Saint Bridget Parish Millbury MA 8-3-2017
On August 3, 2017 we have the pleasure of the company of volunteers from Saint Brigid’s parish in Millbury MA. This day of work was set up by Greg Bernard. They came to volunteer as part of their parish youth program C.S.A.W. which stands for “Christian Servants At Work.” Tim” and “Allie” brought 6 young men and women with him to do 4 hours of work.
As always we spent some time with them explaining the Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope and what we do. Once that is done, we take groups on a tour of the different programs housed here at 242 Canterbury St.: the Christmas Giving Program upstairs, the food pantry in the store, the store itself, and the shed. This helps our volunteers visualize just how large of an operation we have. Then we tell them what they will be doing during their stay and how it will contribute to the success of this mission.
We broke St. Brigid’s parish group into two groups. Group one brought redeemable bottle and cans to the redemption center. They brought home $102 to help support our food program. The second group worked at filling up a 15 cubic yard dumpster with the remains of earlier smash and bash efforts.
It was a hot, bright sunny day and they worked outside. Needless to say we had to take frequent hydration breaks but they did not shrink from their tasks. They accomplished everything we needed them to complete and had about 20 minutes at the end of the day to sit and share their experiences.
We ended up the session by telling them that without them the work they accomplished would not get done and how we considered their volunteer efforts as a gift from God.” With that we shared some hugs, took some pictures and said good bye.
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