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In the Spotlight
Bridget Haug '11
MVC Volunteer
Loaves and Fishes
Sacramento, CA
"Sacramento, CA has been a unique experience so far. In the midst of adjusting to a new city, a new part of the country, and a new job, I have also had to assimilate myself into the population I serve. My placement is at Maryhouse, an organization under the Loaves and Fishes umbrella. Check out the Loaves and Fishes website if you get a chance: www.sacloaves.org. It's got a lot of great information about Maryhouse, as well as the other programs that fall under its umbrella. The mission of Loaves and Fishes is to provide homeless survival services to the homeless of Sacramento. Upon being placed here, I had NO comprehension as to the large homeless population in Sacramento.
While most people may assume that homeless people are all mean and rude, my experience has often been the opposite. Within a few days in Sacramento, I began to recognize those homeless people living near my home as well as those I see on a daily basis at Loaves and Fishes. In recognizing these people and allowing them to realize my recognition of them I have been able to build relationships with them in my two short months here so far. One day my roommate and I were talking with a non-homeless person from Sacramento about jaywalking ticketing here. Cait and I insisted that the laws were extremely strict here, as that is what our peers had been telling us. The person we were speaking with quickly reminded us that the majority of the people we were considering to be our peers were in fact homeless. We didn't even realize this! We've definitely had an easier time making friends with our homeless guests than we have with those residing in housing in Sacramento which is definitely a turn of tables for me. One of the potential justice issues here in Sacramento that I'd like to possibly focus on is the injustice faced by homeless people under the enforcement of law. Loaves and Fishes houses a free legal clinic so this may be a place to explore this issue further."
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Extending the Circle
Extending the Circle is a unique program offered by Mercy Volunteer Corps to enable our volunteers to share their MVC experiences with friends and family.
So far, our volunteers have raised $6,965. Check out the website at www.mercyvolunteers.org to view their personalized web pages.
Please consider sponsoring Mercy volunteers in their commitment to service, thereby extending their circle of support. |
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UPCOMING MVC EVENTS
November 1st
Recruitment Visit
St. Mary's University
Winona, MN
November 2nd
Recruitment Visit
St. Benedict and St. John
St. Joseph, MN
November 3rd
Recruitment Visit
Mount Aloysius College
Cresson, PA
November 7th
Recruitment Visit
Loyola University
Baltimore, MD
November 10th
Recruitment Visit
Catholic University of America
Washington, DC
November 11th
Recruitment Visit
St. Joseph College
West Hartford, CT
November 12th
Participation
Ignation Family Teach
Washington, DC
November 13th
Recruitment Visit
Scranton University
Scranton, PA
November 14th
Recruitment Visit
LaSalle University
Philadelphia, PA
November 14th
Recruitment Visit
Villanova University
Philadelphia, PA
November 15th
Recruitment Visit
St. Joseph's University
Philadelphia, PA
November 15th - 18th
Participation
Catholic Volunteer Network Conference
Philadelphia, PA
November 17th - 19th
Participation
National Catholic Collegiate Conference
Indianapolis, IN
November 18th - 19th
Participation
SOA Protest
Fort Benning, GA
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New MVC Blog
MVC has started a new blog! Each week we will share a submission from one of our volunteers which will shed light on the experience of volunteering. We encourage you to share this blog with others to either encourage people to volunteer or to help people understand the impact MVC has on our amazing volunteers. Click on our link below!
http://mercyvolunteercorps.blogspot.com/
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Institute Justice Team
The Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas call us to "intensify our responses to critical needs of our times." To respond to these needs in the United States, we are urged to be active at national and local levels where policy decisions are made. Policy made in the United States affect the entire world and we need to let legislators know our concerns about the impact of their decisions. There are several ways that you as individuals or groups can effectively deliver messages to U.S. Senators and Representatives. We encourage you to sign up to receive action alerts from the Sisters of Mercy to become aware when critical timely advocacy is needed. Please sign up at the following link: http://capwiz.com/sistersofmercy/mlm/signup/.
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2011-2012 Annual Report
Our 2011-2012 Annual Report is now available. Please visit our website at www.mercyvolunteers.org and click
on the link to view the report. |
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Mercy Volunteer Corps' Mission Statement
In partnership with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, lay women and men of Mercy Volunteer Corps (MVC), enter into relationship with people who are economically poor and marginalized. In a spirit of mutuality, volunteers cultivate mercy and justice in the world by embracing compassionate service, social justice, spirituality and a simple lifestyle in community.
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Greetings!
October was a busy month for MVC with 13 recruitment visits to colleges and universities. October also marked the start of our volunteer site visits. This month we are recognizing the 20th anniversary celebration of Matrix Theatre Company, one of our social services sites in Detroit. We are also delighted to feature an alumni marriage of two of our 2009-2010 volunteers, as well as reflections from two of our current volunteers who are Mercy High School graduates. |
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Featured Article
Matrix Theatre Company Celebrating 20 Years of Collaboration, Creativity and Community
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Teen Company with current MVC volunteer
Amy Keller (front left) |
One of our service sites, Matrix Theatre Company, celebrated their 20th anniversary on October 22nd, 2011! The mission of the organization states, "Matrix Theatre Company uses the transformative power of theatre to change lives, build community, and foster social justice. It creates opportunities for children, youth, adults and elders, especially those in isolated or challenged communities, to become creators, producers, and audience of original theatre." They celebrated their milestone night with a special performance from their Teen Company who created their own rendition of Romeo and Juliet, entitled "Southwest Story." Over 50 people were in attendance to celebrate an amazing night filled with lots of food and hot beverages sponsored by Cafe con Leche.
We have been blessed to partner with Matrix Theatre Company for the past seven years as a service site. Our current volunteers, Amy Keller and Brit Meli, have been able to see firsthand just how valuable Matrix has been in bringing the arts to the southwest neighborhood of Detroit. Congratulations Matrix Theatre Company on your celebration of 20 years! To learn about Matrix Theatre Company please visit their website at www.matrixtheatre.org. |
Two Detroit '09 Alums Celebrate Their Wedding Day
Katie Gallagher and David Anderson
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(Front) David P. Anderson '09 and Katie Gallagher Anderson '09 at their wedding surrounded by (L to R) Meghan Brookes, Dean Simmer, Jason Esker, and Megan Carolin '09 |
When you leave home for a year of volunteer service, meeting someone and marrying them isn't something that's in the forefront of your mind. But that's not to say it isn't somewhere.
Volunteers hanging out together and relationships forming was just this inevitable truth of the whole experience that was on the tip of everyone's tongue. The couple who supported our community throughout the year met each other while in service. Our JVC friends had an intricate system of codes to identify pairings based on the affiliations of past and present volunteers. It seemed like the sort of thing that just happens when you put enough like-minded people together in a small enough space and wait twelve months.
Having the opportunity to share your life with community members over a year is an incredibly intimate experience. I couldn't have asked for a more natural and beautiful way to meet and fall in love with my wife. All the challenges and accomplishments that come with being a part of community have started our relationship out in the best way possible - praying together, sharing meals, doing chores, making choices that would affect not just us but the two other members of our community as well.
It almost turned into this marriage litmus test. What happens when you love praying with someone and making meals with them and seeing them every day after work? What happens when you love doing chores with someone and picking them up from work in the snow and helping take care of them when they're sick?
You should probably marry them.
-Dave P. Anderson '09
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Continuing with Mercy
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Molly Dougherty, Colleen O'Toole, Amy Keller |
This year, Mercy Volunteer Corps is proud to have three volunteers who attended Mercy high schools. All three of the volunteers happen to be serving in the Detroit community. Amy Keller (Matrix Theatre Company) and Molly Dougherty (Detroit Cristo Rey) both went to Mercy High in Omaha, NE. The third volunteer, Colleen O'Toole (Mercy Education Project), went to Our Lady of Mercy in Rochester, NY. The Sisters of Mercy had such an impact on these young women in high school that they decided to keep their connection with Mercy through service with Mercy Volunteer Corps. Below you will get a glimpse of that Mercy Charism.
"My experience attending a Mercy High School was four of the most transformative years of my life. I was so impressed that Mercy Sisters and Associates were focused so deeply on service and social justice. Their passion was something that truly impacted me and because I saw how important service was to them, I wanted to get more involved. I continued being active in service in college, and by the time I was making plans for what to do after graduation, I realized what I had been missing from my life those past four years. I missed the community aspect of volunteering and being able to share faith journeys with people that were important to me. So, when I heard of the Mercy Volunteer Corps, I was overjoyed! A chance to live in a community, enjoy a simple lifestyle, be a part of a spiritual journey, and volunteer---what could be better? I signed up, and just as expected, life has continued to transform in really magnificent ways."
-Amy Keller '11
"I didn't know it at the time, but my years at Our Lady of Mercy High School in Rochester, NY, were some of the most formative years of my life. Yes, I learned how to succeed in college, how to do trigonometry, how to write a research paper. But the more important lessons that stayed with me, and will stay with me long after I forget how to graph equations, were lessons of responsible service. My Social Justice teacher, Sister Pat, used to tell us a story about a village near a river. One day, a baby in a basket floated down the river. The villagers fished it out, fed it, clothed it, and found it a home. The next day, two babies came down the river. Later, every day more babies came down the river in baskets. The villagers met to discuss this problem, how they could continue to care for a growing number of babies. One of the elders in the village stood up and told the villagers, "The question you should ask is, 'Why are the babies being sent down the river?'" Sr. Pat illustrated for us that charity, as good and necessary as it is, can only go so far. In order to instigate real social change, one has to get to the root of the problem, examine the institutions, and challenge long-held ideas about other people. The sisters and my other teachers at Mercy understood this, and while they taught me academic subjects they also taught me how to look at the world with gratitude for what exists and hope for what could be. This worldview stayed with me and led me to choose a year of service after I completed college. What better organization could help me make a real difference in how I, and society as whole, viewed poverty? I knew I had to go back to Mercy, where I first learned how to serve, and where I knew I would learn how to give not just my time and talents, but of myself."
-Colleen O'Toole '11
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ALUMNI CORNER
Ann Coppola '08, has returned to St. Michaels, AZ to teach 5th grade at St. Michael Indian School. Congratulations Ann!
Janice Lester (Conley) '86, recently received a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Nevado. Congratulations Janice!
Kitty MacLean '10, is now the Assistant Campus Minister at Mt. Aloysius College in Cresson, PA. Congratulations Kitty!
Alumni, please send your updates to Lisa Stellino at stellino.l@gmc.edu. We enjoy hearing from you! |
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