The Gubbio Family
Dick Johnston said it best - "it's a family here." Dick and his daughter, Lyn, (and sometimes his 20-something grandson, Mark) have been volunteering at The Gubbio Project for almost a year now. The Johnston's are one of two family volunteer teams we have at Gubbio. We asked Dick what he believes is our guests' greatest need. Aside from the tangible things that we provide, he explained "people need a place to belong to; it's a family here." Both Dick and Lyn expressed that volunteering at The Gubbio Project exposes them and challenges them to be in an environment that they would otherwise never be in or see. Lyn said it was scary at first, volunteering in the church, but having her dad go through and experience the same thing helps.
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Penny and B helping out with supplies.
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Penny and Bernadette White, who have been volunteering with us for almost a year, are our mother-daughter volunteer team. Both of them expressed the significance in acknowledging the human dignity of our guests. We asked Penny what keeps her coming back and she responded "giving (the guests) compassion and dignity and seeing how grateful people are just for those basic human needs." Bernadette expressed similar thoughts when we asked her why she continues to volunteer with us. "Talking to the guests breaks my heart and makes it soar; nobody deserves this. It's important to give back whenever and however possible."
Both the Johnston's and the White's are volunteers who exemplify our mission of hospitality, solidarity, and dignity; and help us create that family at The Gubbio Project.
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Benefit Concert for Gubbio
this Saturday at
7pm - 9pm: Happy Hour
9pm - 1am: Sketchy Business, Kevbot & Friends, and Juju
$10 door - all proceeds benefit Gubbio. Neutral Ground, an organization that seeks to create a dialog between tech workers and local organizations, will be selling art and other items to benefit The Gubbio Project. Sat, January 31st will be a night of fun and music all in the name of sacred sleep! For more information on the event click here. Help us pack the house on Saturday.
You can click here to contribute if you can't make it. We've passed the $1,000 mark - on our way to $3000! Please consider donating if you haven't already.
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Thank God it's Monday
- Jose Lopez, Vincentian Service Corps Member
A couple weeks ago I worked my first Monday morning shift in the church.
Walking to work that early in the morning, especially on a Monday I realized, it is a mess on the streets. The streets were pretty much deserted of people; except for the block our church is on, of course. There was trash everywhere. I had to walk with my eyes glued to the floor to make sure I didn't step on the garbage covering the sidewalks. I am always very conscious of looking out for used needles on the floor; I wouldn't want to step on one of those. I've learned to stay away from clothes and newspapers on the floor; they are most likely covering up feces. The smell on the streets was dreadful. The silver lining of the overpowering urine smell covering the Tenderloin is that it masked the smell of the poop and throw up.
Finally, I made it to St. Boniface. I've never seen the church like that before. The front part of the church, which is never really that crowded with people in the afternoon, when I normally work in the sanctuary, was filled with people sleeping. That morning I saw a different type of sleep and exhaustion Continue reading here.
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