On April 11, 2024, 9 sophomore OP boys and I embarked on a retreat trip to Camden, New Jersey. These boys included Chase Lynch, Sebastian Carlo, Christopher Rotolo, Graham Doyle, Matthew Maloba, Roinn Petersen, Sean Fisher, Tyson Moose, Jeffrey Child, and me. Along with the previous students, Father Matt and Mrs. Ebert, mother of Jack Ebert, chaperoned us and volunteered.
On Thursday, April 11th, we left for Camden at 2:40. Once we arrived, the OP brothers and I began to learn about the purpose of the Romero Center and the problems in Camden. We met another school thatschool, that we worked with, called the Prout School. Oratory and the Prout School were combined into separate “families”. These families would do activities and chores together while staying at the Romero Center. We also watched a documentary about a park in the local area. The park used to be run down and unsafe for the children to play in, but parents and coaches were able to clean the place up. This example was used as motivation for us as we approached the next days of service.
Friday began early, at 6:30 in the morning. Before we could eat breakfast, we learned that our meals for that day had to be no more than 4 dollars per person. This money represents the amount a person receives daily for food if they are under the poverty line. The U.S. government has a system that provides people in need money for food. They receive this in the form of “food stamps”. The twist with this activity was each family had a disadvantage. For example, my family had an immigrant, who could not use their $4, so we only had $12 instead of $16. Some groups were “homeless” so they couldn’t use any appliances and others had high blood pressure so they needed food with low sodium. The families went to the supermarket and began to budget.
The tight money led the groups to search, up and down the aisles, for the cheapest deals. My group decided on bananas for breakfast, PBJ sandwiches for lunch, and rice, beans, and hot dogs for dinner. Other groups, unfortunately, only planned for one meal in the day, causing them to fast for the rest of the day. This experiment showed me that limited food can affect me greatly. My overall productivity throughout the day was low and I was tired.
Oratory split into 2 groups when we were going out for service. Mrs. Ebert, Tyson, Sebastian, Graham, Sean, Matthew, and I traveled to a nursing home where we played bingo, played music, and helped with art sculptures with the residents. The other group included Father Matt, Chris, Roinn, Jeffery, and Chase. This group helped prepare a fundraiser dinner by making meatballs and cutting English muffins. Once we arrived back at the Romero Center, we talked about our service; what we enjoyed doing and what we found difficult.
After this, we played a version of Monopoly. Each player received a letter that said the amount of money they started with and the properties they owned. However, not everyone started with the same amount of resources. As the game progressed, the ones who started with more money, took the money of the less fortunate. This activity was a great example of real life. Some people are gifted into a wealthy family that doesn’t have any struggles, while others start with little wealth. The poorer ones felt they had less room to grow in society. This gave me a perspective that it is not a choice to be in poverty, but rather an unfortunate situation. It also showed me that the more fortunate people can support others through volunteering and donating.
On our last day of service, Saturday, the groups split up again. The first group went to the local food pantry, less than half a mile from the Romero Center. The name of this food pantry is called Urban Promise. The students worked at a station, where they gave out bags of vegetables and other foods. They also helped get the food out of the freezer so they could hand it out, effectively. Others, including myself, went to a local high school where we helped an organization. This organization’s goal is to clean up the streets of Camden, making it a nicer town. They did this by creating gardens and picking up litter. We helped make compost, picked up trash on the waterfront, and walked the streets, collecting cans and other trash. This group showed us their gardens and locations that they cleaned up. I could see the massive impact it made in the neighborhood. Later, we went to Philadelphia and visited some, of the many, historical landmarks and buildings. This includes the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, and Independence Hall.
On Sunday morning, everyone went to the local Mass and packed up to leave Camden. All of the sophomores gained more insight into Camden, as well as a great service experience. I would like to thank Father Matt and Mrs. Ebert for making this trip possible. Along with them, I would like to thank the Romero Center for what they do and for letting us stay at their facilities.
