Bennies give back to the community by volunteering

by Frank Lee

operations@thenewsleaders.com

Students from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph made history by volunteering to help out the city of St. Joseph with a day of community service.

The College of St. Benedict Senate Community Committee planned the inaugural “Bennie Day of Service,” which took place April 3 and included 128 young women, dubbed “Bennies.”

“We’re trying to give back to the community that’s given so much to us,” said Committee Vice President Bethany Purkapile, a senior majoring in political science and psychology.

Bennies volunteered at the Church of St. Joseph, for example, during the day of service by asking for donations during a phone-a-thon – just one of the sites where the women volunteered.

“It’s the first time that St. Ben’s Senate has put on any large volunteer project or program where all Bennies could participate if they wanted to,” said Purkapile, who hails from Portland, Ore.

The St. Ben’s Senate “is the voice of the students of the College of St. Benedict,” according to the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University’s website.

“We also worked with the Knights of Columbus to hand out breakfast,” she said of the other places the women volunteered. “And they cleaned up the playground at All Saints Academy.”

Other Bennies re-stained the wooden garbage enclosure at city hall to protect it from the elements, and they collected trash along CR 75 and at Millstream Park in St. Joseph.

“We also had one group at the senior center (St. Joseph Senior Living Apartments) doing some yardwork,” Purkapile said. “But they also spent some time with the seniors, there, playing games and just kind of hanging out.”

The volunteers wore T-shirts that read: “Change the World, One Bennie at a Time!”

“It was so inspiring to see 128 young women get up early on a Sunday morning and go out and also be so willing and so happy to participate in a community that we really do cherish,” Purkapile said.

And because of the large turnout of Bennies who volunteered in the inaugural event, Purkapile said there are talks of making the Day of Service an annual event.

“We had so many Bennies sign up and be willing to go out on a Sunday morning and afternoon to provide for their community,” Purkapile said. “But everyone was super willing to work with us to come up with projects.”

Margy Hughes learned about the Bennie Day of Service through Facebook. The St. Joseph resident took time to praise the young women at the April 4 city-council meeting.

“It’s really a great thing they did,” Hughes said. “I think they deserve a lot of credit.”

“Because we are part of the college, people get the impression we are these crazy party kids and are kind of outside the St. Joseph community, so we really wanted to give back, and we were afraid maybe there weren’t projects available for us to help with,” said Purkapile.