A new type of
A‘ ctions
Not Words’ ministry
Drive-through volunteering builds a ‘habit of virtue’
As we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, the Mayfield community has been proving how our Holy Child values continue to enrich our lives in profound and lasting ways. But when it came to volunteering—while people were under restrictions to remain socially distant most of the year—approaching the challenge required some major ingenuity. So we dramatically re-envisioned some of the ways we could be of service to others.
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t’s 8:30 a.m. in front of Pike Auditorium, and it’s uncomfortably hot already, although you wouldn’t know it by watching how effortlessly the masked Campus Ministry team accomplishes its work. Team members are set up under pop-up tents arranged on the driveway. Armed with a clipboard and a smile in her eyes, Theology teacher and Assistant Director of Campus Ministry Carol Fitzsimmons stands next to a sign marked “Loaves and Fishes,” fielding donations of homemade lunches from Mayfield families for Union Station Homeless Services. Mayfield Senior School has long found its strength as a community of faith. Campus Ministry, theology, volunteerism and service learning are some of the many ways we’ve expressed and explored our Holy Child mission. But much of that changed when students left campus in March 2020, and a new approach to ministry did not come easily. “When school went remote...we lost our bearings for a bit,” admits Director of Campus Ministry Teri Gonzales. She knew that any new venture “needed to ground itself again to purpose and
meaning.” And, she says, “The greatest challenge was to reimagine what a beloved faith community can look like and be during these challenging times.” Amid a landscape of anxiety and widespread suffering, Campus Ministry has been exploring unique ways to nurture the spiritual life of the Mayfield family and beyond. Student retreats went remote, a “virtual chapel” was designed to conduct prayer services online, team members started employing apps like Magnify Your Voice to approach service and civic engagement digitally, and the Loaves and Fishes service initiative was born of an entirely new approach to volunteering. Union Station has been a longstanding Mayfield community service partner and, before the pandemic, a group of student volunteers would do a regular breakfast shift before their classes. But the small working kitchen made safe social distancing impossible, so when Union Station advised that it was accepting bagged lunches, the Campus Ministry Council (CMC) jumped at the chance to help. CMC Service Coordinators Gabrielle Owen ’21 and
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