STJ Service

St. John’s Bread and Life Center has been serving our community for quite a few years and our students continually get the opportunity to give back to the community by volunteering at the Center. On Saturday, March 23, 3013, four students departed from Gate 6 and traveled to Brooklyn by Taxi to St. Johns Bread and Life. Upon Arriving, they were greeted by Staff Member and Director, Al Diefenbach and received a tour of the facility. The 2 story building housed a library, a pantry, and even a Chapel which provides support and prayer for those seeking it. For weeks the Bread and Life Center offered services from Jackson Hewitt allowing members of the registered community to have their taxes filed free of charge. Less fortunate individuals are able to check out books, browse the internet, and print documents in the 1^st floor library. They are also able to receive advice and help from pro-bono attorneys and administrators on the 2^ndfloor.

St. John’s Bread and Life Center also offered a kitchen where they offer classes on healthy eating habits and show those in need how to cook and eat healthy. The four St. John’s volunteers spent most of their volunteered time that day organizing the food pantry and completing inventory tasks to make sure all the information was up to date to be inputted into the check-out system. The check-out system is an online database that registered members are able to access and use to cash in their free points to redeem food.

“My experience at Bread and Life was an amazing one. By having the opportunity to be of assistance that day by sorting food and taking inventory of the available food items to be handed out, I felt as if I was contributing significantly to those in need. Furthermore, I was happy to see that the Bread and Life Center does not only focus on feeding those in need, but also does so much more! Overall, I was happy to learn of the many contributions of St. John’s Bread and Life and happy grateful for having the opportunity to serve there.”

~Sloundey Colin-Pierre (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated | Fall 2012)

STJ sponsored yet another awesome Saturday service trip with students from Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. The group served from 9am to 4pm in the Rockaways helping those victims that are still trying to get on their feet after the disastrous storm that occurred this past October.

The men of Pi Kappa Phi served along with their new member class to hand out food and water to the people of the Rockaway Community. When the students arrived at the site a truck arrived with large bags of potatoes and other food that needed to be unloaded. With the help of about 30 members of Pi Kapp, the truck was unloaded within 10 minutes and the potatoes were then bagged by female volunteers to hand out. The volunteers then helped out with further activities requiring labor and strength. They completed yard work in the neighboring homes by picking up garbage and later moved to the beach to pick up more debris from the shore.

Inside the house where the volunteers were working out of, an arts and crafts workshop was going on for children while their parents were working on other tasks. The volunteers that remained in the house cut fruit for the children and made fruit salad. They also handed out toiletries and donated clothes to the community. STJ’s students worked efficiently and effectively to get the assigned tasks completed in a timely manner.

Lenny, a member of Pi Kappa Phi, expressed, “The best part of doing service as a fraternity is seeing the smile on the new members faces when they do it for the first time.”

“It’s surprisingly a lot of fun,” he said. “I really haven’t had that much fun in a long time.”

Sheepshead Bay was drastically ruined by Hurricane Sandy and the Students of St. John’s have continued to show support of its relief efforts. Many organizations, including those shown above such as Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, have taken their time to help with the Occupy Sandy Relief Program and its initiatives. This past Saturday was an eye-opener for many and for others, just a simply reminder of the work that needs to be done for places such as the Sheepshead Bay area.

Ayana Short of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was another volunteer that expressed, “It felt good to give back to those in need. Many people have already forgotten about Super Storm Sandy victims so it was good to go to those areas still struggling.”

“This service experience was impactful because we left things better than we found them. We all worked together to fix and clean up a basement that was severely damaged from Hurricane Sandy. This was a very humbling and rewarding experience.” ~Emma Burke and Alexis Coulter (Gamma Phi Beta, Sorority SPC ’13)

Oliver Papanikolopoulos, Cristina Maki Horimoto, and Luma de Lira Nogueira were approached by a woman during the service trip and were asked to help clean up trash in the ladies yard. The group worked diligently for the day in an effort to help her clean her porch and backyard and got the job done!

“The feeling that we helped somebody is unique. Her smile was priceless! The day’s struggle was worth it.” ~Oliver P.

On Saturday, April 6^th, a group of 28 STJ Students traveled to Sheepshead in Brooklyn to volunteer all day for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. The group left Gate 6 at 9a.m. in a bus provided by the University and arrived at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn around 9:30a.m. The group met with an adviser in charge of the Occupy Sandy Movement and received information about how that particular area was affected by Hurricane Sandy. Upon getting the background of the area, the group of 28 was split into groups of 5 and taken out one by one to walk to their assigned homes and lots which were all on different streets in the immediate area. The individual groups were assigned to multiple tasks including raking lots that still consisted of debris from the storm, cutting down damaged trees, gutting homes, passing out food and flyers to the surrounding neighbors, painting fences, and removing nails from walls of homes.

Cassidy Kikkinos was one of the students that volunteered that day and she stated, “I absolutely loved helping victims of Hurricane Sandy. It was eye opening to see just how affected they were by the hurricane and amazing to see how compassionate they were to us.”

Daniella D’lppolito stated, “This experience impacted me in such a positive way because doing something so simple as painting a man’s fence meant so much to him and in turn it made me feel so good about myself.”

The students were able to interact first hand with some of the individuals that were affected by Sandy and were excited and enthused to offer their service and lend a helping hand. As seen in the pictures above, many students were willing to put on as much gear as they needed to get the job done and they had a blast while doing it! Here are just a few ways the students felt about the service they performed that day:

“Today was impactful because we helped spread awareness of Sandy Relief by posting flyers in the neighborhood.” ~Erika

“It was great to help out someone who was unfortunate to get hit by the hurricane.” ~Joanne Mierzejewski

This is what some of the students had to say about their experience at the Romero Center:

“Learning the struggles of people with limited opportunities and resources was a challenge, but opened my eyes to the reality of life on food stamps.”

-Caroline Shaw

“The Romero Center gave me a realistic insight into poverty in America.  It is real and while there is public assistance the needs of a community are much stronger than that provided.”

-Francesca DiMura

“My time at the Romero Center brought on feelings of sadness for the poverty that Camdenites face but also hope from community leaders who work tirelessly.  What I’ve taken from this experience is that it may be that Camdenites and many others are suffering—but with whatever privilege I was born into comes the responsibility to advocate for those less fortunate.  It was an overall awesome experience and given the opportunity I challenge my peers to immerse themselves in the Romero Center Urban Challenge.”

-Amina Sanders

“Serve the poor and those who are in need

Although this sentence is in my heart all the time, I questioned why I sometimes judged those by their status and wealth rather than their need.  After this experience, I gained new knowledge and have learned to move on and truly live by that statement.  I love you all! Thanks for this great service trip!  What I learned here will always be with me.”

-Denny Chu

This past weekend a group of students traveled to the Romero Center in Camden, NJ, a retreat center focused on educating students about the issues of poverty in Camden.  We left the St. John’s campus for our three hour trip to Camden on Friday, making a pit stop along the way.  On Friday night we shared a meal together and watched a 20/20 special on poverty in Camden.  Afterwards we reflected on the idea of dignity for all humans.  We spoke about what it meant to live a life of dignity and what humans should be entitled to in order to live a fulfilled life.  On Saturday we had the chance to understand what it felt like to live on welfare.  We were each given $3 to purchase our breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the entire day.  We were split up into families of three and had 10 minutes to buy all of our groceries for the day in a local supermarket.  Each group spent less than $7 on their meals for the entire day.  After sharing our simple breakfast, we headed off to Philadelphia to do service at Inglis House, a skilled nursing facility for people who are severely physically handicap.  At the facility we played Jeopardy and trivia with the residents and assisted with their bingo tournament.  As afternoon came, and hunger began to settle in, we traveled back to the Romero Center for a reflection on the day’s activities.  We spoke about the preferential option for the poor while reflecting on passages from The Bible.  After reflection, we prepared our simple dinners of Ramen noodles and pasta.  We ended our night by reflecting on what we learned during our weekend and what we were going to take away from our experience.  We started our day early on Sunday with a tour of the city.  We experienced first hand the effects that poverty had on the community.  We then attended mass where we had the opportunity to interact with the residents of the Camden community.  After mass we loaded into the van and began our three hour trip back home.

SATURDAY SERVICE RESUMES!!!

We hope you all had a great Easter Break. Now, the show must go on!

This Saturday, St. John’s gives back as usual from 9am to 4pm.

It’s never too late to register! Sign up today at stjservice@stjohns.edu!

For the betterment of others, we must realize…

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Each and every Saturday, St. John’s students give back to the community by volunteering a few hours of their time. You’d be surprised what one helping hand can do. Next Saturday, will YOU join?

Every Saturday from 9am-4pm…
Our community needs us now more than ever. Are YOU in?

Sign up at www.stjservice.tumblr.com today!