Parish communities unite to make sure no one forgotten during holidays

Metro Detroit — About six months ago, Joann Allor was out with her husband when a man walked up to her and said, “Joann, it’s so nice to see you!”

Allor, a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Parish in Monroe, remembered his face but could not place where she had met him.

“He said, ‘I was in jail 25 years ago, I wanted to say thank you for all that you did for me,’” Allor recalled.

Giving her “a big hug,” the man told her he had gotten back on his feet and gotten a good job, and urged her not to give up on what she does: visiting inmates in local Monroe jails, and bringing them Christmas treats each year.

More than that, he said what she told him those many years ago had made a big impact: “We all make mistakes, but God will forgive us if we ask for his help.”

While Allor visits the jails frequently, bringing holy Communion to the Catholic inmates, she tries to make Christmastime extra special with paper bags of goodies.

Allor told The Michigan Catholic her jail ministry gives her a unique perspective on life.

“But for the grace of God, I could be in there too and want someone to care about me,” she said.

Allor said she doesn’t excuse the wrongs committed by inmates, but in her 26th year visiting the imprisoned, she continues to remind them that “Jesus died on the cross for all of us and rose again for all of us.”

She explained: “Each bag gets a religious Christmas card with a stamp” — to send to their families — “a holy picture,” this year featuring Mother Teresa and the “Footprints in the Sand” story, plus “a pair of socks, candy, bags of potato chips or pretzels.”

Allor had been a longtime parishioner of St. Joseph Parish in Monroe, which closed in September, and credits St. Joseph and its former pastor, Fr. Bill Fischer, OSFS, for helping her prison ministry blossom.

This year, eighth graders from St. John the Baptist and volunteers from other local parishes even helped with the Christmas packages.

 



Christmas dinner

St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Garden City, offers a free Christmas Day dinner for those who have nowhere else to go each year, entirely for free.

Judy Larry and her husband, Bruce, had directed the turkey dinner with all the trimmings over the past 20 years at St. Dunstan Parish — which merged this year with St. Raphael to form St. Thomas the Apostle Parish — ever since they were given the task by an elderly couple who used to coordinate it.

“The people that don’t have a family or don’t have anywhere to go, or just really need to be with people … that’s why we do it,” said Larry, who is known to friends as “Judy O.”

“Lord knows we’ve got 22 grandkids, we could be very, very, very busy. But I choose to do this to make someone else’s day better,” said Larry, whose family also volunteers at the dinner.

When St. Dunstan and St. Raphael merged, the idea for the dinner became a huge hit, with Larry receiving calls “every day” from people who wanted to volunteer. Recently, a woman with two teenage children called asking how they could help.

“She wanted them to be able to do something (other than) think about opening gifts for themselves,” Larry recalled.

Larry said generous donations from local residents and businesses have made her feel extra blessed this year.

“I know people appreciate it,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun.”

Coats for the needy

For the past seven years, Holy Family, Memphis, parishioner Leslie Kowalski has coordinated a highly successful coat drive for people in need in the rural northern Macomb County and southern St. Clair County community after a friend who started the drive 20 years ago “handed off the baton.”

“It started in her breezeway and my basement, and it got so big that we have to store the stuff in a cube van at church because of all the donations,” said Kowalski.

Today, the main event of the “Country Caring & Sharing Coat Drive” is held at Holy Family’s parish center, always takes place near Christmas, and items are available free of charge.

This year, many people had donated brand-new items, Kowalski said, which were greatly appreciated by those who received them Dec. 13. “Some will even give (the items) to their kids for Christmas,” she said.

With the recent clustering of Holy Family and Richmond’s St. Augustine Parish, volunteer numbers have expanded. Kowalski said this year, St. Augustine’s confirmation candidates, their sponsors and parents, plus the parish’s Columbian Squires, came over to help out; other neighboring parishes helped, too.

Kowalski said the drive collects much more than coats; hats, sweaters, blankets, mittens, scarves are also welcome.

“A lot of people have to keep the heat down, or don’t even have heat,” Kowalski said, adding that socks are also distributed, since many clients cannot drive and must walk everywhere.

If there are leftover items, Kowalski and volunteers send them to other organizations and ministries that help those struggling in the community.

“Like the Holy Father says, ‘this’ is the New Evangelization: care for people by fulfilling their most basic needs, and show them the face of the Catholic Church,” she said.