by Brendan O’Donnell ’15
This year, the school has implemented a policy of restricting meetings on Thursday to the Christian Action Team until 3:30. The policy has resulted in skyrocketing attendance to the meetings and more participation in service programs. But have some programs gained too much influence while others are ignored?
Mr. Patrick Valletta ‘05, Coordinator of Volunteers and Programs at the Arrupe House and member of CAT, says that participation in these programs are imbalanced to a degree. “There is more interest in some programs than others,” he said. “Some programs get more exposure – we always talk about Labre, and about the Pallbearer’s Ministry.”
But this does not mean that this imbalance of membership is bad. “For Pallbearers, we do 4 or 5 funerals a week, so we are going to need a lot of guys to participate, while for something like the St. Monica Monday Night Meal that only happens once a month, we only need a few guys,” he said.
This separation is also attributed to the interest in the programs. “For Robotics, a service program based on science, we would like guys who are interested in legos or in science, versus Friends with L’Arche where somebody can relate more to a disabled person in their life. Also, we want to allow people to fit service programs in their schedule.”
Ultimately, the distinctions in attendance don’t matter much. “I wouldn’t say any program is more important than another. However, I also wouldn’t say that one is more popular than another, just that the amount of volunteers needed is different for each program, and we meet that quota in just about all of our programs, so I don’t think it is bad at all.”
