Chances are, if you’ve had a reason to visit Catholic Charities’ Bernardin Center over the last 15 years or so, you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Kathy Brosmith and Paulette Van Erden and seen how they witness moments of human vulnerability with mercy and kindness.

Since 2006, Kathy has volunteered at the Bernardin Center’s reception desk on Fridays, greeting every person who enters the building. Paulette started volunteering in 2011. She takes the Monday shift. After 15 years occupying the same chair on different days, they have become good friends.

Kathy and Paulette are smart, warm, funny, and very good at what they do — which matters, especially because both women have an innate understanding that the welcome they extend visitors at the reception desk is an important part of their service journey at Catholic Charities.

They also recognize the act of welcoming as a moment of encounter, which they have experienced in myriad ways. There is Ginny, who never made eye contact when she asked for help. But when she came in recently after an absence, she was fed, clean, and looked Kathy right in the eye.

And then there was the mother living in her car with her six children. “My daughter has experienced trauma,” she said to Paulette, who, recognizing the urgency, connected her with a caseworker immediately.

Visitors can count on Paulette and Kathy to be there to open the doors of Catholic Charities to them.

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at Catholic Charities, please click here.