By The Hand Club for Kids brings young people downtown for a fine dining experience
CHICAGO (CBS) --You have likely experienced a meal in a restaurant many times, but such is not the case for everyone.
CBS 2's Steven Graves took us Tuesday to a kids' fine dining experience that is catering to a special group of people.
There were full stomachs and hearts for all the young people who gathered around a table Tuesday at Maggiano's, at 516 N. Clark St. in River North.
"It's something about that type of fellowship that we can have a memory," said Davina Wilson, a counselor at the nonprofit organization By The Hand Club for Kids.
The food at Maggiano's is good, and the meatballs are big. But it is the total experience that the teenagers who visited Tuesday will never forget.
"We do do stuff, but like here – like stuff like dressing up and coming here and all that – no," said Mykiara Hodges. "So I like it."
Mykiara is from the Altgeld Gardens community on the city's Far South Side. She rarely comes downtown, and the experience was a treat for her and about a dozen or so other teens.
The nonprofit organization By The Hand has taken the students from Chicago's South Side not only to Maggiano's, but also on many other adventures and to other fine dining establishments.
"It was like new foods I've haven't tried," Mykiara said.
She enjoyed steak and red rice, but was not wild about the octopus, which she described as "gooey."
But Wilson says each dish and drink serves up a greater purpose.
"You know, it's quicker to get Popeyes, McDonald's, or something like that - so have something like this for the kids - whether or not they've experienced this before - it's exposure," Wilson said. It's to give an opportunity."
Now, about two years into By The Hand's NXT program for high schoolers, it helped Mykiara improve her grades. She has graduated from college and hopes to work with children.
And it all starts with exposure to another slice of life.
By The Hand' also takes students to colleges and meetings with entrepreneurs.
