Community Service at Catholic Charities in Chicago

¶ … Community Service at Catholic Charities in Chicago consider my involvement in social work, a community service at Catholic Charities in Chicago, an important and significant part of my life. As a youth, I've always wanted to be of service to those who are in need. This became one of my aspirations in life since the time I witnessed in my grandmother how helping makes her feel happy and complete. To me, she is a proof of how kindness to others, through charity, earns love as incomparable wealth and richness to one's living.

My grandmother was a program director for specialized and traditional foster care in Chicago. The charity institution she works at helps orphans who are not so lucky enough to be supported by their families. It was through my grandmother that I was able to get involved in charity works, and I find this as a fulfillment of one of my purposes here on earth. My desire to be a part of the social service came true because of my grandmother.

Participating in the community service at Catholic Charities in Chicago is significant to me because it made me learn valuable things in life -- values that are perhaps invisible to others, as they used to be in me. Unless we get the chance to interact with our less fortunate brothers and sisters, we may be strangers to the values of unconditional sharing, giving, and love. In the charity works that I participate in, I was able to realize how lucky I am and how God loves me so much. Compared to those children that we help in the foster care and in our weekly community services, I realized how I was blessed with so many things - blessings that I did not see before when I live my life selfishly, centering only my needs and myself alone, and caring for no one but myself.

There are so many reasons why being in a community service and charity work is important to me. Aside from the happiness and fulfillment that helping others brings in my heart, I am also able to gain brothers, sisters, and friends in the community service and charity works. Basically, my participation in these activities allows me to gain not just friends but families as well. How the children that we help treats us so nicely as elder brothers and sisters makes me feel that we all belong to one same family. The help that we provide the children are returned back to us with something that I can describe as more precious and without equal - these are the happiness and smiles in their face, and the unconditional love that they share to us.

I have already participated in quite a number of activities in our community, such as in sports, educational, and environment preservation activities. Among these, I would certainly say that nothing compares to the fulfillment I get to feel in my participation with community service and charity works.

The other activities bring me fulfillment in terms of being a member of our community. The social works, on the other hand, brings me both community and personal fulfillments. Being of help to others, especially those who are in need, gives me indescribable feelings of happiness and fulfillment in my heart.