John McMahon

(Holy Family Saint Lawrence website (Green Mountain DeZynes?))

When growing up, John McMahon was not very involved with volunteer work outside of his church community. However, his life seems to revolve around volunteer work now. He works with the Holy Family and Saint Lawrence churches in Essex Junction, Vermont, as the Director of Faith Formation. He organizes different activities through the church and encourages people to get involved, as a full time job. Although organizing volunteering is how he makes a living, he also does a lot of his volunteering off the job.

John didn't start volunteering on his own will until he started college. He volunteered with JVC, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which is a organization that works around the world to place volunteers at schools and other non-profit sites. The three things that JVC focuses on are "spiritual growth, simple living, community with other JVs and those they serve, and the pursuit of social justice". John was also in Anchorage, Alaska for a year working with Catholic Social Services. CSS have many different branches of support for families and individuals who need help, such as a food pantry, supportive housing, adoption and pregnancy support program, and a refugee resettlement and immigration program. While John was working with CSS, he worked with the Family Disabilities Services. Before he could volunteer, he had to go through some training so he could provide the right care to patients using the service.

Now his volunteer work is based on community and spiritual growth working through Holy Family and Saint Lawrence churches to organize volunteer opportunities for parishioners. Two of the bigger events and programs he organizes for volunteers are Serve Our Neighbor Day and Just Faith. Serve Our Neighbor Day happens twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. On these days volunteers, who have signed up, are put into teams and assigned to projects. These projects generally are raking leaves, emptying gutters, organizing garages, and washing windows for the elderly, ill, or disabled. Even though John organizes Serve Our Neighbor Day, he is also out there on a team helping. One of the programs that John spends a lot of time working on is Just Faith. Just Faith is a religion class for adults that John teaches. It gives the students a more spiritual approach to life. John started the program six years ago; there are generally 12 people per year and in all six years about 60 people have graduated from the program.

John working hard during Serve Our Neighbor Day. (John McMahn (Serve Our Neighbor volunteer))

Through all the hard work he puts into organizing volunteer opportunities for other people, he some how finds time to volunteer on his own. Each year he organizes, runs, and volunteers with Serve Our Neighbor Day. He says, "I like to get my hands dirty." Most recently he was involved with the Spectrum Sleep Out for the homeless. John raised $700 for the homeless by getting people to sponsor him to sleep outside on Church Street in Burlington, Vermont. He spends at least 48 hours a week and about 200 hours a month volunteering with different groups and organizations.

Through volunteering and "getting his hands dirty," John has met some challenges that he hopes to overcome. He claims that he's "not so good with the social piece," and looks to gain confidence to improve his conversation skills. Another challenge he says he must overcome is "trying not to do so much" and create balance between volunteering, work, family, and faith. Don't get me wrong he wants to volunteer on a regular basis, but he can only do so much. Although volunteering can be challenging, it can be rewarding and leave you with great memories. In John's case, he met his wife while working at a group home where they were both volunteering and invited all the people from the group home to the wedding. Most of the people that were invited made it and had a great time dancing with the newly wedded. Volunteering can be challenging, but if you put a lot of time and effort into it it will be rewarding. Like John says," Do volunteer work that feeds you, not work that drains you."