A reflection on the St. Louis Project

Jack Gavin '21, Contributor

St. Louis project is an organization based in Boston College High School. The organization focuses on amplifying levels of awareness BC High students have regarding homeless people in Boston.

The St. Louis project meets each Thursday. There are no requirements, you can go once a year if they please, but if you do choose to go, yo must go to the cafeteria first to help spread peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

My personal experience involved a few steps that seemed tedious originally, but ended up all proving relevant. Following my trip to the cafeteria, the volunteers and I head to the chapel, pray, and depart from BC High. The St. Louis Project takes students to Downtown Crossing, and they split up and venture across Boston.

The main idea of the St. Louis Project is to help the homeless, and when the volunteers arrive in Boston that step comes in. The volunteers and I walked around Boston and handed out sandwiches and hand warmers to the homeless/very poor. I was very, very humbled. I had never done something like this. Whereas I had been groaning due to being cold and tired minutes earlier, when I kneeled down to talk to a man who slept on a bench, I realized that maybe my complaints weren’t too important. What had seemed tedious no longer appeared so.

The making of the sandwiches now made me happy, because I could give to these poor and suffering people, and the prayer also made me feel like there was a spiritual force guiding these people, and I felt much more at ease. After navigating the city, and talking to various homeless, I headed back to Downtown Crossing and went home.

I was afraid I would forget the experience, and would go back to worrying about irrelevant things, so I made a reminder on my phone; research homeless statistics in Boston tonight. Sure enough, I was soon mindlessly playing video games at night, when the reminder popped up. Instead of going to bed unfulfilled, I went to bed feeling aware, and I thanked God for that day.