Lacrosse varsity captain, Nora Byrne, asked the team if they would volunteer their time to make sandwiches for a homeless shelter. Byrne wanted to give back to the community with help from her teammates. She organized a team event that did just that. This whole event was a great team bonding effort because the girls really worked well together to complete a common goal. They were determined to help those who needed it the most.

The varsity and junior varsity lacrosse teams as well as the junior varsity softball team worked together to pack  lunches for Cornerstone Community Outreach. This is an organization that helps the homeless in the Chicagoland area through different programs that provide health care, shelter, and food for individuals and families. This organization helps people get back on their feet by providing them with a warm meal or a bed to sleep on for the night. According to their website, they typically served over 240,000 plates of food a year to the homeless.

The Cornerstone Community Outreach provides meals, care, and shelter for more than 350 people every single day. The website notes that an astonishing 44% of the shelter’s population is 17 years and under, with 38% being twelve years old and under.

Besides helping the homeless, the organization is a safe haven for those who are trying to escape a dangerous home life because of some form of violence or abuse. They can go to one of the Cornerstone Community Outreach Centers and have a safe place to stay for the night.

According to chicagohomeless.org ,”The 2015 U.S. Conference of Mayors survey says Chicago reported that 20% of homeless residents were domestic violence victims.” This is an astonishing fact because many of the homeless individuals that are going to the Cornerstone Commuity Outreach are trying to run away from a dangerous home life.

Regina lacrosse coach Colleen Speth says, “It was a really nice way to spend our lunch hour. The girls really took charge of this and organized everything on their own.  It’s impressive to watch your team work well together on the field, but when they take that teamwork off the field and donate their time and money to those who are less fortunate than themselves; it definitely makes a coach proud.”

During both A and B lunch, players worked together to create the sack lunches. Each player was to bring an item to donate, which was organized by Nora Byrne. Byrne set up a Google Docs page and let her teammates choose what they were going to bring. Bringing something was not mandatory, but the girls took initiative and almost everyone brought something to help make the lunches.

The girls volunteered their whole lunch period to create the lunches. The teams worked together to create an assembly line to make the process more efficient. The lunches included either a turkey or ham sandwich, a juice box, a piece of fruit (either an apple or a clementine), a granola bar, fruit snacks, and a bag of chips. Girls also signed up to bring ketchup, mustard, plastic utensils, brown bags, and napkins.

When Coach Colleen Speth dropped off the sandwiches at the Outreach Center, she said that everyone in the room’s eyes lit up. They were so excited that someone had made such a large donation of one hundred lunches.

The Cornerstone Community Outreach is always available to receive donations.