Category Archives: Volunteer
Touching Heaven At ALIVE 2011
Join us for Pittsburgh’s largest celebration for the homeless on Saturday, November 19th in Allegheny Commons Park!
2011 Carwash Results
On Saturday, September 10th, the ministry held it’s annual carwash fundraiser. As you know, or goal was to garner $50 per car in donations, and we actually ended up around $67 per car! Thank you goes out to our volunteers who came out and enabled us to wash an amazing 178 cars! Thank you also goes out to all who made sponsorships and those who had their cars washed.
If you made a financial commitment towards the carwash, you can send your donation in to the following address:
L.I.V..I.N.G. Ministry
2536 Maple Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15214
(please write carwash in the memo)
Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities
The following one-time events are open to everyone! Take a look at what we have coming up, if you would like to serve alongside of us please contact Jenna Burdette at volunteer AT livingministry DOT org.
Also be sure to take a look at our ongoing volunteer opportunities for information about repeating programs!
Fall Volunteer Recap
Fall is a busy time at L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry, have no doubts about that. The past three months saw three major mailings, a work day, the clothing sorting, ALIVE, and a job fair! With all this on top of our regular volunteer events like labor halls and shelter visits it’s hard to imagine what it means to sit still. Thank you to all of our volunteers who made the last three months not only possible – but a real success!
Mailings
In October we sent out a newsletter, and in December we sent out our year end appeal and 500 post cards. It might not take much skill to fold, stuff, label, and sort around 2,000 pieces of mail but it sure does take a lot of patience and a servant’s heart! Without the help of our very dedicated volunteers we simply wouldn’t be able to send all of this mail out, we want to send you a very big thank you!
October Workday
After an embarrassing miscommunication with our volunteers, a group of young men and women looking forward to building a porch were put to work cleaning and organizing the basement and finishing a mailing. While I do feel bad about promising the wrong project, I do not feel nothing but great about the quality of work these guys did in our October workday! The newsletter got finished and sent out and the basement is easier to navigate than ever before. Everything has a place thanks to the new shelving these guys put in! Thank you so much for your hard work!
ALIVE Clothing Sorting
As generous donations of clothing poured in for ALIVE we knew we would have to buckle down and sort like champions to get ready for the big day. And sort like champions we did! With the help of 35 volunteers we were able to sort out the non-winter items, organize the winter appropriate clothing, and bag up every item for ALIVE in just 4 hours! Thank you to the Pittsburgh Project for letting us use your space; just as big a thank you to the volunteers who came to work, you were outstanding!
ALIVE 2010
Pittsburgh’s largest clothing give away, ALIVE, went on for the 8th year this November! With more volunteers than any year before we were able to open a second men’s clothing station to give clothing out to all of the 250 homeless who attended before lunch even began. Volunteers were at work in every aspect of ALIVE from cooking and serving lunch to playing games and praying for the homeless and more. ALIVE 2010 was a great success, thank you to each and every volunteer who came out to serve with us!
DecemberJob Fair
Even with the first real snow of the season the morning of our job fair, volunteers faithfully turned out to help teach classes, type resumes, and serve lunch to the men and women looking for work. The staff and participants alike were blessed by your willingness to give up your morning and help however you could!
L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry’s Jefferson Award Winner
About two months ago Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sent a flyer to the office addressed to the volunteer coordinator. The paper was accepting nominations for the Jefferson Award: an award given to volunteers that display heroism in their service. Past national winners of the Jefferson award include Colin Powell, Sandra Day O’Connor, Oprah Winfrey, Peyton Manning, Jimmy Carter and many other household names.
After a short discussion it became clear that we had a Jefferson Award quality volunteer in our midst: Weiting Zhang. Weiting is a former intern of the Ministry who helped with grant research before getting involved in shelter outreach and helping at our job fair in August. For me, nominating Weiting was a function of her unbelievably selfless dedication to LI.V.I.N.G. Ministry. But after I asked Weiting for some information I needed to fill out the application that I realized what a hero of service she really is.
In August 2006, Weiting’s husband moved to the United States to pursue higher education but because Weiting was pregnant she could not travel with him. She stayed in China during her pregnancy, and in June 2007, when her daughter was just ten months old she moved to Pittsburgh to be reunited with her husband. During the course of her Master’s program at Carnegie Mellon University, Weiting became involved in LIVING Ministry through our very own Jen Hong, and the rest is history!
Today I heard my phone ring and saw the call was from Weiting. After catching up a bit, Weiting told me that she had received a letter from the Post-Gazette. She was chosen as a winner of the Jefferson Award! While I was excited to hear the news, I was far from surprised. She truly is a hero in my eyes: A full-time student and mother, Weiting dedicated 17 hours each week to L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry during her internship. With her help we are able to reach more homeless women than ever before, and find brand new financial resources. Weiting’s involvement has enabled us to extend our impact on Pittsburgh’s homeless and we couldn’t be more grateful. When I asked Weiting what her favorite thing about volunteering with LIVING Ministry is she responded:
Volunteering in L.I.V.I.N.G. really helps me to see another world in the United States. I would consider the U.S. as a country with few poor people before I came here. The homeless people, especially the homeless women, struck me when I visited Miryam’s the first time. At the beginning, I felt pity for them. But one of the ladies didn’t make me feel pity for her. She is strong and loyal to God’s words. Instead, she encouraged me and pushed me to know more about God. It is a really nice experience to grow in Christianity.
Her response reminds me that Christ calls us to service and to greatness, the exact qualities the Jefferson Award seeks to recognize.
Congratulations to Weiting Zhang, dedicated servant of Christ and newest Pittsburgh Region Jefferson Award recipient. We at L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry could not be more proud of you!
Click the picture above to read the article in the Post Gazette about Weiting’s story
Something About September
September was a busy month here at the L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry! We held our annual car wash, held our first zero-staff Labor Hall, and hosted two successful workdays on the house. Read on to see how our volunteers made a difference in Pittsburgh this month.
September 9th: All Volunteer Labor Halls
We reached an exciting milestone with this one! As our entire staff was in Chicago for the CCDA annual conference about urban ministry we held our very first entirely volunteer lead Labor Hall. Our goal is to train and enable our volunteers to be able to do any job as well, maybe even better, than we as staff could. This way you have a real understanding of just how valuable you are to the work of L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry. This was a huge step in the right direction and we couldn’t be more excited! A big thank you to all of our Labor Hall volunteers, your continued faithfulness in service is remarkable!
September 11th: LIVING Ministry Car Wash
Every year we hold a number of fundraisers that, when paired with the gifts from our supporters, allow us to finance our ministry. The annual car wash is one of these fundraisers and this year it was an unheard of success! The combination of a second location and volunteers with an outstanding work ethic allowed us to wash literally twice as many cars as last year: 205 in total! Thank you to everyone who showed up to get your hands dirty, and to our sponsors who provided the funds to back our volunteers’ hard work!
September 25th: Work Day
Knowing the pros from Home Depot would be coming in a week, we invited some of our very own pros to prepare the new house for their arrival. Thanks to the help of a few veteran and two first time volunteers we were able to finish demo in the second floor bathroom and prepare the concrete supports for our brand new porch. Your hard work was really impressive!
September 30th: Home Depot Work Day
After the house was prepped, we were ready to meet the men and women of Home Depot. These folks built a porch from scratch – in the pouring rain! We also framed the second floor bathroom, a door way on the second floor, weeded the garden, and pulled up old flooring. It was impossible to spend a day with these folks and not feel uplifted by their enthusiasm. Thank you Team Depot for all of your help!
