Seventeen women from the Panhellenic Association volunteered at St. Vincent de Paul, a homeless shelter and church in the downtown area.

Denise Hosford, Panhellenic public relations chair and member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, said she organized for two women from each sorority to help prepare and serve dinner to the homeless on Nov. 21 and last Thursday.

“It’s a really fun experience,” she said. “The people at St. Vincent de Paul really know how to make volunteers feel comfortable enough to where they will want to come back, like we did.”

Hosford said the homeless people really appreciated the women being there helping out and interacting with them.

“They remembered us from the first time we went,” she said. “They told us they were on their best behavior for us.”

Dawn Kale, a Kappa Delta sorority member, was one of the women who volunteered. She said she enjoyed helping out at the shelter.

“I’m really into all that philanthropy stuff,” she said. “I use to do things like this back home, and I didn’t really have the opportunity to do it here in San Diego until now.”

Kale said the reaction of the homeless was very comforting.

“They were very happy, in general, just to have us there,” she said. “They were so friendly; some were making jokes and the others were just saying ‘thank you’ over and over again.

“Just seeing their reaction to us being there helping out made everything all worthwhile.”

Jaquie Henderson, a Kappa Alpha Theta sorority member, also participated in the event. She agreed that the event was enjoyable and said she had a lot of fun.

St. Vincent de Paul has been recently named the recipient of Greek Week, a week-long event in which all Inter-Fraternity Council fraternities and Panhellenic sororities raise money for an organization.

“I’m really happy this organization was voted to be the benefactor for this year’s Greek Week,” Hosford said. “It’s a really good organization that works for a great cause.”

Kale agreed that St. Vincent de Paul is a very impressive organization.

“I was so impressed with the shelter,” she said. “The people who run the shelter were so considerate, professional, open and available to us while we were there.”

She said the shelter does a good job of taking care of homeless people.

“I think St. Vincent de Paul is doing a great job and I am really glad the shelter exists because it gives us a chance to help out, too,” Kale said.

Hosford said she is really looking forward to volunteering again at the shelter and probably will do so next semester on a regular basis.

“We’re trying to organize something where we would volunteer about once a month,” she said.