Students help homeless and addicts over spring break

The heroin addict was barely breathing when the Penn students saw him on the street over spring break, according to students who were there.

They wanted to help him, so they started praying.

As they asked God to save him from death, he opened his eyes and stood up before the paramedics arrived.

“It was a miracle,” said College senior Matthew Pershe , emcee for Penn Cru, a student Christian group. Pershe, along with 11 other students, brought aid to the poorest areas of Philadelphia during a spring break service trip planned by Penn Cru.

Working with Philly Cru, a larger umbrella organization for the Penn group, students spent the week giving food to the homeless and offering prayers to drug addicts.

Leadership coach and outreach coordinator for Penn Cru Corey Poggioli , a 2013 Engineering graduate , said the trip involved partnerships with recovery homes, schools and Victory Outreach , a network of churches in West Philadelphia.

This year’s trip featured new partnerships with Cornerstone Christian Academy and Cornerstone Community Church in North Philadelphia.

“Within a couple of miles of campus there is a different world,” said Nursing junior Lydia Felter , who participated in the trip. It was “just eye opening,” she added, describing the realities of a heroin camp in North Philadelphia.

The trip challenged many common perceptions, Poggioli explained, specifically people’s notions that addicts and the homeless are “almost subhuman.”

For College freshman Matthew Dong , encountering Camden, N.J.’s “tent city,” a large homeless community, was a particularly moving experience. Despite spending the day in freezing temperatures, “after I saw what those people were living through, I didn’t feel cold anymore,” he said.

One of the most significant moments for Pershe was meeting a heroin addict his own age who told him that “we’re not guaranteed the next three hours,” he said.

Poggioli also outlined how the experience “challenge[d] the campus bubble mentality,” and emphasized the religious motivation behind the community work.

The outreach is “very intimately tied with our faith,” he said, explaining how for Penn Cru members, the work of the trip is “a mirror of what has been given to us by Christ.”

“We’re identifying the physical needs and the deeper spiritual needs,” Pershe added. He said he was able to connect with the issues with which he came into contact. “In a very spiritual sense, I identified completely with them,” he said.

The group of Penn students, alongside five students from Penn State, stayed in Summerfield Church and participated in a variety of community service activities over the course of the week.

The work included construction, spending time in a school running book fairs, talking to people about life questions and reaching out to some of the city’s most poverty-stricken areas.

For College junior Eric Clark , who prayed for the resuscitation of the overdosed drug addict, the trip showed him that “the outward expression of what we know is inside ourselves.” He drew parallels between drug addiction and the fact that “many of us are slaves to work and to greed and academics.”

For those involved, the trip also brought a feeling of hope. The trip “opened my eyes to the terrible things which happen in my city,” Dong said, “but I also see hope because there are a lot of people trying to change that.”

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