VOLUNTEERS

PLATES TO WASH AND THE HORIZON
They work for free all week and they are the soul of the Meeting. This year, of the 3,000 volunteers, 15 were students from Montréal and Toronto, and they made great discoveries about their lives.

They were dancing in the exposition center halls, arm in arm, changing partners at the refrain.  Max spotted a swarm of those people in jackets and ties who come and go among the booths and exhibits, and urged Victoria to invite them to dance. She went, took one, and brought him to the center of the dancers. “When I saw that people were starting to film us, I realized that he was somebody important,” recounts Victoria. When the couples changed, the man, rather than moving away, took off his jacket and resumed dancing. At the end, he bid them farewell, amused. “Je m’appelle Martin, ce fut un plaisir.” His name is Martin, Martin Schulz, the steadfast German President of the European Parliament.

The fuel of the Meeting, this year again, was the 3,000 volunteers, 150 of whom came from abroad: Spain and Russia, Portugal and the Ukraine, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, and even Canada, a group that drew the attention of many. These 15 young people between the ages of 17 and 24 did not stop for a moment all week: they sang during their work in the kitchen, and sang during their breaks, often spent walking around the exposition center halls “advertising” the restaurant they worked for by singing its name to the tune of “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys. Their enthusiasm was contagious. In the end, even the professionals working at the Meeting joined in the singing. Listening to their stories, you realize that these young people, too, were amazed at themselves, amazed and happy. “This year, I’ll start studying Graphics and Design and I don’t think that in my life I’ll be a waitress,” says Victoria, “but I would like to do my work in the same way I did the work in this kitchen.” Why? “Here, it’s clear that the work is not just work. There is a bigger horizon that goes beyond drying glasses.”
Alexandra only recently met her GS high school friends, and these classmates insisted that she come. She was struck by the order and organization, and that all these people “share the same ideals.” Will she return next year? “Yes.” So then, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of smiling faces. Why? You understand why by asking what they were struck by during the week. “After John Waters’ talk, I had a precise sensation,” explains James. “It’s not that I understood more things about life, but I felt the need to grow in awareness and desire and to enter more deeply into the things of life.” Marc-Antoine said, “I’m going to study History, and here the exhibits often focus on historical events. I took notes on my cell phone and when I go back home I want to learn more about the most interesting things I saw here.”

But the most impressive answer was Maddalena’s: “The Holy Face of Manoppello. For me the drama of that face, the face of Christ, is already in my life. His eyes that look at me are the eyes of my CLU friends. And my friendship with Him grows within the friendship with them, even here in Rimini while I wash plates.”.

Luca Fiore