The lobby was quiet compared to the activity room, where gleeful calls of “bingo” had mingled with a mixtape of ’40s jazz balads. Now, clumped together beneath the stained glass windows, the 12 volunteers one by one shared the heartwarming details of the afternoon spent at St. Paul’s House Lutheran Life Community.

“All we did was play bingo,” DePaul sophomore Jessica Ramser said. “It was so easy. But for the seniors, it was so powerful.”

Ramser was one of 1,200 DePaul students, faculty and staff who together volunteered with 70 organizations last Saturday for DePaul’s 14th Annual Vincentian Service Day.

“It means a lot to these people for us to visit. Even if it’s for a short time, they still appreciate it,” Ramser said.

Hours earlier, Ramser had said relating to the seniors would be a challenge. Though she had encountered poverty and injustice across the country on service immersion trips, she said serving at the elderly home would push her out of her comfort zone.

“Vincentian Service Day is just one day of service that brings people from the entire spectrum of the student body together,” Ramser said. “It can inspire you to take [service] a step further, maybe [volunteer] weekly.”

So far this year, students have put in more than 500,000 hours of service, DePaul President Fr. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M. said in the crowded Sullivan Athletic Center that morning.

“I am so proud of you I can’t stand it,” Holtschneider said. “Thank you for being DePaul.”

Vincentian Service Day is put on by University Ministry, and sophomore Christina Teach, head site coordinator for the event, said she has been planning since December.

“Service is so essential,” Teach said. “Doing something with the community is so much greater than yourself.”

Sophomore Anne Baldwin said she volunteers often at community gardens and food pantries, but Vincentian Service Day is different.

“The values (of Vincentian Service Day) are powerful,” Baldwin said. “They make service holistic, and I admire them. I try to use them everyday.”

At Vincentian Service Day last year, Baldwin said she was happy knowing she had done something good, and believes that everyday should be like that.

“[Vincentian Service Day] is about hearing others and listening,” Baldwin said. “People need to be heard. We need to make everyone feel that they matter.”

Baldwin said it was important to be authentic and honest at service events.

“When you’re honest, that’s what makes the most difference,” Baldwin said. “Being honest is when everyone is truly equal, not saying ‘we’re here to help you.'”

Dora, the activity aid at St. Paul’s House, said the seniors love having visits from students.

“[The residents] can get lonely,” Dora said. Though it varies by resident, Dora said, not all of them have guests very often.

Freshman Kathryn Naranjo, who volunteers with seniors at the Little Sisters of the Poor, said “Some [elderly] don’t have family, so it’d be good to visit them. It makes them happy to talk with people. It’s important to be there for them.”

Back at St. Paul’s House, the volunteers were engaged in the seniors’ stories of times past. While some were quiet, most residents chattered and joked, gesturing to the volunteers on either side of their wheelchairs. One resident, with attentive ears all around her, animatedly told the story of when she first learned to drive an automobile.

After bingo, the volunteers wheeled the residents to lunch, but made stops to their rooms to see their collections of bingo prizes and personal mementos stacked on shelves and windowsills. Some volunteers were reluctant to leave.

“Thank you so much for spending your entire Saturday with us,” a resident repeated throughout the afternoon. “Thank you so much for coming.”