October 01, 2008
Local and International University
Community Gives Back on Feast of St. Vincent de Paul
St. John’s University celebrated its Seventh Annual Service Day
on September 27 with approximately 1,500 volunteers venturing out
into the community to serve those in need. Held on the Feast
of St. Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Vincentian Community
which sponsors St. John’s, volunteers worked together to keep the
vision of St. Vincent alive and experience the fulfillment of
giving of oneself to another.
Students, faculty, administrators, staff and alumni from all St.
John’s New York campuses spread throughout the City and Nassau and
Suffolk counties. In addition, and, in recognition of the
University’s continued global expansion, students representing St.
John’s Study Abroad locations in Paris, France; Rome, Italy;
Dublin, Ireland and Salamanca, Spain, also participated in Service
Day in their respective cities on Saturday.
“On University Service Day, members of the St. John’s community
gathered for prayer and then spread throughout New York, Rome,
Paris, Dublin and Salamanca,” said Rev. Patrick Griffin, C.M.,
Executive Vice President for Mission and Branch Campuses at St.
John’s. “Our identity as one University community was
celebrated in our common act of caring for others. And, it is
not just those whom we visit who profit from the efforts. We
profit as well because the service brings to the surface that which
is best within each of us–our generosity, our care, our patience,
our understanding, and our love.”
On the eve of Service Day, 200 students on the Queens campus
attended a prayer vigil in St. Thomas More Church where Rev.
Griffin helped build excitement about Service Day and also asked
the students to reflect on ‘why we serve.’ Following the service,
those in attendance signed the Vincentian Service Covenant, marking
a commitment to include service in their lives, beginning with
Service Day, but lasting a lifetime. On each campus, volunteers
gathered together on the morning of Service Day for a Prayer
Service before heading out to pre-arranged service sites in the
community.
In Paris, a group of students joined the Daughters of Charity at
the Ozanam Center to serve the homeless women of North Paris.
Other students set up a complementary breakfast stand in Belleville
Park where they prepared hot breakfast from scratch for those in
need. Students in Rome visited the Little Sisters of the Poor
home where, working in small groups throughout the day, they
assisted the residents, served food and most importantly, spent
time interacting with the residents. In Dublin and in
Salamanca, groups of students volunteered serving meals to the
needy in local soup kitchens.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society Chapter of the Queens campus and
the Ozanam Scholars celebrated the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul
and Service Day with the global Vincentian family at the “Friends
of the Poor Walk.” In their united spirit following in the
footsteps of St. Vincent and Frederic Ozanam, the groups
prayerfully walked in solidarity for the poor across the Brooklyn
Bridge. Students and administrators at other locations in
Brooklyn teamed up to run a Family Day at the Mercy Home for
Children, and, at St. John the Baptist School, over 200 volunteers
painted, cleaned and participated in other housekeeping
chores.
On Staten Island, over 250 students, faculty and administrators
visited with patients at several nursing homes across the island,
while others sorted clothes to distribute to the homeless during
midnight runs. Some of the students participated in beautification
tasks including graffiti removal and painting and cleaning at
various centers and schools. The students were excited to be a part
of the day dedicated solely to serving the community. “Service Day
is a day for everyone to band together and experience what it means
to be Vincentian” said St. John’s College junior Sylwia
Wielgosz.
Students, faculty and staff from the Oakdale campus collected
food donations and delivered baskets of food to St. Lawrence of
Martyr Church in Sayville. The food pantry at St. Lawrence
feeds nearly 300 families each month. Also on Long Island, a
team of administrators and staff volunteered at Mercy Hospital in
Rockville Centre, working in the Emergency Room and in several
other departments throughout the hospital. Later in the day,
the St. John’s University Mixed Chorus performed for the residents
of Our Lady of Consolation Nursing Home in West Islip.
Volunteers in Manhattan worked on various tasks for the
Riverside Park Foundation while others were at NYU Medical Center
for humanitarian outreach to the physically challenged
children.
On the Queens Campus, St. John’s University Reading and Writing
Center employees offered 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, were on
campus working with middle school and high school students.
Also in Queens, volunteers from the Women’s Basketball Team,
Graduate Theology Students and University administrators and staff
ran the annual Family Day at the HeartShare First Step Early
Childhood Center, while the Men’s Basketball Team hosted a free
basketball clinic for members of the Jamaica YMCA.
In all, over 100 sites were visited by University volunteers
throughout the world. In addition to uniting the volunteers
with the local community, Service Day also helps unite the
students, faculty, administrators and staff, as well University
alumni with one another. This year, a team representing the
Office of Alumni Relations, made up of 15 St. John’s graduates who
did not previously know each other, gathered at the Hindu Cultural
Council Senior Center, where they cleaned the closets and kitchens,
worked on landscaping and painted the center.
Rev. Griffin spoke of a fountain on the Queens campus which has
a Latin phrase engraved on its wall: Ministrare non
Ministrari--“To serve not to be served.” “It is one of the
ways in which Jesus characterized his ministry. It is an attitude
which characterized St. Vincent de Paul, and one which describes
the purpose of University Service Day at St. John’s,” he
said. “We look to benefit others, and not simply ourselves.
Our hope is that on Service Day, we began a habit of outreach which
will carry us through the year and a lifetime—‘to serve and not to
be served’.”