Inspiring to serve

A Midnight Run aboard buses through the streets of New York City sounds as if it would be a memorable adventure, especially for a high-school senior from the Midwest.

For 10 seniors from Notre Dame Regional High School, it was an eye opener.

As they made their way along tall buildings and bright lights on their first night out and about in the Big Apple, they gained a unique view of the city that never sleeps.

They were not on a sightseeing tour, however, but were a welcome sight for others.

Their buses contained clothing, hygiene items, soup and hot chocolate on a February night -- Presidents Day -- and they'd find no shortage of people in need, many homeless, at stops on street corners in downtown Manhattan.

Savannah Seyer sorts donated toys at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Ridgewood, New York.Submitted photo

The students were face-to-face with ground zero of their six-day community-service mission.

"Most of the time, we'd pull up, and there'd be a line of people waiting to come up to us," Allyson Jansen said about the Midnight Run, which made the location of its stops known in advance. "They'd come up to the window and normally just ask us for two things, and then we'd try to find it."

Dark clothing was a common request, and one Jansen didn't fully understand at first.

"They want dark colors to not show the dirt, so that people wouldn't know they're as dirty as they really are," she said. "So that kind of hit me. It was crazy at some points. All the people were coming up. They were just super thankful, and sometimes if they didn't have exactly what they wanted, they'd pass it along to the next person."

Earlier in the day, they interviewed residents for preference at a nursing home in an effort to understand how to provide better individualized care.

Notre Dame seniors Aron Goldsmith and Luke Nolan make sack lunches for the homeless for the Midnight Run in New York.Submitted photo

The following days would include time spent working at a soup kitchen and separating donated clothing items or donated toys.

Jansen was among five girls and five boys under the supervision of Notre Dame teachers Sarah Strohmeyer and Jerry Landewe, part of an annual mission with two Catholic schools in New York City.

They had been chosen for the trip from 23 Notre Dame seniors, who all had written essays about why they should be picked and what they thought they might learn.

What they learned went beyond their expectations.

"New York was so much different than what I thought it was going to be," Morgan Duschell said. "I just thought it would be celebrities walking around and everthing else. All glittering.

Jerry Landewe, Luke Nolan and Shannon Beussink ride the subway in New York.Submitted photo

"You'd look up, and everything was nice, and you'd look down, and there were homeless people. It was just kind of crazy to think about. It made me miss Missouri a lot."

Savannah Seyer had been on Notre Dame's summer mission trips to Arizona and Louisiana, where she helped roof or paint houses in rural areas.

She said the urban nature of the New York City trip piqued her interest, and she saw an entirely new kind of poverty -- homelessness.

"Most of the time, we were helping people who had a place to stay, that had something, and this one was not so much giving physical work," Seyer said. "[This] was more giving people a meal or a coat, just basic necessities they needed to get through that day or that night. The needs were completely different."

Seyer said the Notre Dame group was told what to expect when they went on the trip, but encountering a community of homeless people was more than what she, or others in the group, imagined.

Notre Dame recently completed a six-day community service mission trip to New York City. The 10-student contingent was led by teacher Sarah Strohmeyer. Participating students were: Front (from left), Morgan Duschell, Strohmeyer, Taylor Barnes, Savannah Seyer, Shannon Beussink; Back, Jerry Landewe, Luke Nolan, Raymond Boos, Allyson Jansen, Dillon Landewee, Evan Landewee, Aron Goldsmith.Submitted photo

Evan Landewee was making his first mission trip.

"These people have nothing, and it's not always something you think about because whenever I think of a homeless person, I think of them having like a van or something, but these people in the city have absolutely nothing, and that really struck me," Landewee said.

Luke Nolan said he's had an increased interest in community service, and the mission trip, his first at Notre Dame, fit into his wishes to help others. He found New York too much of a lot of things -- big, fast-paced -- and he came away with an increased appreciation for the Midwestern lifestyle. He too was struck by what he saw on the Midnight Run.

"It definitely made me appreciate what I have and not take everything for granted and not want, want, want all the time," Nolan said.

Notre Dame began participation in an annual mission trip during the school year in 2001, the year before Strohmeyer, who teaches senior theology, arrived.

Aron Goldsmith, left, and Luke Nolan make sack lunches for the homeless for the Midnight Run.Submitted photo

She since has led Notre Dame's missionary involvement with the two other schools -- St. Francis Prep in Queens and St. Anthony's on Long Island -- operated by the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, to which Notre Dame principal Brother David Migliorino belongs.

The three schools rotate as host.

With St. Anthony's the host this year, the students stayed at Camp Alvernia, owned by the Franciscan Brothers, in Centerport, New York.

Last year, the two New York schools, who do not hold classes the week of Presidents Day, came to Cape Girardeau.

The 20 students from New York and the 10 local students all quartered at Drury Hall on the Notre Dame campus as they performed community-service projects in the area.

Strohmeyer is a staunch believer in the format of the service projects, taking students into other communities.

"My whole purpose and how I view a mission trip, is that you take anybody, students, whoever, out of their comfort zone to a totally different area to learn something totally new, and through doing that with a really profound experience it inspires them to serve back home," Strohmeyer said.

The lessons ran on multiple levels.

Jansen was told to ask the people their names, something that surprised her, before going on the Midnight Run, and she engaged one of the 300 people in a lengthy conversation at the food kitchen the next day, finding out he was from Missouri.

"These people have names; they have stories," Jansen said. "They have moms and dads and family, and they just ended up in a bad situation. That was one of the things I really took out of this trip is not to turn a head, that they have feelings, too. Just ask them their names, ask them their stories, because they just want somebody to hear."

Duschell said she learned not to take what she has for granted.

She also freely admitted she was well outside her comfort zone until the moment the group's flight landed safely back in Missouri.

She was the only member of the group to fly for the first time and found the experience rather stressful.

"I learned I might rather drive," she said.

jbreer@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3629