Volunteers serve and increase their spirituality

BY BILL DOYLE
CFP Correspondent

After retiring as president of the Milford Regional Physician Group, Philip Ciaramicoli became interested in volunteering.
As a graduate of the Jesuit College of the Holy Cross, Mr. Ciaramicoli was familiar with the New England chapter of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.
IVC provides men and women aged 50 and older the opportunity to volunteer to help those in need and to grow deeper in their faith by reflecting and praying in the Ignatian tradition. St. Ignatius of Loyola, after whom the organization is named, helped found the Jesuits in the 1500s.
Since September, Mr. Ciaramicoli, who lives in Milford, has volunteered on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for the St. John’s Food for the Poor Program at St. John Parish in downtown Worcester.
The program, in the St. Francis Xavier Center, serves free breakfast from 6:30-9:30 a.m. weekdays and prepares meals for people in need to take home.
“It’s great. I enjoy it,” Mr. Ciaramicoli said. “Getting up at 5 o’clock in the middle of the winter and driving to Worcester from Milford is not exactly fun, but the motivation is helping others. The people I work with are fantastic. Everyone really cares about what we do.”
His task is to prepare breakfast and sandwiches, and to distribute cups of coffee – with the exact amount of milk and sugar each guest requests. Afterward, he helps clean up.
“I wanted to do something  that was more interactive,” he said. “Hands on. Meeting people, talking to people. I love doing the coffee because I get to talk to our guests a little bit.”
Between 12 and 20 people volunteer at St. John’s each day, including students from Holy Cross, WPI, and, occasionally, from UMass Chan Medical School. Mr. Ciaramicoli is the only Ignatian volunteer.
He also enjoys the IVC’s religious component, including the monthly meetings where volunteers discuss their placements and their required religious readings. The Worcester meetings are held at the Hogan Campus Center at Holy Cross.
“I just like the sense of spirituality,” he said. “I’m very surprised how much I like it. It helps you understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.”
Volunteering at St. John’s has deepened his faith, said the parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Milford.
He plans to volunteer at St. John’s again next year and he would highly recommend that others become IVC volunteers.
“There’s a real sense of service as well as spirituality to what we do. It is not simply just service. It is not simply just spiritual. It’s a nice combination of both and you work with some really good people,” he said.
Mr. Ciaramicoli enjoys helping the homeless.
“They’re appreciative,” he said. “They’re respectful. They say, ‘Thank you.’ You can read their faces and kind of see their needs.”
Dave Hinchen was a Jesuit at the time he helped start the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in New England, and served as regional director from 1974-1982.
After leaving the Jesuits, Mr. Hinchen founded IVC New England with his fellow Holy Cross graduate, Bill Waters. The organization was launched in January 2009. New England is one of IVC’s 20 chapters and has a strong Holy Cross connection.
JVC volunteers are usually fresh out of college and work in full-time, live-in positions for a year. In contrast, IVC volunteers must be over age 50, commit to one or two days a week from September through June, and live at home.
Mr. Hinchen, a Boston resident, said IVC New England is seeking more volunteers and pursuing more partnerships with non-profits, who pay a modest partnership fee.
“Our mission,” he said, “is to try to help address some of the social injustices of our time – homelessness, immigration issues, education, senior concerns. We do that by helping non-profits who work directly on some of those issues in the Boston, Worcester, Providence areas.”
IVC New England has 53 volunteers working with 30 non-profits. Five of those volunteers work in Worcester at St. John Parish, St. Peter Parish, Catholic Charities Worcester County, Nativity School and Matthew 25.
Liz Morrisroe, 57, of Barrington, Rhode Island, is in her second year as a volunteer for Matthew 25, which provides affordable rental housing for families in need. She’s a hypnotherapist in Providence, but each Wednesday she drives to Worcester to volunteer. She processes donations, handles thank-you notes to benefactors, helps organize fund-raising campaigns and assists Matthew 25’s founder Father Fred Enman in writing and submitting grants.
“Even though you’re giving of yourself,” she said, “you get so much from the experience, too. It’s like a two-way street. It’s a wonderful way of connecting with people who have the same beliefs that you do and feel strongly about the commitment to the community too.”
Her mother grew up in Worcester and her father, a Holy Cross graduate, grew up in Auburn, so when Mr. Hinchen told her that Matthew 25 needed a volunteer, she became interested. During her interview with Father Enman, she found out that her uncle, who also grew up in Worcester, had donated a house to the Matthew 25 program.
Ms. Morrisroe said she enjoys working with Father Enman, but she also appreciates meeting monthly with other IVC volunteers.
“It’s really beautiful,” she said. “We share about our placements and we can talk about the good things happening there, the frustrating things happening there. We can pray together. So, it’s a wonderful community in addition to my placement.”
Rich Boucher, 67, of Westborough is in his first year assisting with the immigration and citizenship ministry of Catholic Charities Worcester County. In the office of immigration attorney Rhiannon Snide, he volunteers two days a week for a total of eight to 10 hours.
The Holy Cross graduate read about IVC in the college’s magazine and volunteered after he retired as a manager at Dell Technologies.
“I think it’s a good way to continue to grow spiritually and to give back,” he said.
He also believes the monthly meetings with other volunteers add a lot to his experience.
“You get to meet some really extraordinary people from all walks of life,” Mr. Boucher said.
David Allain, 63, of Worcester has volunteered at St. Peter Parish for two years. The retired Eversource executive serves as a liaison between Clark University students and the parish. About 6-10 Clark students attend the 5:15 p.m. Mass at St. Peter each Sunday and they dine together in the church’s meeting room after Mass once a month.
“They just want a safe place to go to talk about God,” Mr. Allain said, “talk to each other about what’s going on on campus, have a meal, go to Mass. They do seem to embrace it and embrace one another.”
Mr. Allain has also overseen a hike with the students at Rutland State Park and a barbecue on the church’s front yard, and he’s planning to take the students to a WooSox game this season.

– Anyone interested in volunteering or any non-profit in need of a volunteer should contact Mr. Hinchen at dhinchen@ivcusa.org. Jesuit Father James Martin will host a free IVC information session via Zoom from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.  The registration link is http://ivcusa.org/info. Father Martin, who lives in Manhattan, is a New York Times best-selling author.