Sinsinawa
Spectrum
A Congregation News Magazine
DVUSA: Greetings and Good-Byes
Dominican Volunteers USA 2008–2009 held their closing session at Sinsinawa Mound in June. They gathered with Sr. Marcella Connolly (center) to celebrate her 60 years of service and their one year of service. Marcella is the founder of Sinsinawa’s Apostolic Volunteer program, which has now merged to form DVUSA.
by Elizabeth Dunn
Dominican Volunteers USA (DVUSA) is a full-time, faith-based lay mission volunteer program of the Dominican Family serving those in need in the United States. Our volunteers serve in health care, education, social service agencies, community organizing, organic farming, peace and justice, and church ministry. Volunteers live in community with Dominican Sisters or Friars. The DVUSA program was formed in 2001 and sponsored as a collaborative project of 18 Dominican congregations and two Dominican provinces. It also formally merged into this new entity from two existing lay mission programs of specific Dominican congregations: the Apostolic Volunteer program at Sinsinawa established in 1973, and the Southern Volunteers, a program of some Dominican communities in the South.
This year, DVUSA Executive Director Tony Butler and Assistant Director Stefanie Flax placed 14 volunteers for the year 2009–2010. Below is a listing of the volunteers, where they will minister, and the Dominican congregation with which they will be living.
- Sarah Deak, Opening Word, Amityville
- Kira Maffett, Amityville Infirmary, Amityville
- Jen Hughes, Torch Preschool, Blauvelt
- Daniel Burke, ICS, Sinsinawa (Penn Community)
- Amy Heiser, ICS, Sinsinawa (Penn Community)
- Joe Loeffler, Horizons for Youth, Sinsinawa (Lawndale)
- Bridgette Powers, St. Pius V, Sinsinawa (Lawndale)
- Trent Noffsinger, Little Brothers, Sinsinawa (Lawndale)
- Emily Bell, St. Leonard, Springfield
- Katie Friedline, St. Leonard, Springfield
- Kristen Dempsey, Casa de Esperanza, Houston
- Becca McIntosh, Holy Family Birth Center, Houston
- Liz Collette, Immaculate Conception, Mission San Jose
- Rachel Debruin, Immaculate Conception, Mission San Jose
The DVUSA program strives to ensure that the placements reflect the diversity of community and ministry life within the entire Dominican Family. Hence, the way the program is lived out in a particular place will differ, depending mainly on what the particular local community best shares, remembering that the sharing of the Dominican charism is at the heart of the DVUSA program.
Thank you for keeping the DVUSA program in your prayers. Thank you to our Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa who are able to welcome volunteers with openness and generosity in 2009–2010!