Volunteers give to community at Marian House

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Don Branum
  • 50th Space Wing Public Affairs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFPN) --  Downtown Colorado Springs was quiet on a recent morning. Traffic, normally a dull roar during the week, was a whisper as cars zipped along a nearly empty Interstate 25 and local roads. A dozen cars sat parked behind a yellow house on a road about a quarter of a mile from the highway.

As other people ran errands or drove to the park on the bright, balmy morning, the parked cars’ owners shed the anonymity of their vehicles to put on red aprons, don nametags and grab kitchen utensils. Within the walls of the yellow structure called Marian House, they started cooking enough food to feed hundreds.

The Colorado Springs Marian House and the food it provides gives aid to those who cannot always afford a warm meal, said Jeff Maylor, the operations manager at Marian House.

Steve Anden ran the program independently when it first started 18 years ago, Mr. Maylor said. However, the operation eventually got large enough that Mr. Anden turned it over to Catholic Charities.

Every day, about 25 volunteers turn out to prepare and serve about 450 meals, Mr. Maylor said. Some are from churches; other groups formed of their own accord. Still others are from local military bases.

“I’ve been here for two years, and every second Saturday of the month for two years, (Schriever Air Force Base has) been out here,” Mr. Maylor said.

Besides preparing meals, Schriever volunteers have painted walls and done other work to keep Marian House up and running.

“(Military volunteers) are easy to work with,” Mr. Maylor said. “You ask any of them to do something, and they’ll do it and perform the task well. They have no problem doing less desirable jobs like washing dishes -- in fact, some specifically come out to volunteer for those types of jobs.”

A lot of 50th Space Wing Airmen volunteer regularly, said Len Packer, a retired senior master sergeant and contractor who works in the National Reconnaisance Office’s operations squadron. Mr. Packer organizes Schriever’s volunteer efforts at Marian House.

In the back room of the large kitchen, volunteers sliced and diced fruits and vegetables for salads and soup. The other room in the kitchen heated up as they browned ground beef and boiled water for macaroni.

For the Sweetmans, volunteering is a family affair. Dave Sweetman, a Schriever employee, brought his wife and their two children to participate. This is probably the closest one can get to the people who need help the most, he said.

“You can see the direct results (of volunteering),” he said.

For others, like Tech. Sgt. Roxanne Stoll, of the 21st Medical Group’s allergy and immunization clinic at nearby Peterson Air Force Base, it is just the right thing to do.

“Every time my unit comes out, I can never come out with them,” she said. Instead, she joined the Schriever group.

As 10 a.m. rolled around, new faces started showing up -- the second shift of volunteers had arrived. Mr. Maylor rounded them up and began organizing their assignments. Mr. and Mrs. Sweetman stayed in the kitchen where they could help the next shift get up to speed.

Another volunteer, John Kirshman, came in a short time later, shook hands with Mr. Packer and volunteered to clean pots and pans.

“That’s a man after my own heart -- someone who walks right in and says, ‘I want to do pans,’” he said. Mr. Kirshman and his sons, Daniel and David, are with the Civil Air Patrol.

At 10:30 a.m., the doors opened for the first group. The line of guests stretched halfway down the length of the parking lot. Volunteers at the serving line wore compassionate smiles as they heaped food onto guests’ plates.

In the back of the kitchen, the pots-and-pans crew talked politics and history as they scraped food out of cooking pots and soaked them in soapy water. As guests filtered out or returned for seconds, volunteers brought dirty dishes back into the kitchen, which began to feel like a sauna as steam filled the air and morning turned into afternoon. The last of the guests departed around 1 p.m.

The first volunteers left around 1:30 p.m. The people who had put in several hours of their weekend got back into their cars and rejoined the light, anonymous traffic in the streets of downtown Colorado Springs, knowing they had made a difference. (Courtesy of Air Force Space Command News Service)