St. John's News

St. John’s University will host its Seventh Annual Service Day on Saturday, September 27.  Service Day is a University-wide event that takes place on the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, the University’s founder, where members of the entire St. John’s community work side-by-side, reaching out in compassion to help those in need.

Over 1,000 students, faculty, administrators, staff and alumni from all St. John’s University New York campuses will be volunteering at locations throughout New York City and Long Island and, for the first time, students representing Study Abroad locations in Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Dublin, Ireland and Salamanca, Spain, will participate in Service Day. 

A sampling of the locations in New York where community members will be includes:

• At St. John’s University’s Queens Campus, St. John’s University Reading and Writing Center employees will provide free services and volunteers from St. John’s Liberty Partnership Program, designed to provide mentoring and tutoring to students who have the potential to pursue a college education, but need assistance to finish secondary school, will be on campus working with middle school and high school students.
  
  
• In Queens, Volunteers from the Women’s Basketball Team, Graduate Theology Students and University Administrators and Staff will run a Family Day at the HeartShare First Step Early Childhood Center.  The Men’s Basketball Team will run a free basketball clinic for members of the Jamaica YMCA.
  
  
• In Brooklyn, approximately 30 volunteers will run a Family Day at the Mercy Home for Children and at St. John the Baptist School, over 100 volunteers will be painting, cleaning and participating in other housekeeping chores.
  
  
• In Manhattan, 50 participants will volunteer at the Riverside Park Foundation and others will be at NYU Medical Center for humanitarian outreach to the physically challenged children.  At 11 a.m. the Ozanam Scholars and members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society will walk in solidarity for the poor over the Brooklyn Bridge (beginning in Brooklyn).
  
  
• On Staten Island, volunteers will work at the St. Edwards Food Pantry and will visit with patients at several nursing homes across the island.
  
  
• On Long Island, a team of volunteers will be at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, working in the Emergency Room and in several other departments throughout the hospital, while in Suffolk County, the St. John’s University Mixed Chorus will perform at Our Lady of Consolation Nursing Home in West Islip.

Media interested in detailed information, including times and addresses for the sites mentioned above, or for additional locations, please contact Elizabeth Reilly, Assistant Director of Media Relations at St. John’s University, by calling (718) 990-5789 or by e-mail to reillye@stjohns.edu.