2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteers: Claire Downs

2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteer, Claire Downs

Meet Claire Downs! She’s one of the 2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteers.

Claire graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Claire has a degree in biology and a double minor in public health and psychology. She will be serving at KC CARE Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Her main duties at KC CARE will be serving as a community health worker. As a community health worker she will help address the needs of KC CARE’s patients that impact their overall health. Claire will be the first of our volunteers to work as a community health worker. In the past our volunteers have served as medical assistants. This will give our volunteers an opportunity to walk more closely, and learn from, the people KC CARE serves.

Why do you want to volunteer?

“I want to volunteer to put the faith that I have been working to grow into action and serve others. I want every person that I meet to know that they are loved and that they are worthy. My goal is to live my life from a place of empathy and compassion, a life that comes from giving of myself to the Lord and living out the mission of Precious Blood!”

Why do you want to volunteer with Precious Blood Volunteers?

“I love the way that Precious Blood works with programs that are already in place to serve those in need, bringing the mission of relationship and reconciliation into the heart of these organizations. It allows me to use my gifts in a new form of service for the Lord!”

What are you looking forward to about your volunteer experience?

“I am excited to build community with others who are trying to live out Christ’s love. I am also excited to encounter the Lord through everyone that I meet and to have conversations with the people I’m serving!”

Learn more about Precious Blood Volunteers at preciousbloodvolunteers.org.

Introducing the 2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteers!

2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteer, Abigail Standish

2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteer, Claire Downs

2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteer, Clare Brown

2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteer, Anna Nowalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re excited to announce the 2023-2024 Precious Blood Volunteers!

We have four wonderful young women who will be starting in late July. These four will join us for Orientation which starts on July 30, 2023 and ends on August 5, 2023. Two of them will be living in community at Jerusalem Farm in Kansas City, Missouri. The other two will be living in community with the Dayton Precious Blood sisters in Chicago.

Our two volunteers in Kansas City will be working at two different placements. Abigail Standish will be serving as coordinator of Bishop Sullivan Center’s “Order Ahead” program. Claire Downs will be serving as a community health worker at KC CARE Health Center. Abigail is from the Houston area, and Claire is a fellow Texan from the Dallas area. Abigail is our first volunteer from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. Claire is our second volunteer from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Clare Brown and Anna Nowalk will be serving in Chicago at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR). Clare is from the Chicago area, and Anna is from Virginia. Anna is our first volunteer who matriculated from Fordham University. Clare is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

Over the next several days we will be introducing them here on our website and on our social media feeds. Keep a look out for them!

Please keep our volunteers in your prayers as they begin their service. If you’d like to send them a note of support please send us an email at volunteers@preciousbloodkc.org.

Learn more about Precious Blood Volunteers at preciousbloodvolunteers.org.

Accompaniment

by Vincent Tedford, Precious Blood Volunteer

Last year, I was meditating on Christ’s Passion. Christ’s sacrifice and suffering were a focal point for all my emotions surrounding the injustices I witnessed in the world around me. Nothing else evoked the same emotion for me. However, when I became a Precious Blood Volunteer, I witnessed human suffering on a scale like never before. 

In August of last year, I moved to Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood to begin volunteering at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR). Within a few hours of landing, I met and heard the stories of those wrongfully convicted and/or formerly incarcerated, the victims of gun violence, the medically underserved, and generally marginalized people with whom I would be spending my year as a Precious Blood Volunteer. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but even on day one I was surprised at the reality our PBMR community was facing. 

Death and loss are in constant competition against the backdrop of hope we try to maintain at PBMR. In the forefront were the daily struggles. I went to the woodshop and worked with guys trying to make enough to get by while learning what it takes to maintain a job; showing up and staying on task often prove to be a struggle for our participants. Early on I was enlightened by the question, “How can you meet basic expectations when your basic needs are lacking?” 

“I don’t have a bed. My family is taking in people all the time and I gave mine up for my brother. He’s in high school, playing sports, so I want him to have the best shot at success.” One of our participants shared this with me while talking about his own journey to a career as an athlete. This young man is willing to make sacrifices, despite the drain on his own potential, for someone else to get a leg up he never had. Something as simple as a good night’s sleep should never be taken for granted.

Vincent (front right) with his fellow Precious Blood Volunteers in Chicago

For some, the threat of violence keeps them up at night; most are experiencing perpetual trauma which would make anyone restless. Just trying to get by, living each day on high alert, and/or self-medicating are enough cause for them to fall behind. Every day at PBMR I have seen elements of this cycle in people’s lives. 

I am reflecting on my life before August and how the time since then has impacted and will continue to impact me going forward. Before graduating last May, I had no image more viscerally compelling to meditate on than the Passion. Now, while I walk the streets of Back of the Yards on my way to PBMR, I feel an intense emotion being evoked.

As I take the bus to my meetings and appointments, or towards my leisure activities and outings, the reality of human suffering is present and inescapable. I realize now my life was sheltered from this pain; my vision—even though imagining the Passion was important—was limited to this far-off concept of despair. Having been drawn near to my heart through my experience, the people of the PBMR community have shown me how I must go forth in spirit to my future.

When I go to the EdLab, our room for tutoring those trying to go back and get their high school diploma, I prepare myself to encounter the students wherever their minds are. Some days I know there is nothing I can do to help someone in or out of the classroom. On others, I feel the slightest gift makes a big difference. The common factor, though, is showing up and accompanying.

When I was told that the core of this program was to walk with those who suffer, I merely drew upon my experience sitting with people in pain. Now, even though I do often sit next to students to tutor, being seated speaks nothing to the difficulty of the walk we take. The walk they must take every day and to which I merely opt-in. 

One student tested my proverbial ability to walk. I often hear incoherent stories of their life and I witness their unstable condition, both physically and mentally. They often challenge my ability to respond with compassion. Accompaniment, I learned, can mean frequent stopping for breaks and reminding someone to take a breather while you keep watch for them. 

One day in the EdLab, I was grading papers and supervising students while they studied. A student was talking to themselves and getting louder. I asked if they were okay which they promptly brushed off. Thankfully, one of the religious sisters had reflected on these situations for years and helped me respond. “Hey, you’re doing some great work today. I can tell you have a lot on your mind, so how about we take a break and get some water? Let me know if you want to talk, okay?”

I learned through moments like this: the little bit of discomfort I would have during an interaction with someone during bouts of schizophrenia could be pivotal to their educational progress and more importantly, demonstrate compassionately how they are a part of our community not to be neglected. 

Vincent checking the quality of a piece in the PBMR wood shop

I want to keep sharing my skills with my community. Someone once said, if you want to change the world, go home and love your family. From there, serve your community, and keep carrying that out across the global community we all share. For now, my roommates and I take care of our home together and share our experiences at PBMR while supporting, reaffirming, and imparting wisdom to each other. I’m grateful to Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who support me during this year of service, the people looking out for me and my fellow volunteers, and the PBMR community, who appreciate the gifts and talents I bring. 

The liberty of our communities at large is bound to the liberty of each community. Wherever I go, no matter what I do, I now know my liberty is bound to my neighbors and we can work together. Marginalized, far-off, and/or rejected, you carry within you the same Precious Blood we all share.

Vincent is serving as a Precious Blood Volunteer at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, Illinois. Go to preciousbloodvolunteers.org to learn more about Precious Blood Volunteers.

The 2021-2022 Precious Blood Volunteers

We are excited to introduce the three new Precious Blood Volunteers! Over the next few days you’ll get to meet Aaron, Raechel, and Vincent at preciousbloodvolunteers.org.

2021-2022 Precious Blood Volunteer, Raechel Kiesel

2021-2022 Precious Blood Volunteer, Vincent Tedford

Raechel Kiesel and Vincent Tedford will be serving at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, Illinois. Raechel continues a tradition of University of Notre Dame alumni who have served with us. She comes from Indiana. Vincent graduated from Texas A&M University. He is the first graduate of Texas A&M to serve as a Precious Blood Volunteer, and our third volunteer from Texas.

2021-2022 Precious Blood Volunteer, Aaron Wise

Aaron Wise will be serving at KC CARE Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Aaron is our first volunteer from Case Western Reserve University. He continues in a long line of volunteers from the great state of Ohio.

Three volunteers from our previous batch lived in intentional Catholic communities in Chicago and Kansas City. This worked out well providing them places to share common life with people their own age. We are continuing with this for the 2021-2022 volunteer year. Raechel and Vincent will be living at Hope House, which is part of Port Ministries, in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago. Aaron will be living in community at Jerusalem Farm in Kansas City, deepening the long-term relationship the Kansas City Province has had with Jerusalem Farm.

They will begin their service next week during Orientation. Orientation begins on Monday, July 26 at Precious Blood Renewal Center in Liberty, Missouri. Please keep our new volunteers in your prayers.

To learn more about how you can grow in your faith by walking with others go to preciousbloodvolunteers.org