Mary House has no paid employees and relies completely upon volunteers to keep the house clean, repaired, heated and open. Volunteers include students, youth groups, churches, and individuals. If you’re interested please contact us!
Sorry, nothing found.
Here’s a report of a day volunteering by Corina Colõn of Platteville, WI
Each fall a generous visit from college group of students give up a day of studying or football to cut and stack our winter firewood.
Here is our gift- 26 Students and three faculty members from UW Platteville and Edgewood College traveled to the Mary House today to give our time and best efforts to prepare the house for winter. We are working on little projects like stuffing envelopes and raking leaves. Our main goal today though is to chop, organize and stack wood to burn throughout the cold season. The work is tedious and strenuous at times but well worth every bit of exhaustion.
What we are doing here is assisting in the upkeep o a temporary home that is important to families who with to see the people they love and miss. The Mary House is what makes that possible and the students and faculty of UW Platteville and Edgewood College are willing to do all we can to help. Mary Strennon from Platteville says, “I wanted to find a way to reach out to someone and help a person who needs me. Coming to the Mary House was a perfect way to do that.” As she hands me an armful of logs. The mood of all the volunteers here today is remarkable. While the work is tough everyone is able to maintain a genuine smile and share encouragement.
This morning consisted of organization. We split into groups to work on mailing newsletters, rake leaves, clean up some recent storm damage, and get organized for the big wood project of the afternoon. We met for a lunch break of Lasagna, prepared for us by Elaine and Gary. This couple has brought this delicious meal now for over 10 years and we cannot thank them enough!!
The afternoon then was spent transporting the piles of wood and staking logs. We all worked together to create assembly lines to get the wood where it needed to be to be stacked. We stood in a line – all 26 of us stretching from the woodpile, across the grass and down the stairs into the basement. We accomplished quite a bit in just this one day but our work doesn’t come close to the hours that many volunteers have put into this house for about 20 years now.
UW Platteville and Edgewood College’s part in this project has given to us a wonderful feeling of purpose. The opportunity to be here at the Mary House has shown us why God has placed us here so carefully. We are here to work as a community to help people who need us. We are very excited to be here at Mary House to help keep this house running for all who need it.