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Working, Praying, and Living in the Spirit of Vincent DePaul
June 2011
Each year, the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers write a covenant at the beginning of their year of service. The opening covenant is written by the group and states how they will live their year of service. At the final retreat, the departing covenant is written. Each volunteer writes an “I” statement, articulating what he or she will take away from the year of service. These “I” statements are then rewritten as “We” statements and comprise the departing covenant. Please take a moment to read the departing covenant of the GVVs of 2010-2011.
Departing Covenant
As we prepare to leave our year of service, we intend that the spirit of the GVV community will live on in us. We pray that our community will grow in others by the way we live the Vincentian charism. To grow the GVV community, we will
· Be open to the occurrence of growth opportunities in our lives.
· Strive to love all fully and intensely through learning to understand everything that contributes to another’s being and condition.
· Love others so that they may lead dignified lives and fight the many “isms” that prevent them from doing so.
· See in every person the suffering one who wants to be heard and needs to be loved.
· Remember the people we’ve gotten to know and serve this year by continuing to get to know new people and serve them with the best we can offer.
· Refuse to become so complacent and disconnected that we cannot hear the cry of the poor. Instead, we will know the poor by name and be critical of all systems that continue to oppress and degrade the inherent dignity of all members of the Body of Christ.
· Choose to do good and honor ourselves, our planet, and our fellow brothers and sisters by living in the light and believing everyday that the world owes us nothing but we owe each other the world.
· Remember those who are living in poverty and suffering, including them in our personal, spiritual, and professional lives.
· Persistently carry the good news of Christ into the world through service and solidarity with those that society isolates and ignores. We trust that God’s grace will give us strength of heart, humility, and compassion for the purpose of alleviating the roots and many faces of despair.
We Thank You,
Generous Supporters!
Below are the names of those donors who made contributions between April and June. Thank you all for your great generosity! We are so grateful for your support of the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers Program. You make the program possible.
An Anonymous Vincentian
An Anonymous Vincentian
Delbert & Agnes Bohnert
Rev. Michael Boyle, C.M.
Doyle & Dori Carlblom (Parents of GVV 10-11 Kelly Carlblom)
Paul Heidemann
Ken & Marian Lemp
Rev. John Richardson, C.M.
Bill and Mary Lou Schicker
Society of St. Vincent DePaul—St. Gerard Majella Conference
Suzette (GVV 05-06) & Nathan Thompson
Gerald & Joan Wentzel
Grace Whalen
Tributes in Honor of:
Mary Lou Schicker
from Rev. Paul Sisul, C.M
Tributes in Memory of:
Florence Bachmann
from Eugene Bachmann
Margaret Bagaly
from Rev. Peter Diliberto, C.M.
John Berra and Janet Noel
from Larry & Amelia Berra
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!
The names listed below are those donors who contributed to the Matching Gifts Appeal that ended in March. Our last newsletter was already printed when we received these gifts, so we were unable to include their names in the April edition.
Thank you for helping us reach our goal for the Matching Gifts Appeal. We are very grateful to each of you.
Jeff (GVV 01-02) & Rebecca Maciej
Rev. James Osendorf, C.M., and the Vincentians at DePaul Center in Montebello, CA
Rev. Charles Shelby, C.M.
Tributes in Honor of:
Michael & Gabriel Purvis
from Shaun & Nichole (GVV 01-02) Purvis
Thank you, Sr. Kathy Overman, D.C.!
After serving many years on the board of the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers, Sr. Kathy Overman, D.C., has resigned her position. We are so sorry to see her go, but Sr. Kathy promises to continue to be a good friend and constant supporter of the GVV program. And we know she will. (And already has, as she spent the entire day working at our golf tournament on June 10!)
Thank you, Sr. Kathy, for all your service to the GVV program. Your support, good ideas, prayers, and care have meant the world to us.
Jim and Geri
The Lazarus Effect: Lessons Learned
by Ashley Peaches
The Lazarus Effect is the premise that those who are HIV positive, have progressed into AIDS and are within weeks of death, can be restored to health and lead normal lives after taking antiretroviral drugs (a cocktail of medications that suppresses the progression of HIV) for as little as 40 days.
Human beings are sometimes taught by society that individuals can’t recover—from illness, from the consequences of poor choices, from poverty. Every day my clients challenge the idea that those who live in poverty or who are sick can never again be a part of “mainstream” society. They continue to prove that they are an integral part of the human family, living “The Lazarus Effect.”
At Peter and Paul Community Services: Positive Directions, we work with the individuals that society has cast off. Our transitional housing program provides individual case management along with programming during the day to up to 20 men and women who are chronically homeless and who are living with HIV. Two occupational therapists, a nurse, two social workers, and I help clients find permanent housing, build resumes, job search, budget whatever incomes they have, manage anger and other emotional issues, deal with mental illness, and fight through substance abuse.
These men and women are the unwanted and the disposable. But most days you wouldn’t know that society has discarded them. One of the biggest complaints that I get from clients is that I don’t smile enough. I find this completely silly because I feel like I’m walking around with the stupidest grin on my face all the time.
Some days clients make it their goal to make me laugh. If there is anything that I’ve learned this year, it’s that I need to have a little more control over my facial expressions. But that’s not saying that all days are easy. Sometimes I have to sit in my office with the door closed because I can’t believe that a client just told me he doesn’t want to be here because it’s a waste of his time even though I know if he wasn’t here he would be doing the exact same thing somewhere else: nothing.
As this year comes to a close, I’ve been trying to reflect on what this year has meant to me and what I’ve really accomplished. I struggle to see the change that has taken place in the people that I serve every day.
After the final GVV retreat, which took place in the beginning of the week, I did not return to work until Thursday. I fully expected Positive Directions to function without me. And it did. But on my return several clients were concerned. They thought that I had left without saying goodbye. They told me that they missed me (Even though almost all of our conversations consist of me getting on them about the tasks they haven’t yet completed.) and they said that they wish I had been here to help them with things they were working on. Several clients were actually arguing over who would get to ask me for help first.
In these moments I think of the Lazarus Effect and how it applies not only to their illness but to their ability to become reintegrated into society.
I work with a difficult population: substance abuse, mental illness, chronically homeless, HIV positive. It’s difficult because the clients in our program expect me to come to work smiling every day. I don’t understand how I could ever have as much strength as they do. Between battling substance abuse issues and dealing with mental illness or sometimes debilitating medical conditions, they still find the strength to smile and laugh and greet me warmly every morning and ask how I’m doing.
The dichotomy of caregiver and recipient is constantly being challenged. The men and women with whom I work have so much to learn and so much to teach me.
The Lazarus Effect shows that even those who are on the brink of death can, with the right care, lead long, healthy, productive lives. If this principal can be applied to a disease that has killed tens of millions of people in the last 30 years, why can it not also be applied to those who are on the brink of society? With the right amount of care, every person can lead a long, healthy, productive, dignified life.
Finding Inspiration
by Ellie Hanson
On an ordinary Friday afternoon, Melinda, the receptionist calls and notifies me that my appointment has arrived. On the client database, I look up the woman's name and see a single note in her file from late August, 2010—my first week of service at Guardian Angel Settlement at Hosea House. I hadn't typed the note myself; my supervisor had while training me on how to be a caseworker at the emergency services and food pantry that I found myself at through joining the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers program.
A year prior to that typical call, I was in the Bronx, New York, in my senior year of college. As a biology major who had spent the majority of my college years studying an exotic species of crabs on the banks of the Hudson River, case management with people was not exactly something with which I had much experience.
So, in that week in August when I first met that woman, whom I'll call Mary, I'll be quite honest and say I really had no idea what I was doing. I remember taking a lot of overly detailed, college-lecture-style notes from my supervisor, who with a Master’s in Social Work and many years of experience at the agency, was an excellent teacher. My notes were more like the steps of a lab procedure and I found them, once my supervisor was no longer by my side, to be utterly useless.
As soon as a client sat down across from me in my office, all the neatly numbered steps were meaningless. Some people plopped down on the chair and shared everything with me, a complete stranger who in August had a lot less experience then they assumed. Others said nothing. Some started opening up as months went by but some never did.
I've found that I have opened up as time has passed. I no longer look at the case managing process as a step-by-step procedure that starts with a person in need and ends when he or she leaves Hosea House carrying food from the pantry. It’s a cycle that starts long before a person steps into my office and long before I ever even arrived in St. Louis.
When I read Mary's file now, I remember how I first sat next to my supervisor and listened to her speak with Mary. It was Mary’s first time at Hosea House so a new database file needed to be created for her. Through a casual conversation, all the information was gathered to fill the file with details about Mary's life, her situation, and ultimately why she was there that day. I remember thinking of social security, food stamps, and dependents as data that needed to be collected rather than the little facts that can add up to help me get to know the human being sitting a few feet away from me.
Mary had not been back since that day in August. But here she was again, in April, seven months later. We have a lot of clients like that. Some of them have a note in the file saying they got a job and don't think they will ever need to be back. Some of the database notes even include a sort of thank you note—”so and so will no longer need pantry services but says she is so grateful.” Then, a few months later, the person is back and really right where she or he was before.
Looking over Mary's file, much had remained the same in regards to her income and expenses—no longer simply just numbers to me but factors that dictate how Mary and her husband keep the lights on, fill their fridge with food, and how they get by each day.
Since Mary sat in that same chair in August and I sat across from her, I have been changing—learning how to do my job better and better each day, working little by little on future goals, building new friendships, and making a life for myself in St. Louis. It seemed looking at her file that nothing had changed but I thought, it had to—how could nothing change?
Of course something must have changed. She has been married a long time and I'm sure Mary and her husband shared new memories together. Her grandchildren got older. Maybe a close friend passed away.
Regardless of the details, her life just like mine has gone on. But that doesn't fit neatly into the database and in August, I was concerned with the empty spaces—not with the whole picture.
Each day at Hosea House, I encounter new people. Sometimes I feel like it’s August and I suddenly want to fling open my desk drawer and search for some note, some paper that has the answer to the “problem.”
What I've learned though is that not only do I not know what the solution is, but I do not even feel comfortable in saying that I know what the “problem” is.
Though this year is coming to an end, seeing Mary again really reminded me that I can't just move on. This is not just a year that I pack up after and move on to the next thing. I wish it was different but in all honesty, Mary is not packing up and moving on to new and better things. It seems almost unfair for me to do so. The people I've met, either just twice like Mary or those who I would consider my friends, are going to be in my mind forever. Whether they know it or not, they inspire me to not only work hard but to work hard doing something that will benefit lives other than my own.
What’s Next for the GVVs of 2010-2011?
· Emily Bland will be staying in St. Louis. She has accepted a position with her GVV worksite, St. Louis Catholic Academy, where she will be coordinating the new Excellence Early program, modeled after the successful Harlem Children's Zone Baby College.
· Kelly Carlblom will also be staying in St. Louis. Kelly has accepted a summer job with Guardian Angel Settlement Association Childcare. She is searching for a full-time permanent position in St. Louis.
· Beata Debinski will move to Baltimore, Maryland, to begin a course of study at Johns Hopkins University. She is pursuing a MHS in Social Factors in Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
· Christopher Hampson plans to remain in St. Louis for one more year before attending graduate school. He is searching for a job in social services that will put his degree in Social Work to good use, preferably one that will utilize his ability to speak Spanish.
· Ellie Hanson is staying in St. Louis. She has accepted a full-time position with her GVV worksite, Guardian Angel Settlement at Hosea House. She will be working as a Program Assistant.
· Drew Hillier will be beginning a doctoral program in Philosophy at Purdue University.
· Anna Kraus will be a member of the charter corps of Teach for America teachers in rural South Carolina. She will be teaching Secondary Social Studies.
· Ashley Peaches will be attending the University of Kansas in Kansas City, KS, to earn a Master’s of Social Work degree.
· Rachel Zajicek plans to return to Aurora, IL, ( for the time being) and search for a job that will utilize her Master’s in Social Work.
We wish each of our talented, hard-working, and wonderful volunteers the best of luck!
Building with Dignity
by Drew Hillier
North Grand Neighborhood Services has taught me what it means to build with dignity. While studying at Saint Louis University, I was struck by the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty in the city. I was unsettled knowing that people were living in poverty just a few miles north of my beautiful, well-groomed campus. When offered the opportunity to serve at North Grand Neighborhood Services, I looked forward to giving of my time and energy to the St. Louis community which has been so good to me.
North Grand Neighborhood Services is motivated by the principle that every human being ought to have a dignified existence. All of our programming aims to empower neighborhood residents, providing the framework necessary to create a safe, healthy, and vibrant community.
Our after-school enrichment program allows middle school and high school students a nurturing atmosphere, free from the harmful effects of drugs and violence. Angel Baked Cookies is a teen employment program, providing opportunities for job skills training, as well as personal and professional development. The cookies are for sale all over the city of St. Louis and can be purchased online at www.angelbaked.org. In an area where 45% of teens graduate from the local high school, Angel Baked Cookies boasts a 100% graduation rate. We are especially proud that two teens were recently accepted to Saint Louis University!
The Solomon Project, our affordable housing effort, has reduced the abandoned property rate in our service area from 42% to less than 15% in only five years.
Our newest program, Building Fences for Futures, is an excellent example of how North Grand Neighborhood Services builds with dignity. At the beginning of my service year, I attended a neighborhood block meeting. Residents asked if we could help find employment opportunities for young men in the neighborhood. Working with Edward Pinkston, the owner of a local fence building company, we developed a pilot program to provide employment training and mentoring opportunities for young men in the Jeff Vander Lou neighborhood. North Grand Neighborhood Services builds with dignity because we seek regular input and guidance from community members. We are not an anonymous agency imposing programming upon residents. In our service we become partners with those we serve.
The motto of the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentian Priests and Brothers), evangelizare pauperibus misit me, has echoed in my ears this year. North Grand Neighborhood Services brings good news to parents looking for a stable home for their families, to high school students looking for love and support, to young people who want to learn the social and job skills necessary for future success. I am grateful to North Grand Neighborhood Services, to the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers program, and to the Vincentians for the opportunity to help them in their work to bring liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.
Our 8th Annual GVV Charity Golf Tournament was
a great success! With gratitude, we acknowledge
our helpers, donors, sponsors, and players.
Corporate Benefactors
Kelley Real Estate
12444 Powerscourt Drive St. Louis
Courtesy of Joe Kelley
Pallet Logistics Management, Inc. & PLM Transport, Inc.
3311 Chouteau Avenue St. Louis
Courtesy of Steven D. Snodsmith
Nestlé Purina Pet Care Company
901 Chouteau St. Louis
Courtesy of Kasey Bergh, Community Affairs
Golf Balls Donor
J. Scott Petersen
State Farm Insurance
9909 Clayton Road
Ladue, MO
Water Bottle Donors
Rocky Bossert, Caldwell Banker Gundaker
314-849-2880
Steve Boggeman
Eraser Top Design
steveb@erasertop.com
Additional Sponsors and Donors
Acorns Golf Links
Chuck Amburg—Pepsi
Larry and Amelia Berra
Bristol Bar and Grill
California Pizza Kitchen
Catholic Supply
Congregation of the Mission Western Province Vocation Office
Kevin Cuddihee & Kelly’s Pub
Kevin and Patti Carbol
Rev. James Cormack, C.M.
DDI Media—Jeff Muhr
D. Dooley’s 026 Grill
Drury Hotels
Thomas and Patricia Dinkins III
Enterprise Leasing
Edward Jones—Jennifer Hill
Edward Jones—Chris Wallace, Financial Advisor
Esse Health—Gary Maassen and Jim Ebel
Gateway Sealing—Dave Black
Grey Eagle Distributors—David Stokes
Imo’s
J.J. Twig’s
Frank and Janet Kane—Citizen Kane
Mike and Katy Kapilla
Knights of Columbus Council 8887
Kuna Food Service
Helmut and Mary Rose Kramer
Martha Lane
Mike Lane
The Jim Laurentius Family
Ken and Marian Lemp
Local Harvest Grocery, Café and Catering
Mid America Drain Service Co., Inc.—Cyndi Laughlin, Mike Laughlin
McMahon Ford—Bill Schicker
Mercy Neighborhood Ministry
Missouri Botanical Gardens—Betty Barnes-Mays
One 19 North Restaurant
Realty Executives—Marylyn Abkemeier
Rev. Ed Murphy, C.M.
The River City Rascals
Roberto’s Trattoria
The Corner Pub and Grill
The Pasta House Company
The People of St. Catherine Labouré Parish
The Prairies Golf Course
Peter and Paul Community Services
Rehab 1 Network—Bill Hopfinger
St. Catherine Labouré Parish
St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis RAMS
Schicker Family
Steak ‘n Shake
Spanky’s Frozen Custard
Sports and Family Chiropractic, LLC—Dr. David DeClue, D.C
T.G.I.F. Friday’s
Trattoria Marcella
Tower Tee
Sue Tumminia
Dr. John Tabash—Child and Adult Orthodontics
John Thiel and Tricia Schicker Thiel
USG—Building for the Future, Debbie Ortiz
Victory Steel—Jeffrey Stephens
Joe and Kathleen Vitale
Dennis and Patricia Vogler
Robert Vondera
Walters Golf
Wells Fargo Advisors—David Jacobsmeyer
Alan Zajicek Piano Service, Aurora, IL
Zia’s
We also thank our Golf Planning Committee for all their work!
Barry Cahill, Fr. Jim Cormack, C.M., Dennis Cuddihee (Chair), Mike Kapilla, Richard LaPlume, Fr. David Nations, C.M., Fr. Ed Murphy, C.M., Jim and Geri Ryan. We are also grateful to Sue Tumminia, our Head Chefs Harry Wilson and Dick Poehling, the GVVs of 2010-2011, and volunteers Sr. Kathy Overman, D.C., and Pat Poehling.
And last but certainly not least, thank you to our wonderful and faithful players!
The Gateway Vincentian Volunteers
Program Board of Directors
Fr. Ed Murphy, C.M., President
Mr. Rich LaPlume, Vice-President
Ms. Tricia Thiel, Treasurer
Mr. John Capellupo
Fr. Jim Cormack, C.M.
Janel Esker
Martha Lane
Joseph Komadina
Sr. Rosa Lee Kramer, D.C.
Fr. David Nations, C.M.
Sr. Kathy Overman, D.C.
Jim and Geri Ryan, Directors