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BY ERIKA ANDERSON
Staff Writer
ATLANTA--As the Marist’s School’s community service coordinator,
Karen Shanahan hopes to give students an opportunity to use the gifts God has
given them while serving and becoming more aware of the needs of those less
fortunate.
Shanahan, a professional social worker and counselor, came to Marist as a
new parent in 1981.
“I am volunteer oriented and my natural inclination was to ask how I
could volunteer,” she said. “I wanted to do some sort of community
service, but at that time there was no program.”
So Shanahan started one. With the help of Father Kevin Duggan, SM, a
seminarian at the time, under the direction of the Campus Ministry Office,
Shanahan worked to create a program in 1983 which now offers many opportunities
for service to students, parents and teachers.
“Everything that has been developed has been from a sense of what I
feel that the Marists are all about, and that’s to go where other people
don’t go,” she said. “That’s very much the Marian way, to
serve, but to be hidden and unknown.”
Students at Marist, a private, independent Catholic school serving grades
seven through 12, are required to complete service hours complementing their
religious classes. School announcements, and persuasion from Shanahan,
encourage students to serve in soup kitchens, shelters and various food and
clothing drives. Some of the commitments include serving at the Central
Presbyterian Night Shelter six times a year, at the Moreland Avenue Shelter for
homeless women and children and at St. Francis Table, an outreach of the Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta.
“I’m constantly trying to raise consciousness with the students in
a gentle way,” Shanahan said. “I want to provide them with the
opportunity to use the gifts God has given them. I’m only opening the
doors and windows so we can go where we feel God needs us.”
The Habitat for Humanity chapter at Marist, now in its tenth year, was the
first high school chapter established worldwide in the program of building
low-cost homes for the working poor. Shanahan said that all community service
at Marist has a “specific emphasis in the inner city and a definite
emphasis to the disadvantaged.”
“We are gifted here at Marist, economically and academically,” she
said. “The students start to realize that it’s part of being
Catholic, part of being Christian, and part of being human to share with others
and to uplift others so we can all try to make it into the kingdom of
heaven.”
Shanahan also hopes that the students will find service to be joyful. After
completing service hours, students are required to write a reflection paper, in
which most students, Shanahan said, write of the happiness they felt while
serving.
“I feel that if the students have the opportunity, no matter what
service they choose, their hearts will be touched and opened,” Shanahan
said.
Coordinating over 1,000 students, she oversees projects every weekend and
almost every weeknight.
“I never get bored with what I’m doing,” she said.
“I’m a helper by nature and because of that my plate sometimes gets a
little full, but the more you do, the more needs you see.”
Students often inspire their parents to get involved in community outreach,
she said.
“The kids continue to be aware and therefore they challenge their
parents,” Shanahan said. “The parents have taken a great deal of
interest in community outreach. I think that through the eyes of our children,
we are often times more open.”
Teachers and alumni are involved also and Shanahan said that she has been
well supported throughout the years by the Marist priests, brothers and
seminarians at the school, where Father James Hartnett, SM, serves as president
and Michael Maher as headmaster.
“No one in 14 years has ever questioned me,” she said. “To me
that’s support, that’s trust, that’s faith.”
Shanahan also credits the religion department at Marist with encouraging the
ministry.
“A lot has to do with the openness of the religion department,”
she said. “We are blessed to have teachers who are very much justice
oriented. Outreach is just one part. We have the resources and we as a school
community can make some changes.”
“I’m committed to the Marists and what they believe in,” she
added. “Their work and their mission is very much what Jesus’ message
is.”
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