Community
St. Vincent de Paul
‘Restoring hope through faith and love’
a
zTeen is excited to announce is there to train or help. Although SVdP that the beneficiary of the is a Catholic organization, volunteers azHallowTeen Bash ’09 gate definitely do not have to be Catholic to help. proceeds is the St. Vincent De Paul Society Volunteers come from every type of ethnic, of Phoenix, a branch of an international religious and economic background. No one non-profit organization dedicated to serving is every turned away from volunteering and the Valley poor with nearly every aspect of the experience is always gratifying. their lives. Volunteers say that the great thing SVdP conducts a lot of home visits to about St. Vincent de Paul is the lack of see exactly what needs each client has. boundaries when it comes to assisting the Food, clothing and hygiene products are poor. Since there are no official rules on distributed, and clients may eat dinner what they can and cannot help with, no one at the Mesa or downtown Phoenix SVdP is every turned away from receiving help. location. They can also receive Staff and volunteers always medical and dental care. try to find someway to Thrift stores provide help each person some of the no matter what d rou p y funds to keep the need. r e v I am n a the operation For more h c u s f o t r a p running. information a e I to b ion. on The rganizat o e l b i d e rom volunteering f incr d volunteers e l b m n hu or to learn even help have bee ence. about SVdP’s i r e p with issues x e the many programs, regarding rent check it out at www. and utilities. Each StVincentDePaul.net or year, St. Vincent de call Volunteer Services at Paul moves more than 10 million 602.261-6870. pounds of food through its food bank, helps thousands of homeless people get off the – Community Editor Yassamin Ansari, Chaparral ‘10 street and prepares more than 1 million hot meals for the hungry. Mesquite senior Meghan Becker has volunteered extensively with her mom, Jackie, for SVdP. She has done a lot of home visits and says that they opened her eyes to the needs in her community. “Once we get to the house, we usually help them put the food away, and in many cases we talk to the people about any financial issues we can help them with,” Meghan says. “I really enjoy helping out with SVDP because it’s great to see how you are directly helping these people. I am very proud to be a part of such an incredible organization. I have been humbled from the experience.” It is very easy to get involved with St. Vincent de Paul. There is no specific age requirement as long as an older, more experienced “Vincentian”
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22
fall 2009
azTeenmagazine.com
