“A colleague at Baylor University told me she had been doing some volunteering and bringing students [to the Well Community], and I thought it sounded like such a great place and such a great mission. So, I started volunteering.” From that very first time, Rebecca Puchkors has continued each month to help out at the Thursday Night Life worship service and dinner. Over 50 Well members, all of whom struggle with mental health conditions, always look forward to her coming.
From the very beginning, Rebecca saw something special happening at the Well. “I just thought it was such a great community. It was so nice when we got down there to see people who really have, I mean, just so much adversity and struggle; but they’re still able to have friendships and relationships, and they were so supportive of each other. I think one of the first times we were down there, somebody had been to the fair and they were bringing back stuff for everyone else … and checking in on everyone.”
Because of her background as an instructor of mental health nursing, Rebecca brings an informed understanding and perspective on members of the Well. “I know that people that live with mental health diagnoses and mental illness definitely have lives and are resilient, but it was a whole new level of resilience down there. What a great community and cool project, cool organization. As I teach, I bring my students a couple times a semester so that they can experience it.”
Rebecca brings six to eight students each time (amounting to about 60 volunteers over the years) and she enjoys seeing the impact the experience has on them. “They love it. They’re always just blown away with how welcoming the members are and how resilient they are, and just their faith and their dedication. And I’ve had several [students] that have come outside of our required time that we do for class and have volunteered on their own and collected things for members at the holidays.”
She also sees the training benefit such volunteer opportunities give the students. “They’re in nursing school, which is not specific to mental health. This just happens to be their mental health rotation. And so, I love that they are able to see people with lived experiences who are resilient, who are able to get through life and find purpose and meaning and love and all the things that they need despite their symptoms and their history and their traumas and their struggles.” Rebecca continues, “And also, I teach at a Christian college, and so we’re about serving, and I think it’s really important that they know that nursing and serving and caring for people goes outside of the hospital walls, and there are ways to do that within your community. They learn that just because somebody’s not in the hospital doesn’t mean they don’t still need support and love and care and someone to help fight the stigma out there.”
What Rebecca and her students experience at the Well is the power of community. Rebecca explains, “I think that all of us as humans need connection. We’re all here for love and belongingness. And so, I think it’s such a strength and a support for people to have a community and to have friendship and to feel like they belong somewhere that is so protective.” She continues, “My students know from their studies that connection is so important, but it is really cool to see firsthand. I love sharing that with my students. They go into the hospitals, and they see people in acute crisis; and then I get to take them out to the Well Community, and they get to see people who are really just living every day with a chronic illness that they’re having to manage. But through the power of community, they’re managing it and are able to have those things in life that we all want as human beings.”
Another aspect Rebecca enjoys about serving on Thursday nights is the opportunity to participate in the worship service. “I think spirituality and faith is so important in providing people meaning and purpose, and having meaning and purpose really is our reason to keep going despite everything that happens to us, despite everything we’re struggling with.” She continues, “Providing a community where people can come together and share that and support each other through that is just so inspiring.”
How about your civic, church or school group? Wouldn’t this be a great way to serve others? Learn more about helping out at Thursday Night Life!