Volunteer Projects

We are involved in many volunteer gigs in Winston-Salem and elsewhere through our service trips. Check out the links on the right to see what we do. ------------------------------------------>  -------------------------------------------------------->
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This article appeared in the February  issue of the Catholic News and Herald and was penned by Mary Donovan, one of our Catholic seniors at Salem College.

Salem College students

serve during ‘Taking Action

Tuesdays’ in January

Like most people, I get excited about
free time: I could go out, watch a movie,
read, have a game night with friends, or
sleep (one of my favorite options). Or, I
could volunteer.
Because of Salem College’s
shortened January term, I found myself
with a lot of free time. So instead of
sleeping in, I and members of the
Catholic Student Association, along
with the help of our campus minister
Julie McElmurry, created “Taking
Action Tuesdays.”
Each Tuesday we left the campus to
spend the day volunteering at a clothes
closet co-sponsored by Our Lady of
Mercy Church, Second Harvest Food
Bank, or the Pastor’s Pantry Food Bank
in Lexington. All day we sorted, folded
and bagged clothes, we shelved food,
and we bagged rice and food. It was fun
— and rewarding.
I’ve volunteered many times before,
but it’s easy to forget how much I
genuinely enjoy it. Folding clothes
and putting food in a bag when it’s for
someone else in need is better than just
getting my clean clothes off my chair.
I usually don’t have much money to
donate to charities, but with volunteering
I’m donating my time and energy —
something I was rich with this January.
And meeting the people we served
was a powerful experience.
Living on a college campus it’s
easy to forget there are people living
nearby in poverty. It’s easy to go about
studying, attending class, hanging out
with friends, and going to meetings
without ever thinking about the poor who
are practically my neighbors. It’s even
easy to attend Mass, read the Bible, and
pray and only sometimes remember the
poor and the Catholic social teachings.
Volunteering and seeing the faces of
those who I served has made these fellow
brothers and sisters unforgettable to me.
By volunteering, we were given the
opportunity to help not just the poor, but
also other volunteers. Some Tuesdays
at the clothes closet they were short
some of their regular volunteers, so
our help made their jobs easier. Also,
we were by far the youngest volunteers
and the regular volunteers told it was
rejuvenating seeing young people come
to help, and they were excited to have
us there.
Erin Neal, one of the participants in
Taking Action Tuesdays, said, “I loved
volunteering in the different ways we did
every Tuesday. We saw so many different
aspects of the service community as well
as getting to know some of the lower
income residents of Winston-Salem.”
Neal also said volunteering was
“a growing opportunity in a multitude
of ways: we grew within ourselves
spiritually, graciously and humbly.”
Another participant in Taking Action
Tuesdays, Catherine Nuzum, said,
“Volunteering was a great opportunity to
change an otherwise uneventful month
into one of meaning. We were able to
help make a difference in the lives of
those less fortunate than we are, and they
showed us that nothing should be taken
for granted. The people we helped in
return helped us just as much.”
One of the benefits of volunteering
for me was that it helped me in my
discernment for doing a year of volunteer
service after I finish college this summer.
I looked forward to each Tuesday,
and I felt my call to a year of service
was affirmed.
I’ve been told that serving those in
need in turn brings rewards to the person
who served, and I found out this January
how true that really is.

Mary Donovan is a senior at Salem  College and a member of CSA .  WFCC and the Catholic Student Association of Salem College work together in many common service projects.

Follow the links to the right to learn about our volunteer events!