Experiencing a service trip is a life-changing opportunity
for our young women to be fully immersed in the lives of those in need
and to create positive change!
The factor that makes these service trips so unique is the social justice and faith component that are such an essential part of these programs. St. Francis students are allowed the opportunity to get to know, through experience, the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching and just exactly the meaning behind the words.
For Summer 2008 we wish the best to our students and staff who are participating in service trips in Tijuana, Mexico, and Gallup, New Mexico. These service trips are run through Young Neighbors in Action. Applications were due in December.
Contact Tanya Davis or visit the CLC for more information about service trips.
Summer 2007
St. Francis students and staff participated in summer service trips in San Francisco; Yakima, Washington; and Tijuana, Mexico, through Young Neighbors in Action. In addition, a group of students traveled on a service trip to Belize.
San Francisco, 2007
A group of nine SF students arrived in San Francisco in June to spend a week performing small construction projects and yard work, including building a fence, pick-axing 40 feet of dirt, and laying a brick path for two elderly women. Working with the organization Rebuilding Together (RT), their efforts were directed toward refurbishing the residences so that these women can continue to live independently in the homes in which they have lived most of their lives. On the final day at each jobsite the girls were able to meet the women who they had been working for and this was "a special highlight."
Participants included St. Francis theology teacher Anne Crew-Renzo, SF english teacher Kathleen Deeringer, Hillary Conlin, Julia Galvin, Shannon Gibbons, Heidi Hollingsworth, Libby Luoma, Marisa Madrid, Rachel Norris, Melina Plasencia, and Kaitlin Pursley.
Yakima, 2007
After fourteen hours of driving, seven SF students and two staff members piled out of two vans in Yakima, Washington. Divided into two groups, Nicole Herbert, Stephanie Perry, Dana Knudsen, and SF Retreat Coordinator Stephen Tholcke spent five days painting houses for elderly people. The worksite for the second group, consisting of Colette Des Georges, Michelina Friend, Jessica Navarro, Megan Rose, and SF Director of Christian Service Tanya Davis, was Kids ROCK (Reaching Out to inner-City Kids). Every afternoon this home was open to children to play pool, work on computers, play outside or with video games, and participate in special activities. In the mornings before the children arrived, the volunteers helped with work projects: they dug a sidewalk so that the children wouldn't walk through dirt to get to the waterslide; built a log cabin to be furnished with bunks for when children spend the night; and organized a "garage giveaway" - a free garage sale for which many of the items were donated by World Vision.
Tijuana, 2007
Casa de los Pobres in Tijuana was presented to the volunteers as a "soup kitchen," but upon arrival the ten students and two adults from St. Francis realized it is so much more: a community center which offers breakfast and lunch, clothing, a food bank, a chapel, catechism for children, and a medical center. Kathleen Carlsen, Katie Catricala, Sarah Clinton, Kaylee Lofgren, Nicolle Nacey, Justine Oehler, Amanda Purser, Madeline Styer, Briana Telford, and Elizabeth Werth were accompanied by adult leaders Greg McAvoy-Jensen and Julie Madden '86.
They started the day with half the girls playing with the children (sports or an art project), and the other half cleaning the cafeteria from the breakfast service. Then all worked in the kitchen, preparing and serving lunch.
Belize, 2007
Seven St. Francis students and two teachers traveled to Belize and put on a summer academic camp for Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic School in Sandhill. Attending the five-day camp were 50 students ranging from ages five to fifteen. Along with several boxes of classroom materials, our SF volunteers brought backpacks filled with supplies for any student who attended the camp all five days. They were pleased to distribute 45 backpacks at the end of the week. In addition, St. Francis High School donated previously used microscopes to the school.
On the weekdays after school, the SF volunteers spent time repainting the inside and outside of the chapel at the school. The weekend following the summer camp, they held a workshop for teenagers in Belize City focusing on the importance of healthy and happy relationships in our lives. The group included theology teacher Joey Garcia, math and science teacher Elize Neethling, Chloe Benson, Christina Broughton, Alexandra Coward, Caity Doyle, Stephanie Esquivias, Emily Huston, and Tierney Trujillo.
