Elena Burt

Kelsey Asselin ’26 and six of her classmates worked in the Kitchen at the Open Door Mission making sack lunches with sandwiches, a sweet treat and salty item for the guests and community.

You hear about the ordeal of freshman retreat and the day the sophomores are gone in the wilderness, but do you notice that several juniors with a randomly chosen teacher are gone every Wednesday? 

Junior retreat stands out to many after they go. As seniors, teachers and some juniors know, a chaperone from the staff drives a Marian car to the Open Door Mission. 

The Open Door Mission and Marian have a strong partnership, and they gracefully welcome this community to theirs. 

Mrs. Anna Sparwasser, who is a three-time and counting junior retreat chaperone, appreciates the organization. She said, “they know us and always have something for us to do. It is a really well-run activity.” 

Sparwasser is keen on this retreat in particular. She said, “I was sold on it after my first time going! It is a great way to spend my time with juniors while we volunteer and get to know each other.”

She believes that the best time to go is 11th grade. She said, “juniors are at a better stage of life and can process the work, faith and team building that happens. I think the juniors are able to truly understand the difference between helping and serving.” 

On that note, Sparwasser added, “it is an opportunity to serve alongside the juniors; I am not leading but accompanying the students. That is a unique role that I don’t always get to be in.”  

Junior Kelsey Asselin went on retreat a few months ago. She said, “retreat for me was very eye opening because I have never really volunteered at a place like that before.”

Asselin thinks that it is a good thing that juniors from Marian get to have this experience. They reflect on the lives of others compared to their own. She said, “it got us out of our daily routines, allowing us to experience how even just doing a little help for a place like that goes a long way.”

While serving at the Open Door Mission, Asselin realized that, for many people, having the means for necessities like food, water and a place to stay is harder than one might think. She said, “I never really thought of how many people have things less than what I have.” She realized how straining it is for people to be in a pit and to get out of a pit. 

This year’s retreat stood out to her compared to freshman and sophomore year because she got to help people and learn from it. “When we were sorting the clothes, it ranged from newborn clothes to grown adult clothes. All sorts of people, young, old or really old, can be in situations that sometimes would never cross our minds,” Asselin said. 

During one of the acts of service, Asselin made connections with people by being friendly, and she learned that just asking simple questions can change someone’s day. “People would come and go, but by simply asking ‘how are you doing today?’ people enjoyed being able to talk about their lives and what they’ve gone through,” she said. 

Juniors embody the core value of service through serving those at the Open Door Mission.