February 01, 2010
Twenty five students provided service to St. John the
Baptist Parish in Brooklyn on Saturday, January 30 in honor of St.
Vincent and St. Louise. To begin their day of service, the
students gathered in the St. Thomas More Church for reflection and
prayer. The students bonded together and braved the elements
in order to assist the parish in cleaning out offices.
Florine Smolinski, sophomore biology major states, “The best part
of the day was when we all decided to work together and created an
assembly line to take everything down the stairs.” The service
included moving furniture, dismantling the furniture for trash, and
destroying old documents. The students organized themselves
in a way that would truly have made St. Vincent proud – they formed
assembly lines and worked together to carry the furniture and items
down four flights of stairs.
Students ended their service with reflection and discussion about
their experiences. Their dedication and concern for the
community were evident in the thoughts they shared. Claire
Cilento, freshman economics major shared, “The day was made
particularly memorable for me when I learned that this site was the
site of the former St. John’s University. Now, not only were
we helping a fellow Catholic community, we were helping what used
to be the location of our University family.”
Volunteers wanted to make sure that the pieces thrown out were not
going to be useful to anyone in need. One student even
carried home a box of children’s books to bring them to the
Oncology unit at Long Island Jewish Hospital. The students
truly came to realize the Founder’s Week theme, “Vincentian Legacy
and Destiny: Changing the World with Charity and Justice” by their
acts of charity and carrying on the Vincentian legacy.
Christina Walters, Senior Psychology Major and Ozanam Scholar sums
it up by saying, “This service challenged us to do a hard task for
the sake of people that will benefit from it not that day or the
day after but farther in the future. Being less familiar with
this type of service, I stepped out of my comfort zone to truly
appreciate that it is not making myself feel good that counts, it
is about serving those who are in need, even if that service is
challenging.”