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Service
Since its founding in 1960, faith life at St. Francis DeSales High
School has been the cornerstone on which our community is built.
We are a Catholic school that prides itself by espousing qualities
such as gentleness, strength, and Christian humanism; all of which
were characterized by our patron St. Francis de Sales. Our school
year is filled with opportunities to live our faith daily.These are the
lessons that stay with our graduates as they move through their own
lives. Such is the case for alums Charlie Geer ’05 and Molly Ryan
’06. Charlie and Molly share their story of how they embraced this
spirit during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Charlie and I were safe and sound through the intense wind and
rain of Hurricane Sandy. We live in a neighborhood in Brooklyn
that is inland and on high ground; we were lucky enough to have
power when most of the region was dark, making our apartment
a central hangout for our not-so-lucky Manhattanite friends.The
coastal areas of Brooklyn, Long Island, New Jersey, and Lower
Manhattan are another story. Both Charlie and I rode our bikes to
work the week following the Hurricane and the city was an eerie
site: shops boarded up, streets that weren't congested (cars were
restricted to only being able to enter the city with 3+ passengers),
all electricity (including traffic lights) was out in the lower half of
the city, and people huddled into the sporadic shop or restaurant
with generators. It took NewYorkers a few days to take toll of
the damage, but when they did it was incredible. Along with many
other communities, a beach community near us in Queens called
Far Rockaway (about 15 miles from our apartment) has been
completely destroyed. The images were comparable to Katrina.
Charlie and I knew this was where we had to help.
The weekend after the hurricane, when reports were that it was safe
for volunteers to enter, Charlie, two friends, and I rode our bicycles
toThe Rockaways (all public transportation was still down),
which is the barrier island on the south coast of Brooklyn/Queens
along the Atlantic. As we had been warned, the community was
completely destroyed.
We found that the main hub of relief on the island is a Roman
Catholic Parish, Saint Francis De Sales. The parish's school
gymnasium and cafeteria are being repurposed as supply rooms for
donations; residents are directed through the building to take any
supplies they need while volunteers sort donations and replenish
the supply areas. Outside the church there are huge food lines for
neighbors and volunteers, "recharging tents" to charge cell phones
(the power was out), a FEMA tent, a National Guard station, and
a volunteer assignment area to link up volunteers with residents
to help remove debris and gut flooded basements/first floors
of homes. Charlie and I volunteered to deliver meals for two
weekends, and have been keeping up to date on the relief efforts
needs since. Although we wanted to help daily, we both realized
that one of the best things we could do was rally our contacts in the
Midwest to supply lasting support to families in this community. As
immediate-response volunteers fade, the long-term impact of the
hurricane will require continued assistance, so we turned to
the community that raised us, DeSales. Charlie and I decided
to partner with a charity called Family to Family to donate
$500 we raised from family and friends to provideThanksgiving
meals. We also helped DeSales sign up to sponsor a family to
continue to support through the recovery process. In light of
the damage, we figured this was the least we could do.
Moving to the east coast has taught Charlie and I what a special
community we come from. The Midwest, more specifically the
communities we grew up with in Columbus, has a special thing
going on.The everyday generosity of our families and natural
involvement of charity in the DeSales community have affected
the way we live our lives.We were raised to help out, to pitch
in, whether it be in helping with the dishes or collecting food at
the holidays for the needy. The values we learned so naturally
at DeSales (while having a darn good time) make helping out
here in our new community a no brainer. When something
like Hurricane Sandy happened in NewYork, Charlie and I
didn’t even have to ask each other “if ” — we simply started
brainstorming “how” we could help.
“
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6 Volume 9, Issue 1