By Tucker Bass
Several William Peace University students showed up on a Saturday morning to help a community center that provides help for the homeless.
Love Wins Ministries is an organization that helps its visitors by providing food and housing along with helping them find jobs; moreover, they can even help its visitors leave homelessness.
According to www.lovewinsministries.org, they believe that “they are a ministry of presence and pastoral care for the homeless and at-risk population of Raleigh, NC.”
Rev. Laura Foley, director of operations, arrived to show the students around the area and to inform them of their core value, hospitality, that the community center was founded on four years ago. Hugh Hollowell is the founder of Love Wins Ministries and works with four other individuals including herself.
Students were happy to help a place that serves its’ community. The service work that done on September 24 had students complete a range of work from cleaning up the garden that was just outside the building, to stripping the carpet and cleaning the floors of a nursery room that housed several items that young children play with.
In the garden area, students put on gloves and picked up shovels to help fix up the community garden.
“We get a fair amount of families with children and having a safe nursery, full of children’s toys goes a long way in welcoming those families,” said Rev. Foley. “In regards to the garden, and even the nursery too, it might be most helpful to think about our community center as a home.”
Quinton Bullock, a WPU senior, was happy to help pick up the carpet and mop up the floors with other students as they cleaned up the nursery.
“I’m happy that our work helps kids and their parents feel safe in this room,” said Bullock. “With the carpet up and the floor cleaned, we can safely say that this room should be a healthy place to house young children.”
The organization is a unique spin on what many observe from other homeless shelters. They provide their services during the day and through the weekdays rather than the weekends.
“Monday-Thursday from 9am-5pm this is a ‘home’ for much of our community,” explained Rev. Foley. “And so just like a home, it often includes a space for its kids, and a garden to grow food and beautiful things.”
Through this service work, students are taught the value of helping others within their community. This, in turn, helps create a fantastic relationship between neighbors like WPU and Love Wins.
“We currently have two interns from William Peace and are always interested in exploring ways to increase our relationship with the university,” stated Rev. Foley. “Not only are we literal neighbors but we share the common values of community, life-long learning, meaningful living, and ethical citizenship.”
At the end of all the work that the students accomplished, it was a pleasant sight to see college students help out their community on an early Saturday morning.
“We are incredibly grateful to the William Peace faculty and students we have begun relationships with thus far, and are looking forward to making even more connections,” said Rev. Foley.