogs. J Hehehehe. There were no éclairs left by the end of the day but that was a good thing, right?

Anyway, it really was fun knowing that I was helping quite a few families that day. I know that someday I will look back on these times and I will be proud. All the hard work really did pay off . Now I just want to give a few thanks to everyone that helped me and Vivian. My dad, Khoa, Vivian’s dad, Chu Thien, my sister, Kristine, and my mom, Kim-Phuong Cao. I also want to thank Chi Phuong, Anh An, and Truong Phuc for helping me plan this amazing project. I know, that this isn’t my last time doing a good deed.

~ Kelly Kim Do