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.