Volunteers Gave Providence Place a Makeover

Trinity University President Danny Anderson 

rallies the troops on Saturday morning

Photos by Abby Stigler

By Abby Stigler

It was with groggy eyes and breakfast taco filled stomachs that 500 Trinity volunteers gathered in the
Bell Center yesterday at 7:30 a.m. to kick off the President’s Day of Service.

Busses carted off volunteers in big and small groups, ranging from 8 to 85 people each, to various sites across San Antonio, including Daily Bread Ministries, San Antonio Food Bank, Haven for Hope, and several others, where students, professors, and community members were geared up to help places in need.

Among them were 50 volunteers who came to Providence Place, a non-profit organization that provides an educational center for people with disabilities as well as a service that helps pregnant women who do not wish to keep their baby find adoption families.

Upon arrival, the volunteers spread out and quickly got to work. Some picked up pick-axes, rakes, and shovels and began leveling pathways to make them more wheelchair accessible. Others grabbed paint cans and rollers to repaint some parts of the buildings.

Volunteers work on smoothing out
pathways for the disabled

Beverly Chatfield, 22, a Trinity student, has been a volunteer at Providence Place since September 2015 and is proud of that. “I always feel really satisfied when I leave,” she said. “It’s a nice place to relax. I love the people here, and I’m always going to come back.”

Such a sentiment was echoed yesterday. “I think this was a really great idea from President Anderson,” said volunteer and Trinity student, Miranda Reinhardt, 21. “It’s hard work but it’s really rewarding.”

After three hours of intense labor, the volunteers finished their tasks ahead of schedule. They dumped the gravel out of their sneakers, washed the paint off their faces, and climbed aboard the bus back to Trinity, with a communal sense of pride in a job well done.