A local newspaper, the Rockland County Times, named Dominican College students who volunteer with Meals on Wheels, the “Volunteers of the Week” in their December 6, 2018 edition.  Every Friday, the students deliver meals to the elderly and homebound along a designated route.

In the Rockland County Times article, Meals on Wheels Volunteer Coordinator Dianna Diffley said that Dominican College students have great enthusiasm. “Some have returned after graduation and taken their own route.  Connecting the aging population to the youth has proven to be wonderful,“ she said.

Melissa Leigh Grau, Dominican College Director of Community Engagement and Leadership Development, was also quoted in the article. “The human connection is a language of love when we help each other.  Students volunteers get a chance to say hello to an elderly homebound person, who may not be able to leave home or have a visit from someone else that day,” she said.

Dominican College students have been delivering nutritious meals for Meals on Wheels for the past five years.

For more than 10 years, a group of Dominican College students have passed up on the traditional Spring Break and instead volunteered to work with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for families in need of decent, affordable housing.

This year, 31 students and four administrators traveled to the Florida communities of Flagler Beach and Bunnell to participate in the week-long Alternative Spring Break Program.  Melissa Leigh Grau, Director of Community Engagement and Leadership Development,  said the group worked on four different homes – all in different stages of construction.

“The houses they are building are going to members in the community who are trying to break out of the cycle of poverty, “ Grau said.  “We actually get to meet the people who will be living in the houses we are working on.”  That’s because the homeowners are required to put in “sweat equity” by working alongside others on the home.  In addition, they must pay a zero percent mortgage on the property.

Grau said freshman through seniors participate in the trip, and many have returned year after year.  The students traveled by train this year, leaving for Florida on Saturday, February 24 and returning Sunday, March 4.

A team of students and administrators traveled to El Salvador in January to volunteer at a day camp in the rural village of Sol Naciente.  The camp in Sol Naciente was founded by a Dominican Sister, Sr. Flor Buruca, O.P., of Amityville, NY, a native of El Salvador.  One of the four students on the trip was senior Adriannie Asencio, who is President of the Student Government Association.  Adriannie volunteered with the group of children who were between two and six years old.  “Saying goodbye to the kids was very hard, but it made me aware of how important keeping in touch is, “ she said.  “It made me sad to see that the children were also crying before we left.”

Thanks to two College administrators, plans are also underway to build a new well that will bring clean drinking water to three communities in El Salvador. Vice President of Institutional Advancement Dorothy Filoramo is the past president of the Pearl River Rotary. While the students were working in the day camp, she and Director of Residence Life  Ryan O’Gorman met with community leaders to cement plans to build a new, deeper well. 

Filoramo said it was during last year’s service mission that they discovered the communities needed more than the water filtration systems they handed out to residents. “The well is running dry. It services three communities and each gets water every third day, even though it’s dirty water.  So what we discovered was they needed a new well,” she said.  The Pearl River Rotary has raised $25,000 and plans to get a matching global grant from Rotary International to fund the project.  The new well is expected to be completed in the next two years. 

The annual Founders Week activities at Dominican College had special significance this year because the Dominican Order is celebrating the 800-year anniversary of the founding of the Order. In honor of the Jubilee, several renowned and accomplished Dominican Sisters spoke at the College.  Throughout the week, the focus was on the Dominican pillars of study, community, spirituality, and service.  

Founder’s Week kicked off on Monday, September 19, with a keynote presentation from Sr. Kathleen McManus, O.P., Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Portland. Sr. Kathleen reviewed important Dominicans throughout the 800-year history of the Order and focused on St. Catherine of Siena’s famous quote, “If you are who you are meant to be, who will set the world on fire.”  She reached out to students and brought the age-old history of the Order of Preachers into the present by asking, “How do know who you are meant to be?”

Sr. Kathleen encouraged the students to be touched by the needs and suffering of our world, to study, and to contemplate to find the answer to that question. She concluded her speech by telling the students, “When – not if, but when – you are who you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire because you are all about the Dominican difference. “   

Throughout the day on Monday, the Sisters of the Blauvelt congregation, as “Itinerant Preachers,” visited classes to explain the mission of the Dominican Order. The Sisters also spoke with students and faculty about the meaning and significance of the Jubilee celebration.

Monday evening, Sr. Barbara Reid, O.P., V.P. and Academic Dean of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, addressed a crowd of Dominican Sisters, Board members, administrators, faculty, and staff about Seeking Truth in a Year of Mercy. She talked about seeking the truth about God, seeking the truth about ourselves, and seeking the truth about others.  “If the truth about God is that God is mercy and seeks to be with us, then it is incumbent on us who are made in God’s image to be the bridge to God’s mercy and to one another,” she said. Sr. Barbara added that while it may be easy to be a bridge of mercy to our beloved family and friends, a greater challenge is building bridges of mercy to our enemies and accepting mercy from them as well. 

The Living the Legacy speech, delivered each year by a Dominican College graduate, was given on Tuesday, September 20, by Sr. Mary Doris, O.P., ’63, the Foundress and Director of Siena House in the Bronx, which provides shelter to pregnant women and women with children under the age of three.  Sr. Mary urged the students to get involved.   “Whatever way – whatever small or big way – you can reach out in your neighborhood or wherever you live, there are people who need your help.  So whatever decision you are making in your life choices, please think about making a difference in the lives of children,” she said. 

Two students, Brianna Torres, ’18, , and Christine Ditzel, ‘19, spoke to fellow students on Wednesday, September 21, about their trip to Fanjeaux, France,  in June  to walk in the footsteps of St. Dominic with students and staff from Dominican colleges across the United States.  Each year, two students are chosen to go on the trip, which is partially paid for by the College.  Brianna said this Founders Week was more meaningful to her because of what she learned.  “Now I fully understand how the Dominican Order began, the work that was put into it, and the spirit of St. Dominic,” she said. 

The Dominican College community and the Dominican Sisters gathered on Thursday, September 22 in the Convent Chapel for a Dominican Jubilee Liturgy. Father Kenneth Letoile, O.P. said in his sermon that he was educated by the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt and credited the Sisters with his decision to become a priest.  He then asked all the Sisters to stand and thanked them for helping us be who we are meant to be.  The sisters were thanked by everyone in attendance with a hearty round of applause. 

Dominican College students practiced what they had learned during the week with Preaching in Action activities on Friday, September 23. More than 30 students traveled to Goshen, NY, to volunteer at the House on the Hill and Harmony Farm.  The House on the Hill, which is run by the Sisters of St. Dominic, provides daycare to the children of migrant farm workers.  In addition to helping to care for the children, the students worked with the migrant workers in the farm and did heavy landscaping and clean up on the property to make the grotto usable again. 

Founders Week concluded with the 66^th Annual Dominican Sisters Festival.  Dominican College students volunteered at the Festival, where local residents enjoyed food,  games, and pony rides.