By the numbers, Sept. 11 was a big Day of Service in the diocese: 436 volunteers putting in a collective 2,400 hours at nine sites.
Nearly 200 volunteers sorted books and organized the library at Boston’s Blackstone Elementary School, which had fallen into disuse and become a storage room.
By the numbers, Sept. 11 was a big Day of Service in the diocese: 436 volunteers putting in a collective 2,400 hours at nine sites.
As they did last year, young adult interns from the diocese’s Life Together program organized the event to coincide with the National Day of Service and Remembrance established in 2009 by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.
The volunteers picked up 2,000 pounds of trash along the Merrimac River near the Society of St. John the Evangelist’s Emery House in West Newbury; sorted 10,000 books and helped transform the library at the Blackstone Elementary School in the South End of Boston; insulated pipes, windows and walls to make the parish hall at St. Mary’s Church in Dorchester less drafty and more energy-efficient this winter; handed out detergent, toothpaste and other living essentials to more than 100 people through the pantry at Christ Church in Quincy; helped clean up Tufts Park in Medford; and cleared trails at the diocese’s Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H.
“Hundreds of people met for the first time, coming together united by a common desire to engage in the work of service, healing and reconciliation,” Life Together’s directors, Arrington Chambliss and Jason Long, wrote in a thank-you e-mail to the volunteers.
Volunteers at St. Mary’s Church in Dorchester build interior storm windows to make the parish hall more energy efficient.
“The guiding proverb for Life Together states: ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.’ This past Saturday, I believe we all caught a glimpse of what’s possible when we serve, lead and love together,” Long said.