HAMMOND – Some of the people they help don’t have a home, so the Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Gary,Inc. is happy to have a new headquarters to meet the needs of its clients, whether it be food, utility bill payments, or even help with housing payments.
Celebrating its 50th year of service, the Our Lady of Perpetual Help conference, one of 22 parish conferences in the Diocese of Gary that make up the district council, shares the district’s new home at 2714 169th St., just west of Indianapolis Blvd. in Hammond. “We have been in the building for a year, but it has taken time to unpack and get settled, and, we just got our new sign-up, so we are hoping to have an official blessing by Bishop (Robert) McClory and an open house this fall,” said Diane McKern, former longtime SVDP district president and current vice president.
McKern said that the rent for the building, a former hospice care office, is paid by donations from SVDP volunteers and not fundraising events or general SVDP donations. “Those of us on the district council pay the rent, not those who donate to our clients,” stressed McKern.
One of its biggest fundraisers of the year, allowing the SVDP to help its neighbors with a variety of needs, is the annual Friends of the Poor Walk, this year set for Saturday, Sept. 21, at Lemon Lake County Park southwest of Crown Point. Registration begins at 9 a.m. at Pavilion #2, while the walk, mapped out at eight-tenths of a mile, begins at 10 a.m., followed by a potluck picnic until 1 p.m. “You can walk the entire route, or just a part of it, or not at all,” noted McKern. “Most of all, come out and enjoy the fellowship. The proceeds help our conferences fill Thanksgiving food baskets for their clients, and some of them make home visits to deliver them.”
Participants are asked to make a personal donation and collect pledges from friends and relatives to support SVDP. To sign up for the local walk, go to svdpusa.org/fop-walk, scroll down to Indiana and click on the Diocese of Gary walk location.
Mike Martinelli, current district president, said Society of St. Vincent de Paul members from throughout the district council can warm up for the fundraising walk with a Vincentian Retreat planned for 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 14, in the lower level Mural Room at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Whiting. Hosted by Sacred Heart in Whiting, the retreat will be guided by Father Jerry Schweitzer, senior priest and followed by a luncheon.
To attend, RSVP to Martinelli at 922-1923, 802-6443 or email themartinellis@att.net by Sept. 6.
Starting in October, the SVDP will begin its annual Caps for Kids program, accepting new knitted hats, gloves, scarves and socks from donors who can drop them off at the Pastoral Center in Merrillville. “This is our 26th year, and we hope to begin distributing these with our Thanksgiving baskets and to other agencies to get to children in time for winter,” said McKern.
One of the local conferences that is very active is at St. James the Less in Highland, which just distributed gift cards as a Back to School Project for needy students. “We find that instead of collecting school supplies, gift cards allow families to purchase exactly what they need and haven’t received from another source,” said SVDP conference member Deb Uhll. “We get the names from our food pantry list of about 200 clients, and we do the same thing at Christmas with our Angel Tree, so parents can buy a present their child wants.”
Uhll said her SVDP parish conference is thrilled that the SVDP district council had its own building, and they support district projects like the Walk for the Poor as much as possible. “We don’t always have to call them when a local resident calls us in need; sometimes we can just respond at the parish level.”
Uhll also wanted to promote the SVDP district’s Vehicle Donation Program, allowing donors to give an unneeded car, boat, RV, or snowmobile to the SVDP, who will sell it and benefit from the proceeds. “For more information on how to donate a vehicle, you can contact me at (708) 278-0037,” noted Uhll.
At Our Lady of Sorrows in Valparaiso, too, the parish often meets the needs of local residents without reaching out to the District Council, said St. Vincent de Paul conference member Sharon Kosiola. “We take up a monthly collection at weekend Masses and our parishioners are very generous,” she said. “When local people call (the directed SVDP number 759-3480) for groceries, rent or utility bill help, now up to about 20 families a month, our parish can usually help them. We deliver the food ourselves, adding a personal touch.”
McKern said she got involved in SVDP 44 years ago “because God chose me. I was challenged in the RCIA program not to become a Catholic in name only, and when I walked into my first SVDP meeting after seeing an announcement in the church bulletin, I was home.”
Also a convert to Catholicism, Martinelli recalls all of the ministries at St. Thomas More in Munster sending a representative to his RCIA class. “St. Vincent de Paul struck me as something I could and wanted to do, and I found so many like-minded people among Vincentians.”
“We are all family,” McKern said of Vincentians. “We love getting together and we love helping people.”
Caption: Diane McKern, vice president, and Mike Martinelli, president, take a look at the new sign that identifies the Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Gary headquarters at 2714 169th St. in Hammond. The building has been rented for about a year, and after moving from the former cramped quarters at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Hammond and settling in, said McKern, the council is ready to have the building formally blessed and host an open house, hopefully later this fall. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)