Instead of watching the Raider football game or sleeping off their Friday night activities, about 25 Shippensburg University students rose bright and early to help the homeless on Saturday.

Silence of Mary Home, a non-profit organization with four homes in Harrisburg, receives part of its aid from SU’s Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM). Every September, CCM takes a group of volunteers to improve the Silence of Mary homes. Karen Johnson and Laurie Cella, both professors at SU, bring students from their basic writing classes to volunteer and write about their experiences.

Sue Rudy, CEO of Silence of Mary Home, and campus minister Roxanne Dennis have fostered this partnership for at least 15 years. CCM brought donations of clothes, hygiene products, cleaning supplies and more on Saturday.

“We don’t see it as a service day,” Dennis said. “It’s a social justice ministry.”

Members of CCM, the writing classes and independent volunteers spent their day sprucing up two homes on the corner of Market and South 14th streets. Students painted two rooms and one bathroom, assembled beds, remodeled a bathroom, pulled weeds in the garden, sorted donations and cleaned every surface they could reach.

Scrubbing revealed the bright colors of paint and Bible scripture painted on the walls. Portraits of Jesus decorated the homes.

These two houses currently have no residents since there is so much work to be done to improve the facilities, Rudy said. She hopes her “family members,” as she calls them, will be able to live in the homes again in January once the work is complete.

“It not only makes an effect on their home, it makes an effect on their lives,” Dennis said.

At lunchtime, Rudy shared her experiences with the students. Rudy and her husband Vern founded Silence of Mary Home in 1999. Growing up in Baltimore City, Maryland, Rudy watched her parents take in the less fortunate, even though her family struggled at times. That sense of charity, influenced by faith, carried through to adulthood. Rudy is illiterate, but she has extensive knowledge of the Bible and how to serve others.

“In my heart, everything I heard was scripture,” Rudy said. “You don’t need to know everything. You just do what God tells you.”

In her time as CEO Rudy helped deliver a child, guided teenagers toward better paths, housed families and extended a hand to whoever needed it. She said the hardest part is watching people struggle to escape homelessness.

Volunteers and donations are constantly needed at Silence of Mary Home. Silenceofmary.org provides information regarding how to contribute.

“Without them we couldn’t have gotten where we are now,” Rudy said of the students.

Graduate student Eghonghon Omiyi volunteered Saturday in part because of her interest in counseling.

“Helping others is something that is very, very important to me,” Omiyi said. “It makes me very happy to do something for the community.”

Omiyi is studying clinical mental health counseling at SU. She said she looks for every opportunity to volunteer.

Sophomores Jayda Fields and Danita Dalton came Saturday for similar reasons. Dalton volunteered last year and brought Fields along this year. Both women were impressed by Rudy’s story.

“Even though she didn’t have it great she still knew there were people less fortunate…she was willing to help them. That’s what I want to do,” Dalton said.

“I’m thrilled that I came,” Fields said. “I will come again.”

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