Working, Praying, and Living in the Spirit of Vincent DePaul

DECEMBER 2007

We are pleased to welcome four new members to the Board of Directors of the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers Program. Our new members join the current board comprised of Rev. Ed Murphy, C.M. (President), Richard LaPlume (Vice-President), Tricia Thiel (Treasurer), John Capellupo, Ted Fiedler, Martha Lane, Rev. David Nations, C.M., Sr. Kathy Overman, D.C., Nichole Purvis (GVV 2001-2002), and Sue Shine.


And our new members are...


Fr. Jim Cormack, C.M.
Fr. Jim, pastor of St. Catherine Laboure Parish in South St. Louis County, has long been involved with the GVV program. He was the work site supervisor at St. Vincent DePaul Parish during the first year of the GVV program. For many years, Fr. Jim has been the retreat master for the GVV final retreat.


Sr. Mary Patrice Murray, D.C.
Sr. Patrice is the archivist for the West Central Province of the Daughters of Charity. Over the years, many Daughters of Charity have contributed to the formation part of the GVV program. Sr. Patrice becomes the third Daughter to serve on the GVV board.


Janel Esker, M. Div.
Janel is the Registrar of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis. Janel was a member of the original planning board for the GVV program.


Fr. Joe Williams, C.M.
Fr. Joe became a supporter of the GVV program while pastor of St. Vincent’s Parish in St. Louis. Fr. Joe is now pastor of St. Vincent DePaul Parish in Perryville.

 

 

With Grateful Hearts, We Thank Our Donors!

The Gateway Vincentian Volunteers program is grateful to our donors, who help us in so many ways—by making financial contributions as well as donations of time and talent. In this issue, we recognize those who have made monetary contributions since our last newsletter in September 2007. Our total fundraising goal for this year is $44,400. Your generosity will help us meet this goal and continue the work of spreading the mission of St. Vincent to young adults. Thank you!

  • Marilyn Abkemeier
  • An anonymous Vincentian
  • An anonymous St. Catherine Laboure parishioner
  • Amanda Broussard (GVV 06-07)
  • Rev. Lawrence Christensen, C.M. and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish of Fort Collins, Colorado
  • Lucille Curtin
  • Paul Heidemann
  • Rev. Miles Heinen, C.M.
  • Ed and Audrey Kadlec
  • Martha Lane
  • Ken and Marian Lemp
  • Thomas and Suzan Ochocinski
  • Scott Petersen (State Farm Insurance)
  • Frank and Pat Rebholz
  • Rev. John Richardson, C.M.
  • Rev. Raymond Ross, C.M.
  • Dr. Fred Rottnek
  • Bill and Mary Lou Schicker
  • Rev. Ray Van Dorpe, C.M.
  • John and Joan Vatterott
  • Al Weilbaecher
  • Gerald and Joan Wentzel
  • Grace Whalen
  • Steve (GVV 00-01) and Sarah (GVV 01-02) Wiederkehr

TRIBUTES IN HONOR OF:

  • Fr. Jim Cormack’s birthday
    from Arvo and Suzanne Aulik
  • Lisa Mata (GVV 07-08)
    from her grandmother, Emily Kopec
  • Mary Lou and Bill Schicker
    from Tricia and John Thiel

TRIBUTES IN MEMORY OF:

  • The Berra and Cucco Family
    from Larry and Amelia Berra
  • Mary Feicht
    From Gene and Lois Feicht
  • Jack and Sylvia Long
    from Rev. Bill Rhinehart, C.M.
  • Nina and Milt Kassing
    from Wally and Nina Bryans
  • John E. McDonough, Sr.
    from Kevin and Linda McDonough

We also sincerely thank our donors who have asked to remain anonymous. If we have inadvertently omitted your name from our donor list, please accept our sincere apology AND let us know so that we can correct the error!

 

MATCHING FUNDS APPEAL COMING
IN JANUARY!

We are happy to announce that in January we will be sending you information about our third Annual Matching Gifts Appeal to support the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers program.

We are blessed by a special group of donors, the Gatekeepers, and the Sisters of Mercy Health Ministry, who will match all donations made to the GVV program up to a total of $10,000 from the time of the mailing to the end of March 2007. Our total fundraising goal for this appeal is $20,000.

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS APPEAL COMING TO YOUR MAILBOX IN JANUARY!

 

The VERY Creative Covenant
of the GVVs of 2007-2008

Each year the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers enter into a covenant with one another. They are asked to express in writing how they intend to live their year as GVVs. They are required to complete their statement by September 27th, the feast of St. Vincent. Please take a moment to read the covenant of the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers of 2007-2008.

Gateway Vincentian Volunteers
2007-2008

Recipe for Community

A caveat: this dish, much like Fugu, the Japanese delicacy, must be carefully prepared or disaster may result.

When properly prepared, however, the human appetite is satiated. Fugu satisfies ‘til morning. Community is savored a lifetime.

Ingredients
7 beating hearts
Heaping tablespoons of optimism
A myriad of emotions
Mashed potatoes
Infinite cups of love
28 tablespoons of communication
7 open minds
A catalytic St. Vincent
2 peas in a pod
A dash of challenges

Procedure
Take 2 peas in a pod and then add 7 beating hearts. Sprinkle on a catalytic St. Vincent
to “disturb us.” Spoon in heaping tablespoons of optimism. Mix well. Continually add
a myriad of emotions; each adds its own flavor. Allow the community to rise with
7 open minds.

In a large separate bowl, combine a simple life with a desire to change the world.
Melt in patience and plenty of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Fold in a healthy lifestyle and spread evenly over the community. Liberally apply LARGE amounts of fun. Top with a dollop
of encouragement.

Set oven at 98.6 degrees and cook for 1700 hours.

YIELD: Immeasurable servings for the poor!

 

Learning Humility and Compassion
by Jenny Mohan

When I moved into community life with the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers program, I was in the midst of training for the Chicago Marathon. One of my roommates would always ask me before a run, “Why do you run?” I always just responded with “because it’s fun.”

As I continued training, that question would come to mind during my runs because I knew the answer I gave wasn’t truly why I continued to run. I realized one night that running half-marathons provides me with the experience of being humbled. Running next to an amputee or a father running with his 10-year-old son for another son who is battling cancer reminds me of how blessed I am in the life given to me.

As much as I gain from running, these past few months of service have also given me the experience of being humbled, while learning compassion and patience.

Serving a population of adults affected with serious mental illnesses along with substance abuse disorders has shown me what it means to struggle in life and to rise above oppression. Each day I am asked to stand in my clients’ shoes and help figure out how the utility bill is going be paid, where the next meal is going to come from, or how to cope with the symptoms of a mental illness or resist the craving to abuse drugs.

I have learned that being compassionate is not about feeling sorry for another; it is about being able to put oneself in another’s place and be moved out of love, not guilt, to want to help that person regardless of his or her social or economical standing.

From serving my clients, I have also learned a great deal about patience. Patience is not always about waiting for that one thing to come. It is about embracing life in the moment and not straining to a future time where things are different. It is an acceptance of the possibilities of life in the moment. It is learning to live with what you have, while waiting for the chance when things will be a little easier or more enjoyable.

Since serving at Community Alternatives, I have been challenged to open myself to the lives of my clients. I have had to learn to care about someone who I might have just met that day or only known for a month. To some, I’m the genie in the bottle that can solve a problem for them. To others, I’m someone who supports them without judgment of the choices they have made in life, which have led them to the life they now live. I am one who reassures them that someone cares and they will not go unnoticed in this world.

God Has Taken Care of Me
by Carrie Tucker

I first learned about AmeriCorps in the spring of 2005. I was having a tough timein school and decided to take some time off. I applied to several programs, hoping it would help me figure things out. By the end of the summer, I hadn’t been accepted to any programs, but I still felt I needed a break from school. I got a job making medical blankets. I put volunteering onto my “maybe someday” list. By November, I realized that I needed to go back to school and graduate. In January 2006, I kept my job and went back to school part-time.

By the time the ‘06-‘07 school year rolled around, I still had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated. The plan was to get a “real” job. But what that “real” job was, I had no clue. At 24 with 5 years of college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to help people, but that was all I had.

Classes had started for fall when I learned about the Colorado Vincentian Volunteer program, which is similar to GVV. This would give me an additional year to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and I would be with people like me, looking for their life’s purpose. Volunteering would also allow me to go to a new part of the country, do work that would be great experience, and I would be helping people and living in an environment where faith and spirituality were important. I spent from mid-September to the beginning of March deciding if I was actually going to apply. But in the end, I sent off my application, hoping and praying that it would give me the experience I needed.

In April, I received a call from the director of CVV, telling me that they had more applications than they normally do and had filled up quickly. He offered to send my application to the other Vincentian volunteer groups around the country. When I first heard the idea, I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to go to any other program. After he suggested it would be a good idea, I asked where the other groups were located and he said California and St. Louis. My first thought was: “St. Louis? Who would want to go to St. Louis?” St. Louis is like my hometown of Cincinnati in many ways, big city on the river with many issues, especially segregation. After that initial thought, I figured I might as well try these other programs.

Within a week of CVV sending my application, I received an
e-mail from Jim and Geri wanting to set up an interview. I was surprised to hear from anyone, let alone so quickly. I set up an interview with them for later in the week. Within a couple days, I received e-mails from the other two programs wanting to set up interviews. I was in awe that three groups wanted to interview me. Needless to say, I was happy.

The interview with Jim and Geri went better than I could have hoped for. I was happy when they offered me a spot for this year. I said yes, of course. A part of me thought I should have had the other two interviews, but I felt that God brought me together with this program first for a reason. Whatever that reason was, I was going to go with it.

Now that I have graduated from college and am here and working for a few months now, I know I was right in not having the other two interviews. I was right in not being scared or nervous to come. I have the best roommates that I could possibly ask for and even better, we’re friends. Getting to know the Vincentians as people has been an interesting experience (a very good interesting).

My job at St. Louis ARC is wonderful. I work with developmentally disabled adults. I take them out into the community, to do anything that we would do. Some have worksites, such as Dairy Queen where they wipe tables. We also go shopping, to the movies, the Science Center, parks, or any place we want to. I am learning so much from the people I support, such as patience and the fact that they are capable of most everything we can do. God has definitely taken care of me.

Mark you calendars NOW for the
FIFTH ANNUAL GVV GOLF TOURNAMENT!

WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US!

MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2008, NOON

NORMANDIE GOLF CLUB

FOUR-PERSON SCRAMBLE

More information is coming your way!

Life Is Grand
by Karen Schumacher

As I traveled Thanksgiving weekend to see my family I took in (as I do so often while traveling) the past couple months and reflected. I am still hearing family and friends talk about how wonderful it is, what I am doing, volunteering a WHOLE YEAR of my life to serving the poor as Saint Vincent did, as if it is a sacrifice. I simply do not want to be anywhere else than where I am now; I am dedicated, not just volunteering.

I work at the Franciscan Connection, putting my efforts towards the Stone-by-Stone Project where we complete home repairs. During my initial week of work I was totally overwhelmed with the number of low-income families and senior citizens living in Saint Louis who needed our help. I wanted to lend a hand to them all immediately and could not wait to get started. I already had feelings that only a year of my time would not be long enough to comfort all of these people.

 

My experience as a Gateway Vincentian Volunteer has not been jaw dropping …wait, yes it has, but I have not saved anyone from a burning building. What it has been though is one of the most incredible times of my life. There are certain moments where someone’s thoughts or actions touch my heart and tears come to my eyes. I am not an outwardly emotional person but the life I am living right now truly holds the spirit of St. Vincent DePaul. I sense his eyes watching us during community nights and throughout our masses. It’s his spirit that I feel moving about through those bright, shining eyes painted on the portraits hung throughout our home on Arsenal. He is living with us; I see it.

Living in this community has brought about so many insights that I am not sure I would have realized without my fellow V’s. Danny, in his simple ways, has shown me to just converse with the people I am trying to help as if they were a kind stranger on a hiking trail. Jenny has made me realize that every person, client or friend, needs someone to celebrate with, to be excited with them. Christine has great patience for young children, a characteristic I am trying to learn. (In addition to my regular work, I took on coaching soccer this past fall.) Lisa, though quiet, has revealed to me that even the poor can help the poor. Laura has a heart for minorities and her inspiration to help them live a fair life has quickly rubbed off on me. Carrie sees beauty in the people she supports, which is the same kind of beauty I see in her. She just understands people for who they are, a trait I hope to take away with me in June next year.

My experience at work has been completely affected by the relationships I am building with my roommates. I continue to work away my days wondering whether or not Brother Donald, Brother Benignus, and me, along with the fantastic help of many others, will be able to fix up enough houses during the week to make sure we have assisted as many people as possible.

My time spent here thus far with my fellow V’s, Jim and Geri, all the Vincentians, and the Friars has been one of the most educating and spiritual times of my life. The way the GVV program is set up allows one to grow in these ways, in community and also to learn on one’s own about society and being self-sufficient. Life is grand here in Saint Louis.

 

 

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Gateway Vincentian Volunteers
2912 Arsenal Street
St. Louis, MO 63118
(314) - 771-1474
Toll free: (888)-771-7220
Fax: (314) - 771-2410
email: gatevol@aol.com