Katie Baron was a MercyWorks volunteer from 2007-2008. Three years after Katie’s volunteer year, her mother took some time to reflect on the impact that MercyWorks and Mercy Home had on the entire Baron family.
When my daughter Katie called in late October, 2006 to tell me that she had decided to do a year of service after graduating from college, I have to admit that I wasn’t thrilled. She had gone to a Service Fair at Notre Dame that night, where she met Liz Mulligan, who told her about the Mercy Works Volunteer Program at the Mercy Home for Boys & Girls in Chicago. Katie felt a real connection to Liz and to the possibilities that a volunteer year at Mercy Home offered. My initial response on the phone that night went something like, “You’re just postponing the inevitable.”
The next Sunday morning, though, I was watching the Chris Matthews Show, and Matthews talked about his volunteer year after college. He felt that the year had changed his life forever. I listened closely and decided that I needed to know more about Mercy Home. Not being a Chicago native, I had never heard of Mercy Home, but it seemed like everyone I talked to not only knew of it but loved it and its mission.
In August, 2006, Katie began her volunteer year, working in the Education Department with Tom Scuglik as her boss and mentor. She coordinated the tutoring program and managed a caseload of youth from Cooke Home.
While she was learning valuable professional skills, Katie was also making life-long friends with her thirteen MercyWorks roommates, all of whom lived in an apartment in the Mercy Home. They lived together, worked together, and socialized together. It was a real community. Our family got to be a part of this community, attending quarterly liturgies and spending Thanksgiving at Mercy Home with many of the other volunteers’ families.
At the end of her volunteer year, Katie decided that she wanted a career in social work, and Mercy Home hired her to be a Youth Care Worker in Cooke Home. She worked with 14-16 year-old boys, work that was not without its challenges. But Katie rose to the occasion, as she learned to trust her instincts. She loved the work and she loved the boys!
Katie is now a graduate student at the University of Chicago, getting a Master’s degree in Social Services Administration. She thinks that she would like to work with teenagers in a school setting, and she’ll be well-prepared with her work experience at Mercy Home. And I have come to change my attitude about the volunteer year. Katie’s volunteer year with MercyWorks was a gift to our entire family. We have come to embrace the mission of Mercy Home and feel like we are a part of the Mercy Home family.
