Executive Director News
Read our news bulletins from Executive Director, Chuck Levesque.
The most recent bulletin is below. Or click on the links to the left to read previous editions.
January 2012
There is something about midwinter that makes me eager to look for signs of new life. The novelty of the first snow and the festivities of the holidays have passed. Perhaps amid the barren landscape, the long nights, and the slower routine of daily life, I need assurance that there are days of light and life ahead. About now, I start thinking about my deck garden. At home, I am forcing paperwhites on the windowsill-- trying to jump-start spring.
At work, too, I look for these signs of life. Happily, they are there. Jerry recently wandered into my office at Depaul House and handed me a slip of paper. I looked at it and realized it was his paycheck-- four figures and fattened with overtime. Jerry beamed. He has been working security at a posh Philly condominium and with earnings like this he will leave us by the spring. He has a new beginning in his sights.
Last Sunday, I travelled to Daybreak, our new project in Macon, GA. On Sunday nights the Daybreak building hosts "Come to the Fountain," an evening meal program for the homeless. As I approached Daybreak, I noticed a hundred people in our side yard. They were seated at picnic tables, talking and eating. I stopped for a moment and took in the crowd. I recognized scores of our Macon volunteers and supporters. They were not standing behind buffet tables serving food. They were seated at the tables talking and sharing a meal with the guests. The scene was unlike any "feeding program" I had seen. It was a gathering of friends sharing Sunday supper and fellowship on a warm winter evening. When the meal ended, volunteers and guests, together and often indistinguishable, set about cleaning up and breaking down the tables and chairs. I had witnessed the beginnings of our work in Macon and a new model of delivering services that the Director of Daybreak, Sr. Elizabeth Greim, and Denise Saturna, a founder of "Come to the Fountain," are pioneering. It is a model premised on entering into and fostering personal relationships. It seeks to blur the distinction and the distance between the "server" and the "served." It, like all new signs of life, merits hopeful watching.
Chuck Levesque
