Volunteers are the heart of St. John Center

St. John Center founding executive director Sister Mary Kathleen Sheehan has said many times that we couldn’t keep our doors open without our generous and dedicated volunteers.

More than 150 volunteers routinely share 9,000 hours of their valuable time to serve the homeless men of St. John Center. They serve coffee, work the phone desk or the shower room, sign-in the guests, and enable the social work staff to provide more intensive assessments and services to the clients.

“Working in two or three hour shifts makes volunteer opportunities very accessible,” says Carmel Davis, Volunteer Coordinator. “We have volunteers that come in before work, retired individuals that serve on a weekly basis, and of course the

weekend volunteers are incredibly valuable.” Because the Center is open 365 days a year, there are literally thousands of opportunities to contribute.

Still other volunteers contribute goods or services. This webpage, for example, was designed and is maintained by the pro-bono services of Interactive Media Lab. Our volunteer IT experts, Chris, Don and Dave keeps the staff wired. Others gather and donate daily use items to help St. John Center stretch our budget.

Inquire with Carmel about volunteer interests by calling 568-6758.

Learning from a 'little'

STAND BACK! Markese is on the phones. Sure, he may only be 11 years old but he’s got it going on. Big Al, a client at St. John Center said, “On a scale of 1 to 10, I give him an 8. I don’t want to make his head too big!” On a realistic scale, he’s definitely a ten! He can multi-task with the best of the volunteers at St. John Center. With one hand, he’s answering the phone and with the other he’s handing out a bus schedule to a client. All in a day’s work (three hour volunteer shift!).

“I like it here,” said Markese. “When I first came here I thought homeless people wouldn’t have shirts and stuff. But I learned just because you are homeless doesn’t mean you’re not a regular person.”

Markese was introduced to St. John Center by Victor Grazionale, an eight month volunteer. Markese is Victor’s Little (Brother) in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

“Since October, I was trying to get him to break out of his shell,” said Victor. “I took him to lunch and other fun places that cost money to try to impress him and nothing worked. I knew I had to try something different so this was it. It’s crazy, but the first day we were here, I took two phone calls at the volunteer station and Markese said, ‘I got this.’ He took over! Markese maybe said two words to me before our first day at St. John Center and always turned his back. On the ride back, he didn’t shut up. It turned things around for us. It was the best decision to bring him here. This is what it took to impress him. He has really soared!”

The confidence level he has is amazing. He looks the homeless men in the eyes, addresses them with respect and does whatever he can to help them out. “The people are real polite. They tell you life lessons. They don’t want you to feel sorry for them. They want you to help others.”

The men are not fazed by the 11 year old’s presence. “He’s a very good kid. I didn’t think anything about him being here,” said David M. Jones. “But now that you mention it, it’s pretty amazing that a kid his age wants to come and help us out.” Jones turned and looked Markese straight in the eyes. “I hope he learns a valuable lesson: be productive and prepared so you don’t end up here like us. Things happen kid; don’t let it happen to you.”

Markese listened intently and nodded. Moments later Markese gave me a stern look, “See they don’t feel sorry for themselves and I don’t feel sorry for myself. I just want to help myself and as many other people as I can.”

It’s amazing what you can learn from an 11 year old!