Eight students and two chaperones from St. Luke’s ventured to Washington, D.C. in June to participate in a YSOP (Youth Service Opportunities Project) service experience. For four days they went out throughout the city to work with organizations that support people who are homeless. They served meals in soup kitchens; packed groceries for poor people living with HIV, cancer and disabilities; worked on cleaning a trashed city park; visited with the elderly in a nursing home; helped prepare meals for thousands of people; and weeded crops that would provide fresh produce for food pantries across the city.
There were several thoughts that the students kept coming back to all week:
- It was an eye-opening opportunity to see a side of the city they hadn’t really seen before.
- Volunteers are critical for providing services on a wide scale.
- The humanity of homeless people should never be overlooked.
One SLS student reflected, “I was shocked by the sheer level of cruelty against the homeless [when they told me] their stories. Do people really treat other humans like that?” Another student noted, “Now I see. Walk a few blocks and the real city appears before my eyes.” The expressed sentiment, “I’m beginning to notice more homeless people” was widely shared by the group.
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Even when confronted with the enormity of the challenges faced by people in the city, the students remained optimistic and determined to help. One student said, “even in the darkest looking places, there’s happiness,” and then went on to describe a park-cleaning effort: “Resilience is more than ‘bouncing back’. It’s not just getting a good grade after a failing one. It’s an old park, once in great shape, which fell into disrepair and the community and outside world coming together to build it back up.” They were inspired by the dedicated people working and volunteering at the different organizations. Another student noted, “Without all the volunteers the two staff members in my section would have to do all the work themselves. This shows the importance of volunteering and giving what you can to keep such organizations alive.” Another said, “I was amazed by the scale of the operation and the amount of volunteers needed to keep it going.”
They also were reminded again and again that helping others feels good. One of our group members said she realized “that doing something I normally despise [landscaping] feels different when helping others.” One afternoon when one of the SLS chaperones, Kate Parker-Burgard, needed directions to the local library, she walked over to the first homeless person she saw and asked him how to get there. He immediately lit up and seemed so happy to be able to help me. She resolved to always ask homeless people how to get to public places. A student reflected on their visit to a nursing home. He noticed an elderly couple sitting by themselves and said, “I heard them speaking bits of Mandarin that I could understand and I decided to introduce myself. The couple described the difficulties of living in the nursing home and having no one who could understand them. Their struggles inspired me to ask the receptionist for a piece of pen and paper so I could write down some helpful English phrases with translations in Mandarin. I felt like I made a difference and I realized that I can combine my love of languages and service.”One student summed up their experience so neatly, “Working hard and meeting new people is an experience I won’t forget.”
