Volunteer Opportunities

"I started volunteering when the entire operation was on Main Street.  The refugees were brought here for clothes.  A couple of months into my “volunteer career”, a family from Bhutan came in consisting of a mother, father, a couple of children and grandma.  Grandma was dressed in a sari, a team jacket from some high school and a knit hat with a NY Yankees emblem on it.  Her face was weathered and she resembled Mother Teresa.  She stopped me in the hall, put her hands together and bowed her head in thanks for helping her family.  I’ll never forget her.  And as Mother Teresa said, “If you do it to help others, you do it to Jesus”. 

I don’t see the refugees any more, but I put together their bedding and soft goods they need for their new home.  I see their names, ages and where they’re from on their intake sheets.  Whether it’s Maya, or Mohammed, or Ilunge, or little Raisa, I know I’m making their lives a little better.  Someone told me, “You have to have a why in your life” -  a why to get up in the morning, a why to keep busy. I found my why fifteen years ago at Saints Place."