My Service Experience

236 U.S. 45
Indian Creek, IL 60061
(847) 362-1005

Supervisor in Charge: Jim or Jane, February 10^th, 2011- From 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Well, I always wanted to get involved at St. Mary of Vernon because my friend goes there to help with P.A.D.S. Now with Sociology this gave me that extra boost I needed. I’ve never been there before so I was excited. I went on February 10^th, 2011 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. with my mom because she has always wanted to do it too.

On the drive there, I was starting to get a little nervous, but I knew that it would be an experience I wouldn’t forget. I have done this kind of stuff before so I thought to myself “Why are you working yourself up for something you know you’ll have fun with and love to do?” I expected a ton of people there helping out already by getting everything together. I was worried about some people getting angry at me for some reason, like if I didn’t do something right.  We arrived a little early just to get situated and my expectations were totally wrong. There were at least 4 people not including my mom and myself. We signed in, introduced ourselves to the head honcho of the night, Jim. I also expected the place to be small, well I was wrong again. You walk into the kitchen which was huge and then walk out to the dining room which was just 10 tables of 6 and then you look out to this HUGE room waiting to be set up with beds and chairs. Jim got us to work right at the get go and had us separate sheets and blankets for the beds. While we were doing that we met a nice man named Kyle. He told us not to worry about anything since we told him it was our first time. While we were separating, a lady came running in telling Jim that the bathrooms weren’t working. Also to add to that, they were completely short staffed. There were less than 20 volunteers working that night. They said they usually have around 50. Nothing was going their way tonight. The next person we met was Barbara. She appointed us and helped us make beds. While making the beds and putting them out, we didn’t realize how tiring the work was. It really surprised me when about half way done with making the beds, some guys who were staying the night helped out after trudging in the snow and being exhausted from the long haul of the train station in the bitter cold. They helped make beds, put out chairs and were very helpful and nice. I was thinking that I would have never expected them to just help out right when they walked in. They were so generous and thankful of us volunteers to help them out. Once they started to help out things started to move a lot quicker. After we made beds, we started sorting out clothes that they put out for everyone to take. The coolest part while we were hanging clothes on racks in a room was when a HUGE shipment of Timberland Boots came in. There had to be at least 100 shoeboxes of all different sizes. A manufacturer donated all those shoes! I thought it was amazing and generous of them because when we were setting out clothes, I didn’t see any shoes. All of a sudden Jim has a new job for us; we got to take everyone’s bus card at the door to make sure they are eligible to come in. It was a REALLY COOL experience to see their smiling faces that they had a warm place to sleep for the night. I almost freaked out because we almost didn’t get a guy’s card, but thankfully I got him in time. After taking everybody’s cards, we headed to the kitchen. We put on our aprons and were ready to serve dinner consisting of a 4 course meal. For starters they had a nice small salad and I helped serve the dressing. Then they had a nice bowl of hot chicken noodle soup, which was to everyone’s liking. For their main course they had, chicken enchiladas with a side of Spanish rice and beans. For dessert, they had apple pie and cookies. While I was on the floor, I started to make conversations. This one lady in particular really liked my name that night. She ONLY asked ME for a ton of hot sauce on everything she ate, ice, water and lemonade. I didn’t mind going back and forth for her, I enjoy keeping busy. Another AWESOME thing was when Kyle had people sign their names on a clipboard for whoever wanted a free haircut. Isn’t that amazing!!  After everyone was finished, we took out the clothes on the racks out of the small room out to everyone so they can choose what they want. The one item that went away so quickly was the nice warm blankets. While everyone was ‘shopping’ I made sure everyone who was still sitting at their tables was taken care of. I would have to say putting out and making the beds took the longest almost an hour and a half. Then setting the tables didn’t take long almost a half an hour. While we left, they were just about to sit down with some popcorn and watch the movie ‘Taken’ on a big flat screen TV they had in the room.  We were always working non-stop, and I loved that. Then it was the end of our shift, and we started to head home. While on the ride home I thought to myself how amazing people really are out there who will do anything to help out. My favorite part of the night was seeing everyone laughing and smiling, knowing they have a safe place to sleep for the night.