SJC Brooklyn students paint a mural inside the MDQ Academy private school.
The Sister’s of St. Joseph motherhouse in Brentwood was filled last week with nearly 180 SJC Brooklyn student volunteers for the third annual Day of Service.
Students broke up into groups at the Oct. 23 event, and participated in a number of service activities across the 200-acre Sisters of St. Joseph property. The activities included …
• Teaching preschoolers at Shepherds Gate.
• Harvesting tomatoes in the Napolitano Family Farm.
• Making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to donate to the food pantries at the St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Shore and the nonprofit Pronto in North Bay Shore.
• Picking up trash in the community.
• Preparing raised beds for a community garden that local families can use to grow their own food.
• Creating a papier-mâché rosary.
• Painting a mural in the MDQ Academy private school.
Day of Service Remembers SJC’s Roots
Sister Marie Mackey ’84, CSJ, the new SJC Brooklyn director of campus ministry, ran the Day of Service. The participants were all first year students — freshmen and transfers. The Day of Service is part of the College’s First Year Experience initiative, an extended orientation program that helps new students get familiar with and adjust to their new school.
“It’s a wonderful way for the students and the staff to make the connection that this is where it all started,” S. Marie said. “The Sisters of St. Joseph started the College in 1916, and we still support the College in so many ways. The mission and the legacy that was our foundation, beginning in 1650, continues on today at St. Joseph’s College.
“I enjoyed seeing the willingness and the openness of so many young people to learn about the grace and the gift that service is, and who our neighbors are,” she continued. “There are all different types of people who were recipients of service today — whether they were the elderly, whether they were very, very young, whether they were people who were sick, whether they were students or whether it was the environment. It’s all the dear neighbor.”
