Students, faculty, and staff from Villa Maria dedicated Saturday, October 2 to live out the College’s core value of the year: respect for human dignity.
Students from all academic years and majors, and faculty and staff gathered at various locations around Buffalo to perform full day of volunteer work.
Villa Maria students volunteering at the Teacher’s Desk.
The service day was held as part of the College’s Heritage Days, which is an annual series of events that commemorate those who founded the College, the Felician Sisters. Heritage Days also serve as an opportunity for the Villa community to reflect on the core values that drive everything done at the College.
130 students, faculty, and staff participated in a variety of volunteer activities, in a variety of locations throughout the Buffalo area, including:
- The Teacher’s Desk – free supplies for teachers to use with students
- FeedMore WNY – Food Bank
- Buffalo City Mission Store
- Goodwill Industries Store
- Little Portion Friary – Homeless shelter
- St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy
- Seneca Babcock Community Center
- 716 Ministries – building homes in WNY
- The Goodness Project – provides low-cost food and household items to food pantries
“The Day of Service provides our students and staff an opportunity to live out our Felician Franciscan mission and core values,” said Dr. Donald Monnin, Villa Maria’s vice president for mission. “The core value that we are highlighting this year is respect for human dignity which is reflected in the variety of community not-for-profits that we served that day which included.”
Villa Maria students packaging meals at St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy.
In total, the 130 members of the Villa Community completed 330 hours of volunteer work in just one day.
Brian Jacobs, a freshman studying graphic design at Villa Maria, spent the Buffalo City Mission Store breaking down and discarding boxes that had been building up for months. “The day was great,” he said. “It was very rewarding to be able to make such an impact for just the short amount of time we were there. The day of service is important because it gives people the opportunity and incentive to go out and help when they might usually not.”
Freshman Cooper Bowe, who worked alongside Jacobs as the Buffalo City Mission Store, also enjoyed the experienced. “I had a really good time down at the thrift store,” he said. “Everyone there was really great and it was overall a really fun time helping them out. It was crazy though, because from one of the manager’s statements, we apparently got two months worth of work done for them, and that work really helps out the community as a whole!”
