Annual Vincentian Service Day Now Expanded to Other Cities

It started as a way for a storied Chicago institution to give back to the city that it calls home, a celebration of the mission of the university’s namesake and a joyous affirmation of the spirit of volunteerism.

It has grown into a beloved annual tradition, and this Saturday, May 5, for the first time, it goes national.

DePaul University’s 10th annual Vincentian Service Day will send nearly 900 volunteers to 35 sites across the city to perform community service tasks, providing more than 3,500 hours of service work to Chicago in one afternoon. DePaul groups will partner with some of the city’s top social service organizations and non-profit institutions at some of the sites, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Jane Addams-Hull House and Howard Brown Health Center.

The day will begin with a welcome ceremony and invocation by the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul president, at 9:30 a.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 W. Webster Ave. in Lincoln Park. Then the teams of volunteers – DePaul students, faculty, staff, alumni and neighbors – will depart for their respective sites to clean, paint, weed, organize and renovate, including the following:

• Burnham Prairie Restoration, 47th and Lake Shore Drive: Volunteers will be working on a gardening and mulching project to beautify the park.

• St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, 9321 S. Western: A group of 50 volunteers will help clean and organize the store. Sales from the store benefit charitable outreach efforts in the community.

• Fullerton Beach, Fullerton Pkwy. and Lake Shore Drive: In partnership with the Alliance for the Great Lakes, volunteers will participate in a beach and lakefront clean-up between Fullerton and North Ave.

For the first time, DePaul alumni groups in New York City and Washington, D.C. also will get into the Vincentian Service Day spirit by volunteering at local food banks in each of those cities. In addition, a team of volunteers from DePaul’s Naperville campus will assist at Sharing Connections, a Downers Grove-based social service agency that distributes gently-used household items and furniture to families in need. All volunteer teams in the Chicago area will return shortly after 3 p.m. for a picnic gathering on the campus quad (along Fullerton Ave., just west of Kenmore Avenue).

The event takes place each spring in honor of 17th century French priest St. Vincent de Paul, the university’s namesake patron who was known as the “Apostle of Charity.” The day is an opportunity for DePaul students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends to build relationships with the community and remain connected to the city.

Additionally, DePaul will have another suburban volunteer group working with the Self Help Closet and Pantry of Des Plaines on May 19.

DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the United States, and the largest private, not-for-profit university in the Midwest. An innovative and diverse university offering pragmatic educational programs that instill values, including a commitment to community service, DePaul has been named as one of the nation’s top “Colleges with a Conscience” by the Princeton Review. Also, DePaul’s service learning program has been named one of the country’s top programs of its kind for the past four years running by U.S. News & World Report.