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October 16, 2013
Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School student Rachel Smith wasn’t overly enthusiastic the morning of VASJ’s Sophomore Make a Difference Day.
“I was tired and not ready to help people,” Smith says. Undoubtedly, Smith was not the only student feeling this way. Enthusiasm at 8 in the morning is rare among teenagers.
Not surprisingly, though, the moment the students stepped through the doors of the various nonprofit agencies they would be serving, they were eager and willing to work hard to make a difference in the lives of those in need.
For Smith, her service involved volunteering at the St. Anthony Adult Day Center, a part of the Rose-Mary Center serving adults with disabilities. As soon as she entered the facility, she immediately sat down next to one of the residents and started talking as if she had volunteered there hundreds of times before.
Rachel Smith served as a reader during Mass while volunteering
at the Rose-Mary Center on VASJ's Sophomore Make a Difference Day.
Her classmates did the same. In fact, each and every sophomore participating in the service day made their faculty chaperones extremely proud of the maturity and hard work they demonstrated at the 11 agencies served.
“I am so proud of my group,” says Lori Conley, student account manager at VASJ and chaperone at the New Avenues to Independence, an organization serving adults and children with disabilities.“The maturity and courage they showed walking in and interacting with these individuals, to relate to them so well – I’m not sure I could have done that at their age,” Conley says.
Listening to the students share their experiences with one another at the completion of the day, it became clear that those being served in the various agencies were not the only ones positively impacted. VASJ students walked away from the Sophomore Make a Difference Day with a greater appreciation of the power they have to make a difference in the lives of those in need.
When VASJ Campus Minister Jill Latkovich started the Make a Difference Day seven years ago, this was exactly what she had in mind – that the day would be mutually beneficial for both those being served and the students providing the service.
“I wanted to help the kids to see it can be a very positive experience,” Latkovich says. “Working together with their friends and classmates and seeing the difference they can make is the best.”The sophomores at VASJ gained a very clear understanding of the impact they can have by giving just one day of service to a nonprofit agency. Perhaps even more important, they came to the realization that as Christians – and Vikings – they should be serving those in need.
“As a Viking family, we should all work together to make people feel better about themselves,” says Maco Young of his experience volunteering at the Cleveland Food Bank.
“Everyone needs help at some point so you should give help to others when you can,” says Victoria Francetic who, like Smith, spent the day interacting with residents at St. Anthony’s Day Center.After attending Mass with the residents, Francetic began playing the piano in the chapel. “I’ve been here for 21 years,” says Deacon Ray Daull, “and that is only the second time that piano has ever been played.”
To Francetic, her piano skills seemed rusty and amateur but in a chapel that seldom hears music, the sound couldn’t have been more beautiful.
Whether the task was helping a family find used clothes or giving basic necessities like toothpaste and deodorant to someone without them or preparing and serving meals to those who would otherwise go hungry or even sharing musical talents, regardless of how futile they may seem, VASJ students gained an understanding of how such little acts of kindness can have an enormous impact.
Smith and her classmates may have started the day tired and hesitant about the Sophomore Make a Difference Day but they couldn’t help but walk away with even a small amount of the joy and happiness they provided to those they served.
A group of VASJ students prepare to serve food at St. Augustine Church and Hunger Center
during the Sophomore Make a Difference Day.
Dominic Blatnik, Curtiss Brown, Jordan Walker, Jasmine Toney, Aaliyah Owens and LaRon Jones
spent Sophomore Make a Difference Day volunteering at the West Side Catholic Center.Agencies served during VASJ’s Sophomore Make a Difference Day (click on the links to learn more about these wonderful agencies):
Bishop Cosgrove Center
Cleveland Food Bank
Family Promise
Migration and Refugee Services Catholic Charities
New Avenues to Independence
Rose-Mary Center/St. Anthony Day Center
St. Augustine Church and Hunger Center
St. Jerome School
Transitional Housing
West Side Catholic Center