This summer, Corvilla welcomed several volunteer groups who decided to give back to their community. Each summer, Corvilla welcomes groups who want to lend a helping hand from yard work to building relationships with our clients. Head of maintenance, Mark Roberts, was happy to arrange all of the supplies needed for each service project and our Connections program was often a place for our volunteers to hang out and get to know our clients. Our groups ranged in ages from 9 years old to 73! There is always a since of community and fun that goes into each project.
In June we welcomed a group of teens from St. Joesph High school who came out to our Roelke group home and helped level and seed part of the backyard. They cleaned the shed and mulch was added to the front yard landscape.
Later that same week, we had middle school and high school student volunteers from Summer of Service (S.O.S.) through Trinity church here in South Bend. This young group of teens helped with adding mulch to the front of the Main office at Corvilla and raked leaves, stained our observatory deck, and pulled weeds.
In July, Corvilla was happy to have the Notre Dame Family Camp 2019 return to give back. We look forward to having them each summer, one day a week for three weeks in a row. They bring so much energy and fun to volunteering and they are excited to get started on the days work. Our projects this year brought the families to our group homes. Group one spent the morning at Fellows group home power washing the siding to give the house a fresh clean look. Group two spent the day at Myrtle group home sanding kitchen cabinets. They made an assembly line to help the process run smoothly and they were able to get all of the cabinet bases and doors fronts prepped and ready for new stain. Group three power washed the Bulla house to get it ready for a new coat of paint.
Press Ganey included Corvilla into it's 2019 Press Ganey Service Day. We had nine volunteers come to our Bulla house group home and paint the siding on the homes addition that was earlier prepped by our third Notre Dame Family group. It was a hot day but they worked extra hard to added a fresh new coat of paint to the back extension of the house and a section of the front of the house as well.
Several of the groups also had the opportunity to socialize with our clients. All of the Notre Dame families joined our Connections clients in an ice cream social and played bingo. This is by far their favorite part of the day. They get to meet the people that they are serving directly and get to know them by name.
Volunteers are an important part of what we do here at Corvilla. We appreciate individuals and organizations that include us in their summer service projects. Of course we are grateful any time of the year for people who would like to volunteer. There is always a need and room for improvement so that our clients can experience full lives.