This post goes out to Mr. Cleaveland and everyone who has contributed to The Call to Serve. We would like to extend our utmost gratitude for your generous contributions to the organization.  Your willingness to help us out in our time of need is very encouraging and motivating. Our faith is challenged everyday with the bumps in the road that we have and will continue to experience with making this trip/organization a reality. By placing your trust in us to make a difference, we are reminded just how important it is to never lose faith in God.  Thank you once again and praise God!

Willis P. showing Adam the storage space and the ballin’ rims!

Look at this beast! Name for our beautiful home is pending, stay tuned in for the final decision…Awesome!

Last week was a really great week for The Call to Serve because I was able to travel to New York City.  In New York, I had the chance to help out with a variety of different community service opportunities and it was an awesome way to spend my spring break!  I was supposed to be in New York for the entire week, but unfortunately I had to head back to PA a little earlier than planned because my Grandmother (we called her Nonna) passed away on Wednesday, March 11th.   Our family misses Nonna, but we know she is in a better place now and everything worked out with me leaving New York early –like it always does when you leave it up to God.

–>The first place I was able to help at was Brooklyn Hospital.  I spent my time in the pediatric wing and played nintendo, basketball, bingo and countless board games with the hospitalized kids.  I had a blast!  This kids were great and they all shared the same optimistic and positive outlook on their situation.  My heart went out to these kids and it was my pleasure to be play-buddies with them.

This little guy had a need for speed and I got my butt kicked multiple times in Mario-kart!  I swear I let him win though…

This was an intense bingo game — it was a black out event (fill the whole card) and there were prizes at stake.  In the end, each kid won a prize for a different bingo category, they were pretty excited!

Barnyard animals + Matchbox cars = ENTERTAINMENT!

–>I was also able to meet with an organization called Doc-to-Dock.  They take unused medical supplies and send it to doctors and hospitals in Africa.  This is a really cool organization with some really great people running the show.  They showed me the process that they go through to send medical supplies overseas.  There was alot of counting, sorting, and packaging of a variety of medical supplies that were going to be put to good use in Africa.  Participating with Doc-to-Dock made me realize how something as simple as a check up in America, is a luxury in Africa.

Left to right: Pen(full-time volunteer), Dori (Director of Development), Shane (volunteer), and Me (stunningly beautiful volunteer…haha) 

–>My final service opportunity before I had to head back to my homeland was helping out with Mercy Home’s Annual Bake Off.  Mercy Home is an organization that assure a quality life for people with developmental disabilities.  I paired up with members of Bishop Loughlin High School campus ministry to help set-up and clean-up the nights activities.  We were also asked to MC the event and be official judges of all the desserts that were prepared.  It was so much fun and the food was excellent!

Bishop Loughlin’s campus ministry made the bake-off a successful one and I can’t wait until the call to serve team gets to meet these kids.

This picture makes my mouth water just looking at it. One word: MMMmmmm!

Next stop, cleanin’ up the streets of Oakland.  We’ll keep ya posted!

God Bless,

Andrew

Enjoy the pictures from the tournament!

Andrew

The passing of the torch!

Games were 3 vs. 3 for only 5 minutes, but they made every minute count

Celebrating a nice jumper

These kids were hilarious! Whenever one of them would score, they were so worried ab0ut celebrating and congratulating their teammate – the other team would score while they were busy hugging each other.  There was no shortage of high fives or fist pumps on this court!

The Call to Serve will be traveling to NYC next week. As of now, Andrew is the only person going, but I hope to join for at least 2 days. That little thing called “work” is a bit of a hindrance right now as we try to get the organization off the ground. Either way, CTS will be helping out in Brooklyn. Stay posted for updates.

 Last Saturday, I went back to our hometown of North Huntingdon (NHT if you’re nasty) to help out with a coat drive that was organized through St. Agnes church.  The brains behind the operation was Mr. Dennis Breen (shown above with me and his daughter Taylor) and it couldn’t have been executed any better.  Dennis is a parent volunteer who is teaching sacrament preparation for second graders on saturday mornings and he organized this coat drive to show his second grade students how important it is to help others in need.  When I heard about this service project taking place, I knew I had to be a part of it.  I brought my camera to document the experience, but there was just one problem…. all the second graders worked so diligently everything was finished before I knew what hit me.  

Dennis has been and will continue to be a great role model for the call to serve family.  I know that we can learn a lot from his service experience and we will definitely be asking for help and guidance in the future months.  Thanks Dennis!

God Bless!

~Andrew       

Special thanks to Tricia Breen (Dennis’ wife) for being the “unsung hero” and taking this picture!