Skip to main content

Reading, Weeding, and Ice-Creaming

¡Feliz Lunes desde Arizona! (Happy Monday from Arizona!) 

Today our group embarked on our first day of true service here in Tucson, AZ. After a telling conversation about the one person each of us would choose to have a meal with (anyone dead/alive and real/fictional), the group took a short ride over to the Pio Decimo Center and was welcomed by our friend, John Lohse. Not only is John a member of the Catholic Community Services board, but he’s also an engaged volunteer at the Pio Decimo Center. After arriving, we were oriented on all of the services that the Center offers to the Tucson area by John and Marcia, the executive director of Pio Decimo Center.

The Pio Decimo Center is a branch of the Catholic Community Services (another name for Catholic Charities) of Southern Arizona, which provides services to a portion of the state that is approximately the land size of Pennsylvania. The Center offers numerous programs to aid low-income individuals and families including a food pantry, clothing closet, a five star early childhood education and after school program, financial literacy and social integration courses, income tax assistance, and transitional housing for families and seniors. All of these services are free to the community, aside from a small portion of rent paid by families in the transitional apartments.

After learning about and touring the Pio Decimo Center, which spans two full city blocks, our group began some outdoor landscaping work for the residents living in transitional apartments. With eleven bodies (our ten group members + John), three hours, and some lovely Arizona weather, we sure made a dent in weeding for the four apartments’ yards.

Lunch came and was well-received as our group thoroughly enjoyed some PBJs crafted with love. Our group used lunch to regroup from the morning and refocus on the afternoon, which included reorganizing the Center’s library and spending time with the youth in pre-kindergarten and in the after school program. Each of us made some new friends this afternoon and played at various centers and reading with the four and five year olds in the pre kindergarten school room. Then, our group split to finish the library undertaking and play a rousing game of kickball with the after school program.

The group came home to snack and share laughs to prepare for a lovely dinner of stir fry. We could not forget our nightly ice cream thanks to Dr. T. We are looking forward to tomorrow to learn more about the Casa Alitas mission!

 XOXO,
AZ ABST








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guac and Talk

Hello everyone! Welcome to Day 3 of our Arizona Border ABST trip.  We started off the day with donuts and headed to Casa Alitas, a migrant center in Tucson. We were greeted by Sara who explained to us what Casa Alitas strives to accomplish. Casa Alitas is a center that helps migrants who have recently crossed the US-Mexico border. They provide many important resources including shelter, food, transportation set-up, and can help migrants connect to sponsors if they have lost their original sponsor along the process. We gained insight into some of the political policy behind recent changes in immigration, in addition to the history of Casa Alitas, which essentially started overnight. In fact, the house that we are currently residing in is where the program first started and it has since grown into a huge center that is able to take in up to 180 guests at one time.  After getting some background information and going on a quick tour, we started our volunteer work for the d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Build Bridges Instead of Walls

¡Hola a todos!  Our day started really early since we had to drive to Nogales, AZ once again. Before  we actually hit the road, we had to pass through the Pio Decimo Center to pick up our great alumnus, John Lohse.  After driving for one hour, we arrived at Nogales Border Patrol where we were kindly greeted by three officers, one of which was Border Patrol Agent Sergio Leones Jr. who coordinated our experience. Once we signed in, we had a very thorough presentation about their job description and the responsibilities that come with it. They seize any kind of illegal contraband; monitor areas by using sensors, cameras, and tracking skills; protect wildlife and vegetation; and attend classrooms or meetings to inform the public about their duties and why life as a criminal is not worth it. Most importantly, they care about the safety and well-being of people.  We briefly saw their command center, and afterwards separated into two groups to drive by the border ...
Post a Comment
Read more

20 Hours Later

We departed Gannon on a yellow school bus at 2:25am headed for Pittsburgh International Airport. It was cold, bitter cold in the early morning; however, the smiles of the teams (both AZ Border and Navajo) warmed up our hearts. Our ride south on I-79 was cold inside the bus as many of us had our eyes closed trying to sleep and never falling asleep. We were blessed with a safe trip as our bus driver did a wonderful job. Our flight was in the early morning out of Pittsburgh. As we flew west we were riding away from the eastern sunrise. In time the sun caught up to us and the Midwest was covered in a beautiful blanket of frost. The arrival into Phoenix thawed us out of the cold of Erie. It was sunny, very warm, and beautiful blue skies. We had a 40 minute delay to get off the flight which only enhanced the anticipation of beginning our ABST trip! As we exited the Phoenix airport we waited in line in a busing terminal for a bus to take us to a rental garage for our van. In the term...
Post a Comment
Read more