Senior citizen, teens connect through community service project

Senior citizen Pansy Mitchell of Indianapolis watches members of Roncalli High School’s varsity volleyball team paint her faded garage on Sept. 27 during the ninth annual Angels from the Heart community service project coordinated by Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. The service program was organized in 2000 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the founding of Sacred Heart Parish in 1875 on the near-south side of the city. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Pansy Mitchell smiled as she watched 15 members of Roncalli High School’s varsity volleyball team scrape and then paint the peeling wood siding on her old garage.

Mitchell, who is 89, has lived in her modest Victorian house on Regent Street south of downtown Indianapolis for 62 years.

This painting project on Sept. 27 marked the first time that Angels from the Heart volunteers from throughout the city had helped her with home maintenance during Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish’s annual community service program for low-income neighborhood residents.

“Since my husband passed away about 14 years ago, I haven’t had that kind of help so it means a lot to have [the painting] done,” Mitchell said. “It’s been good to have them here.”

While the teenagers painted the garage, Mitchell said, she enjoyed listening to the girls talk, laugh and sing a variety of songs.

“I’ve lived here since 1946,” Mitchell recalled. “My husband, Charles, and I were married before World War II. He served in the Navy in the Pacific Theater during the war. We had three little kids when he went into the service.”

Health problems limit her mobility now, she said, and she could not afford to hire someone to paint the garage.

Roncalli seniors Katelyn Dawson, Ashley Holmes and Jordan Sudzina, all members of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, said the team enjoyed helping with the Angels from the Heart program for the first time.

“I’m really glad that we all came out here together to help,” Katelyn said. “It’s important to us to help others and represent Roncalli volleyball in the community.”

Ashley said this volunteer project was “a good bonding experience” for team members, who practiced that morning to prepare for the Marion County girls’ volleyball tournament before painting Mitchell’s garage.

“It feels good to know that we helped her,” Ashley said. “It’s cool … that a bunch of people care about helping others.”

Their coach, Missy Marsh, said it is important for the girls to “come together in their faith … and build teamwork skills in this way.”

Roncalli’s varsity volleyball team members were among 450 Indianapolis area volunteers who helped with the ninth annual Angels from the Heart program.

John Heinzelman, a St. Jude parishioner who serves on the Angels from the Heart organizing committee, said two Roncalli religion teachers, Gerard Striby and Sean Winningham, were instrumental in getting so many Roncalli students to participate in the volunteer project.

“They truly enjoyed themselves and the experience, and grow from that,” Heinzelman said of the teenagers. “Obviously, the homeowners are just ecstatic to have this help. We had 50 service projects that we completed all over the neighborhood with 450 [adult and teenage] volunteers. … The Angels from the Heart program is a tremendous opportunity for these kids to help others.”

Heinzelman said his family is from Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish and he enjoys coming back to his old neighborhood to help the residents.

“We painted four properties, did five concrete projects and had seven remodeling projects this year,” he said. “People from the Indianapolis parishes were instrumental in cleaning up the entire neighborhood—sweeping every street and cutting the grass in every front yard, literally hundreds of homes, in the Sacred Heart neighborhood—for the first time. We want to make an impression on the neighborhood residents that we are here to try to help them make this neighborhood better.” †