By REGINA IANNIZZOTTO
Opinion Editor
Published September 20, 2011
Waking up at 8 a.m. was not my ideal way of starting the day, however by the end, it was definitely worth it.
For Reach Out Saint Rose Day, my group was taken to the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless (IPH). Once there, we repainted the walls of every room. When I say every room, I mean every room. The doorway, the hallways, the bathrooms, and even the walls on the staircase; which, let me say, was not at all easy. Being 5’2” is not the ideal height when trying to paint a wall while standing at an angle. Even with the help of the roller extender, I could not get to the top of that wall. Talk about frustrating?
While walking around, the woman who greeted us originally told us about the place itself. The IPH is a “safe haven”, as she described, for those who are homeless, or on the brink of homelessness. They have a community phone, a “living room” area, food, showers, and even a free load of laundry.
Being here was a remarkable experience. Last year, I went to Parsons and did not get the feeling I did this year. Last year, I mainly hung back with my friends and did not really talk to many people. This year, because it was such a small place with a small group of people, I really felt like I helped.
When my group arrived, there were only four people there. Two were painting and the other two were preparing. When the nine of us arrived, the woman was extremely grateful, gave us our jobs and kept asking if we needed anything. The look on her face was a memorable one. The grateful look she gave put a smile on my face because I knew we were really helping out. Because we came to help, the entire place was painted in about four hours.
The IPH did not look that bad when we first arrived. However, it cuold use a face lift. One corner was particularly bad. It was extremely dirty, much dirtier than the other walls, and was right next to the back door. Nothing a little paint could not fix. I dipped my roller in the paint. I touched it to the wall. A sigh of, I guess you could call it relief, came over me and I smiled. A single roll on the wall and it was good as new.
We even painted the doors of the IPH. By this point, we had run out of clean trays so I was just dipping the roller into the large bucket of paint itself with hardly any way to remove the extra paint. I quickly threw the roller from the bucket to the door as to not drip excessively and began rolling. Before I knew it, a glob of paint came at me and landed in my eye; more on than in. I dropped the roller and whined, “Paint in my eye! Paint in my eye!” I was jumping around like a little kid! Finally, I decided that my shirt had enough paint on it already, so I used it to wipe my eye.
I walked out of the IPH with paint from (literally) head to toe, a feeling of happiness that I helped those in need, and a new friendships with the girls in my group. Overall, I would describe this experience as: SUCCESS.
