Bond between St. Mike’s and a Deep South community fosters impactful service experiences

Not all heroes wear capes – some don hairnets and latex gloves to make 500 turkey sandwiches each morning for those who might otherwise go hungry.   

That is just one of the tasks a group of seven (six students and a staff leader) from Saint Michael’s College took on during a May service trip to the Edmundite Southern Missions in Selma, Alabama. The long days of cleaning, sorting, delivering, unpacking, pruning, and meal-making may qualify them for part-time heroism, but there are many on staff in the Missions who do this and more every day. The laboring was only part of what made the trip impactful, participants say.   

Tangibly helping a community severely stricken by poverty and food insecurity that is still reeling from the long-term effects of racial unrest was humbling, eye-opening, and, at times, shocking for those who had only contemplated a different life experience. And, witnessing the love and care for the community from the Mission workers that the St. Mike’s group was there to help left an indelible impression.  

Trip-goers say they wish others would take the opportunity to go on this or another service trip the College offers to experience the profound impact it can have.  

Saint Michael’s College student volunteers help staff members from the Edmundite Southern Missions in Selma, Alabama, make meals at the Bosco Nutrition Center during a service trip in May 2025. From left in blue shirts, Callie Boisvert ’27, Abbey Gyurko ’27, Sophie Sevi ’27 and Atticus Tyler ’27. (Photo by Callie Boisvert ’27)

The unique connection between St. Mike’s and Selma  

The Edmundites who founded Saint Michael’s College in 1904 also later established the Edmundite Southern Missions in Selma in 1937. The Catholic Order’s charge has always been one of social justice and helping those most in need.   

During the Civil Rights Movement, the Missions provided food, medical care, and safety for Black Americans as well as a place for voters’ rights activism and mobilization. Some Edmundite priests marched with protestors and conversed with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis. 

Present-day Selma still struggles with repercussions from its segregated history. Notably, Black students make up the majority population in public schools where only 7% of students are proficient in math. And, 40% of children live below the poverty line. 

That’s where the Edmundite Southern Missions come in. They are a collection of sites which provide a variety of free services to the local community to meet urgent needs as well as tools to better the situation for those on the cusp of not making ends meet. For example, one of the many services offered is meal preparation and delivery. The Bosco Nutrition Center provides 1,300 meals a day on-site and 600 more that are delivered to the homebound community. 

Saint Michael’s College MOVE volunteers scrub chairs outside the Edmundite Missions-run New Possibilities Education Center as part of a service trip in Selma, Alabama, in May 2025. From left: Abbey Gyurko ’27, Callie Boisvert ’27, Max Portnoy ’28, Atticus Tyler ’27 and Aidan Hall ’27. (Photo by Chris Kenny ’86)

Through their Edmundite connection, St. Mike’s started sending students to Selma in the early 1990s, according to Lara Scott, director of Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE). Since 2017, a semi-regular one-week service trip has taken place in late May.  

In addition to preparing, serving and delivering meals, this year’s participants worked in the garden and cleaned windows at the Missions’ Bullock Community & Recreation Center; organized donations of clothing, housewares and furniture and cleaned The Boutique & More; unloaded boxes and cleaned at the Missions’ warehouse; and scrubbed bathrooms, baseboards and floors, power-washed furniture, and provided tutoring assistance at the Academy.   

Scott said participants are welcomed with open arms because of the school’s connection to the Missions.   

The recent trip’s group also spent a day in Montgomery touring historical sites and museums depicting the African American experience through slavery until now, which imbued the trip with additional meaning.    

“The Edmundites have a history in and around Selma that is deeply integrated with the history of civil rights and voting rights, and participants on this trip have the opportunity to learn about and experience that history and connection,” Scott said. “It is powerful because participants, as students and employees at SMC, have a real connection with Selma because of the Edmundite tradition we experience and learn from in Vermont.”  

The unique relationship which binds together two very different communities 1,300 miles apart, but who are united in purpose for helping those in need, is a reciprocal one that affords students and staff an opportunity they could only get at St. Mike’s.  

Saint Michael’s College MOVE student volunteers (from left: Abbey Gyurko ’27, Aidan Hall ’27 and Sophie Sevi ’27) and Chris Kenny ’86 (second from left) pose with a staff member at the Bosco Nutrition Center run by the Edmundite Southern Missions during a service trip to Selma, Alabama, in May 2025. (Photo courtesy of Chris Kenny ’86)

Lasting impressions  

Chris Kenny in the College’s Office of Institutional Advancement was the staff leader for the group and said he has been forever changed by the trip. There were many reasons he cited for this, but he said he was especially struck by how closely the St. Mike’s group members – with varied backgrounds and interests – bonded over the common service mission.   

“Watching our students and being immensely proud of their effort and their willingness to extend themselves and make a real difference for people in large and small ways was so rewarding,” he said.   

Kenny said he was impressed by the good work the Missions are doing to help the people of Selma, many of whom are up against devastating conditions. He described literally touching history, holding books with writing in them from 1960s-era Edmundites he knew of from St. Mike’s past and and comparing that defining time to the social justice work that has continued to this day. 

“It was obvious when we were there that the Edmundite Missions are so appreciated and beloved by the people of the city,” he said. “They certainly understand all that the Edmundite Mission brings to their city and all the support that it provides. That was a proud thing to see firsthand and to witness.”   

Saint Michael’s MOVE student volunteers Abbey Gyurko ’27 and Aidan Hall ’27 and staff trip leader Chris Kenny ’86 pose with Ms. Christine, the manager of the Boutique run by the Edmundite Missions, during a service trip to Selma, Alabama, in May 2025. (Photo courtesy of Chris Kenny ’86)

Callie Boisvert ’27 and Abbey Gyurko ’27 said they were both moved by the Mission workers’ deep sense of caring. They expressed how welcoming workers were to the new crew of helpers and to visitors from the community.   

“It was just such a warm community, and everyone was giving hugs and saying hello,” Gyurko said. “Everyone was so grateful of each other, and it was such a refreshing experience.”  

A conversation Gyurko had with Ms. Christine, the boutique manager, has stayed with her. The shopkeeper left an easier life because she felt called to move to Selma to aid the community in any way she could.  

“It was very inspiring to see how she changed her whole life to do what she felt was best,” Gyurko said.  

Boisvert admired how, even when busy, Ms. Christine would take the time to sit down with and talk with customers, and how she seemed to know many of their needs. That mindset was shared by another Missions staff member, Michael, who Boisvert rode along with as he delivered 80 meals to homebound people. She said he explained his motivation wasn’t a paycheck – it was to make a difference.   

“Michael could just put the bag of food on their door and knock and leave, but he stops and gives them a hug,” Boisvert said.   

Boisvert described an encounter with a disabled food recipient that stuck with her as an example of Michael’s motivation.   

“Some woman had duct tape on her wheelchair, and she didn’t have any legs, and he helped her get up,” Boisvert recounted. “He took a picture of her wheelchair to try to get her a new one, and he doesn’t have to do that – that’s not a part of his job.”    

She said Michael modeled the importance of infusing work with care and connection, and she plans to take that same mindset into her own work.   

Broadening minds and skills  

Selma trip-goers also found personal growth in some unexpected ways.  

The Legacy Museum visit in Montgomery was a powerful component of the trip. Boisvert, who is an Art & Design major and is currently working on a summer research project about activism in art, was stirred by the sculptures’ depiction of themes of enslavement, lynching, and racial injustice. She was inspired by the interpretations which invited a different type of reflection than reading a wall description might have.   

“A sculpture that makes you sit and stare at it for five minutes,” she said. “It’s very moving and another form of showing that art is more than just a physical object to look at – it means more than that.”  

Student volunteers through MOVE (from left, Aidan Hall ’27, Max Portnoy ’28, Abbey Gyurko ’27, Callie Boisvert ’27, Sophie Sevi ’27 and Atticus Tyler ’27) visited The Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, as part of a service trip in May 2025. (Photo by Chris Kenny ’86)

Sophia Sevi ’27 was one of the student leaders on the MOVE trip. She exercised her leadership and organization skills by planning the group activities and the trip to Montgomery. She said she felt especially moved to action by the education deficits of local students, which she saw through the lens of her own goal of becoming a high school math teacher.   

Sevi said college is the time for big ideas and to swing big even if you miss, which she feels is fostered by St. Mike’s faculty who have been supportive of her pursuing big ideas.  She came away with a desire to do more for the students in the Academy run by the Edmundite Missions. In particular, she would like to find a way to bring groups of Selma students to St. Mike’s for a college visit, further broadening their world and strengthening the relationship the College already has with the Southern Missions.   

“As a student at a school with so many opportunities…we have a huge opportunity to make a lot of change,” she said.   

Sevi has pitched the idea to Saint Michael’s College leadership and hopes it gains traction. She sees additional opportunities for collaboration among the School of Education, the Criminology program, and others.    

“I’m hoping that there can be some more programs and things that come out of this trip to strengthen that tie we have there and more take advantage of this connection that we have with this community and these people halfway across the country,” she said.  

The MOVE service team from Saint Michael’s College pose in front of The Casey Center for Faith and Community Service-Learning run by the Edmundite Missions during a service trip to Selma, Alabama, in May 2025. (Photo courtesy of Atticus Tyler ’27)

Service trips – an exercise in the reciprocity of giving  

The Selma trip was the only MOVE service trip this summer. Trip-goers would like to see more involvement in these types of service opportunities because of how easy and inexpensive it is to go. MOVE even helps those who feel they can’t afford the trip.   

The experience left a lasting impression on all involved. Sevi even went so far as to say she wished service trips were required because it was one of the most impactful and eye-opening college experiences she’s had. Others, too, expressed how important it was to get out of the sheltered Vermont environment to encounter other perspectives and ways of life and meet new people.    

Kenny was grateful the College gave him the time to volunteer as a staff benefit. Still letting the magnitude of the experience sink in, he said through the trip he identified what is truly important in life.

It was a long, exhausting week, Gyurko said, but one in which the reward outweighed any exhaustion.   

“We went there to give, but we got out a lot as well,” she said. “It’s a very simple process to do something so big and so cool.” 

More information about MOVE and its service trips can be found here.>>

View a gallery of photos from the May 2025 service trip below.