AvaEllis

The action and willingness to devote personal time to the betterment of others is service, one of Marian’s core values. The Servants of Mary have values or causes that they support wholeheartedly, one of those causes being immigration and refugees. Marian students are called to serve each other and their community.

Project Welcome is a service outreach club that serves the refugee community in the Omaha area. While the person who is receiving the service is impacted, Project Welcome makes a large impact on the people who did the service.

From working with organizations to help move in an incoming family, to making blankets for the families during the winter months, Project Welcome has a variety of service opportunities. 

The club serves a great community impact by informing and educating students about the lives, challenges and different backgrounds of other people living in Omaha. 

The club works with local non-profit organizations, such as Restoring Dignity, Center for Refugee and Immigrant Advancement (CRIA), Refugee Women Rising and The Furniture Project, to help refugees in the community. 

Through Refugee Women Rising, club members have made and delivered care packages and bouquets of flowers for refugee women during the season of Eid, a festival celebrated by Muslims including prayers, feasts, charity, and time spent with family and friends. 

Junior Aralyn White assisted in making the care packages and felt that she “made an impact and brightened their days.” Other past volunteering opportunities have included a home move-in with Restoring Dignity, where students helped move in and organize an incoming refugee family’s home. They also have done home makeovers for existing refugee families in Omaha who may be struggling to furnish or buy cleaning supplies for their homes.  

After the most recent home makeover on Nov. 15, junior Ivy Piotrowski said that she felt like she made “a huge impact” in the family’s life. She further explained that she chose to “volunteer so she could help the people in her community.” 

Piotrowski explained how she cleaned and organized a room in the refugee family’s house through Restoring Dignity.  

Through meaningful acts of service, Project Welcome makes a substantial impact on its community as well as its members.