The song “Be Our Guest” is a classic tune to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” production. Lyrics perfectly describe the humanities dinner, including, “And now we invite you to relax, let’s pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents your dinner.” On Friday, February 23rd, the Cannon Falls Humanities students put on quite the performance at the annual Humanities dinner, which will financially help the humanities students planning on traveling through Europe this upcoming summer. Some of the places the students will stay include Florence, Rome, and Paris for an eleven-day trip. As guests walked in the front doors into the atrium at 6pm, they were surrounded by Italian-themed decor, smiling faces of their waiters/students, and the smells of a hot dinner waiting to be served.

The waiters and waitresses ushered their family and friends toward a table stacked with hand thrown ceramic bowls made by Mrs. Hernke, one of the two humanities teachers. Once the guests picked out their bowls, they grazed on appetizers including wraps, quiches, bread and oil, grapes, and cheese. As soon as the guests were seated, they were entertained by Anna Schroeder and Mari Mendivil. The girls sang solos they have been working on in choir and the guests were pleasantly surprised. Mendivil sang an Italian song called “Tu Lo Sai”. She states, “It was very nerve-racking singing in front of all those people, but after I finished I felt so relaxed.” After they sang, as a reward for their generous entertainment, Schroeder and Mendivil enjoyed the dinner as well. Mendivil goes on to say, “My favorite part of the dinner was the decor, it was so pretty. I felt like I was in an Italian restaurant and the food was amazing!”

The pre-dinner salad included a large selection of vegetables, croutons, and a light dressing. The main meal, served in the ceramic bowls, included two cheese-stuffed shells with a meat and marinara sauce. After the waiters washed the bowls and gave them back to the guests to keep, the guests enjoyed an assortment of cheesecake bites.

While the dinner was taking place, a silent auction occured. The funds of this dinner and the money made from the silent auction will go toward the students’ trip. While there were some complications with the dinner, including the weather and tablecloth sizes, nobody seemed to have any less of an enjoyable time. Laura Johnson, a humanities student and decor specialist for the dinner, explained, “We ran out of tablecloth sizes so we had to double up on some, and from previous years the cloths were still stained even after washing them.”

After the dinner concluded, the guests were encouraged to view the humanities projects and pick up their silent auction items while the students cleaned up. Sophie Epps, an attendant to the dinner, stated, “Everything about the event was beautifully put together. The food was very delicious and the bowls were so amazing!” Although none of the students sang it, “Be Our Guest” could not have described the dinner any better. The food was amazing, the decor allowed the guests to travel around the world, and we can’t wait for next year’s dinner.