Sarah Northington makes positive ripples at Bona’s
Sarah Northington is an important component to the Warming House team. She overlooks the community and student volunteer members along with their interactions with guests.
Her position as associate director is a more recent change for her.
“I became the associate director of the Warming House at the end of May 2018,” Northington said. “It is a newly created position to better use the time and talents of the team within the Franciscan Center for Social Concern.”
The position was made to oversee more than the typical staff member would.
“As Jeff Sved was transitioning to new opportunities and Alice Miller Nation was being brought in to oversee all of the Franciscan Center for Social Concern, it was decided to have a dedicated staff member at the Warming House to oversee its operations and support the student staff and student and community volunteers,” Northington said.
As associate director, she has certainly had many interactions with the guests and kitchen and has gained new things from it.
“Every day I feel like I learn something new at the Warming House. Whether it is an interesting story from a guest, a new recipe to utilize food we’ve received through grants or donations, or just how someone is doing that day,” she said.
Before becoming associate director, Northington was not unfamiliar to volunteer work. As she grew up, she’d consistently been active in her community in many unique ways.
“Growing up, community service was an active component of my life,” Northington said. “My parents really encouraged us to get involved in our community and serve at the local soup kitchen, local festivals, various fundraisers and community events like Relay for Life.”
Even past her childhood, she had been active during her high school and college years in multiple different organizations.
“In college, I joined Kappa Alpha Theta because of the organization’s emphasis on academic excellence and service to others,” Northington said. “I served as our chapter’s director of public relations, which meant I planned all of our service and philanthropy activities for that year, and I loved helping connect our college campus to the local community.”
Despite the love she holds for helping her community members, working in a kitchen had not been planned.
“While I did see myself in the nonprofit sector, and studied nonprofit administration in college, I did not plan to work at a soup kitchen.”
Even so, the Warming House provided her with what she desired.
“I always knew I wanted a career where I could really engage with and help others and love that piece of my job with the Warming House,” she said.
She had not only been looking out for herself while in this new position. Observing the volunteers in the group has been an enlightening experience for herself.
“The best experience I’ve had with the Warming House has been seeing the growth of our student team into real servant leaders,” Northington said. “They each have such compassion and grace in how they handle the variety of challenges that happen each day and have really stepped into their own over the course of the year. I love seeing people adapt and grow through challenging themselves, so that has been really encouraging to see.”
She also spoke about why she is a real-life hero on our campus.
“Community engagement and finding ways to serve others is really important to how I live my life.”
The student body is always welcome to join the Warming House experience with Northington and associates.
“I encourage all students and staff at St. Bonaventure to spend a day (or more!) with us as they are able.”
By Catherine Fleischhut, Staff Writer
fleisccs18@bonaventure.edu
