Helping hands of experience
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
Experience counts.
Consider the Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC) a Jesuit ministry of the retired
or semi-retired, who are willing to help others and at the same time deepen
their own spiritual lives.
George Davis of St. Justin Martyr Parish in Narberth is retired from the
Lincoln Financial Group. This year, he is working with patients at the
St. Catherine Labouré free clinic in Germantown, helping them obtain
free medications from pharmaceutical companies.
“Once I found out about this I was anxious to get started,”
he said. “It’s terrific to help people who are seriously ill.”
The IVC was founded in1995 by Jesuit Father James R. Conroy and has grown
from 21 volunteers to this year’s 300 volunteers, who are working
across the country. There are 24 in the Philadelphia region, according
to Eileen Conroy, Philadelphia’s IVC regional director.
The program continues to grow as more people learn about it. Locally,
the volunteers range in age from the early 50s to late 80s, and they work
about 16 hours a week.
Peter Matthews of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Chester Heights is
in his second year with the program. Formerly with the IRS, he now teaches
literacy skills for the Delaware County Literacy Council.
“This connects me to the larger community, and helps people who
need help,” Matthews said at an IVC volunteers meeting at St. Joseph’s
University on April 15.
Jim Jones, a member of Epiphany of Our Lord Parish in Plymouth Meeting,
heard about the IVC from a neighbor. A semi-retired financial planner,
Jones volunteers at the Catholic Social Services office in Norristown,
helping poor families organize their bills. He also helps the needy to
obtain aid for their heating bills or a reduced rate for their electric
bills.
“My profession works well with what I do,” he said.
Diane Moskal of Immaculate Conception Parish in Jenkintown, whose career
was in law with the federal government, is in her first year with the
IVC.
She is working with Catholic Social Services in Northeast Philadelphia.
One of her recent tasks has been helping mostly elderly people, or children
of the elderly, file for Economic Assistance Package rebates.
“I found this program though a friend of my mom who is a volunteer,”
Moskal said.
The program has a spiritual component as well as a philanthropic one.
Volunteers participate in two one-day retreats and an overnight retreat
each year.
Michelle Geraghty of St. Colman Parish in Ardmore joined the IVC because
she likes the spiritual aspect of the program — and also because
it is more structured than most volunteer opportunities.
A former pre-school teacher and homemaker, last year Geraghty served as
a pre-kindergarten aide at Our Mother of Sorrows School in West Philadelphia.
“I liked working with the little ones,” she said. This year,
because much of her time is taken in assisting her aging parents, she
needs more flexible hours, so she works as a volunteer in the IVC office.
For further information on IVC Volunteers see www.ivcusa.org or call 215-923-1733
ext. 102
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.