Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

Vicke Davis, 59, is something of a celebrity among students at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University.

“Everyone knows her,” junior Alysa McCormick said. “She remembered my name before I remembered her name.”

As an employee in the college's dining hall in Tempe for the last three years, Davis has asked about the students’ lives before every breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And because she cares, she remembers their answers. She knows if they’re a freshman or senior, how their classes are going, where they went on vacation.

“Vicke is obviously a star component of the Barrett experience,” sophomore Hannah Houts said. “She knows all my family. … She sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to my dad once even though it wasn’t his birthday — because he was getting cake.”

One chilly fall day last semester, junior Quintin Woods handed Davis his meal card to buy lunch and, as she swiped it, asked about her “dream trip."

Without hesitation, she replied “the Northern Lights,” the bands of light that appear in the sky at night, especially in arctic regions. She heard that if you sing or whistle, the colorful streaks will dance with you.

On Thursday afternoon, Woods and about 100 students rushed Davis' cash register to surprise her with an oversize check for nearly $2,500, printed on an image of the blues, pinks and greens of the Aurora Borealis.

As Woods handed her the check and a camera to document her travels, Davis began to cry.

“See, that’s why I love my babies,” she yelled to the crowd of students surrounding her. “No wonder I was seeing you all today; I haven’t seen you all in a year!"

“I love my Barrett babies”

“A lot of freshmen come here and live in the complex, and they don’t get mom’s home-cooked meals anymore, but they get Vicke saying, ‘How you doing baby? How my Barrett babies doing?" McCormick said. "It’s so welcoming in a place that doesn’t necessarily feel like home at first."

“She always brings this extremely positive, extremely nurturing, caring spirit here,” McCormick said.

Davis regularly engages with students on Facebook and Snapchat – she’s been featured dancing or skateboarding on ASU’s daily Snapchat story many times – and she’s always posting about her “Barrett babies.”

“I told them the first day, I left all my babies in Chicago, so they my babies now. I love my babies. They’re sweet,” Davis said after she finished hugging every student that showed up for the surprise. Davis is from Chicago and began working at ASU in 2013, she said.

“Each one of them is gonna get a whooping. They could use that money on themselves,” she said, laughing. “Y’all spoil me, but y’all my favorite babies and you know it. I gotta bring back a lot of key chains.”

$2,000 in two days

Woods, 20, created the fundraiser on GoFundMe.com on Christmas Eve. Within 48 hours, more than 150 people had raised his goal of $2,000.

“It’s not necessarily surprising because I know how well-liked she is, but still," he said. "It's pleasantly surprising that it was an immediate ‘boom’ effort."

Two fraternities – Pi Kappa Phi and Lambda Chi Alpha – each donated about $250. One student donated $150 on her own; another gave $100.

Donations trickled in after, eventually topping out at $2,486. The money will cover travel expenses for Davis to go to Canada over ASU’s spring break in March.

While in Canada for the first time, more than 1,000 miles from her cafeteria, Davis plans to eat.

“I want real food. ... I’m from Chicago – very picky anyway – and a lot of the restaurants that say 'Chicago style'… nuh-uh. So I’m gonna do a lot of eating.”

Before the hubbub died down, Davis ran off to clock out for lunch and stand in line for food alongside the students.

“I only got 30 minutes off, I can’t kiss everybody,” she said, laughing. “Y’all gonna have me crying in my sushi.”