[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The sweet sounds of a violin drifted in the air and the smell of barbecue honey meatballs wafted from the kitchen. This was not a five-star restaurant, however — it was the Homeless Banquet at Calvary Lutheran Chapel.

"The objective was not to evangelize or pursue any organized social-justice cause," said University of Wisconsin junior Jonathan Highness, one of the many volunteers at the dinner. "It was merely to show the homeless that God and his servants love them and want to interact with them with no ulterior motive."

The event was the brainchild of UW sophomore Abi Degner, who says she wanted to help out homeless people without any strings attached.

"[The banquet] is for the purpose of breaking class barriers," she said. "We're just going to come together and eat like we're friends."

The spread was bountiful, consisting of the barbecue honey meatballs, two kinds of mashed potatoes, beef stew, garlic bread and salad. A violinist was also in attendance, providing music in the background.

The event's volunteers were from all sorts of campus organizations, and they came together at Degner's request.

Highness said volunteers for the event ranged from science and engineering majors to English and business majors, from former philosophy professors to violinists, to Marines and soldiers.

"It was a dream of mine originally, and I just started asking people if they would be interested in helping," Degner said.

The end result was more than 60 volunteers, from cooks to greeters, executing a banquet that could serve 150 people. The people at the door were cheery, introducing themselves to guests and showing them downstairs to the dining area.

Unfortunately for Degner, however, despite the good cause, the immense planning that went into the banquet came at the cost of her schoolwork.

"I failed an o-chem test on Friday," Degner said, but added that it was worth it.

Invitations were sent out to different shelters in the Madison area and were offered to people on State Street.

"We tried to do it as personally as possible, so we went down State Street, we went to all the different shelters and handed out these really pretty little invitations," she said. "Word spread from shelter to shelter very quickly."

The invitations weren't the only well-decorated thing involved in the banquet. There were white tablecloths with candles, and Christmas lights adorned the walls — which, according to one volunteer, took two hours to put up.

"The shared bond of all the volunteers was their love of Christ and their desire to show the homeless that we care about them," Highness said.