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Do your part to make sure no hungry neighbor is turned away. www.CatholicCharitiesNY.org/FeedingOurNeighbors
From January 27th-February 3rd, you can help answer the call to feed the hungry through Catholic Charities annual Feeding Our Neighbors campaign to replenish New York’s stretched food pantries and soup kitchens. Your contribution can do so much.
Nearly seven decades later, Charles Daubek Jr., 94, still remembers the “wonderful feeling” of first seeing the house – their first – that his parents saved, scrimped and borrowed to buy while he served as a private first class during World War II.
An only child and never married, Mr. Daubek has lived in that home in Hastings on Hudson since returning from the war in 1946. The fraying roof and rusting mailbox tell one story: at his age, he has neither the money nor the physical stamina to make repairs. But within the walls live a lifetime of memories – his memories – of special times with friends and with his parents, all of whom were buried years ago.
“It’s a terrible thing when you got to skimp and you don’t know if you can make it or not,” he said.
Read his profile in The New York Times. Learn about critical support he receives from Catholic Charities and its affiliate, Dominican Sisters Family Health Service, to help him to continue living independently.
Martin Luther King Day, celebrated this year on January 21, is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a “day on, not a day off.” It is a part of United We Serve, the President’s national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.
Only a month after Superstorm Sandy, families throughout the Archdiocese of New York are starting the long road to recovery. Once the immediate needs were met, the focus turned to getting survivors back on their feet and returning as much as they can to normal lives.
A year after Hurricane Irene hit, there was still plenty of work to be done. On Make a Difference Day on October 27th, Catholic Charities Disaster Case Managers Dan Buzi and Salif Banse worked with two IBM volunteers to clean up branches and other yard debris that had been knocked over by Hurricane Irene from the homes of two senior women. The women, who had been both physically and financially unable to attend to the work themselves, were extremely grateful for the help.
As Jeanne M. Touhey wrote in the Poughkeepsie Journal, regarding the help she’d received from Catholic Charities, “Last year the aftermath of Irene left me with downed trees and brush in my yard. After months of trying to clean it up and injuring my back, I was the grateful recipient of the help offered … I am humbled by your generosity.”
To help with clean-up from Sandy, sign up to volunteer with disaster recovery:
“The bad news is that the extent of the destruction from the storm seems wider and deeper each day,” Cardinal Dolan wrote in his November 13 blog post.
“…The good news is that God’s people – you – rose to the occasion…Catholic Charities of the archdiocese has been on the front lines, providing not only relief, but coordination of aid, helping as well to renew the spirit by providing counselors for those hit hard by loss.”
Click here to read Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan’s full message.
Do you need help?
Call Catholic Charities Toll-free Helpline: (888) 744-7900
Click here for more resources and information
Would you like to help others recover?
Text SANDY to 85944 to make a one-time $10 donation.
Catholic Charities staff and volunteers fanned out this weekend across neighborhoods still reeling from the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Sandy. They provided information and resources to parishioners at churches in hard-hit neighborhoods in lower Manhattan and Staten Island and offered hands-on support to those still staggering in the hurricane’s aftermath.
Generous donations, large and small, have bolstered our response. Actress Kirstie Alley sent a truckload of goods from the West Coast to the gym at the Staten Island Catholic Charities agency MIV / Mt. Loreto last Friday that are being distributed to impacted families. The following day, Catholic Community Services of Rockland staff and volunteers received much-needed donations of water from Coca-Cola at their Haverstraw emergency food pantry.
Join us to help New Yorkers in need.
Affected by the storm? Resources are available to help you recover.
Catholic Charities is working with local parishes and communities to provide help to New Yorkers recovering from the storm. If you need help and don’t know where to turn, call our toll-free number and we will guide you through the recovery process.
Click here to learn more.
Click here to provide donations.
Click here to volunteer.
Have you witnessed neighbors pulling together during this crisis to help strangers in need? Click here to share your story.
Pegeen Wall and Mary Marshall
Pegeen Wall and Mary Marshall did a double take when they heard one another’s name announced at a recent Catholic Charities volunteer training session held in Poughkeepsie. They met decades back when Ms. Marshall, then a young mom, volunteered to teach children to swim at the local YWCA where Ms. Wall then worked as aquatic director. But this time Ms. Wall, now semi retired, was the volunteer and Ms. Marshall was the recruiter seeking help. Their professional and volunteer careers, they later learned, mirrored one another’s as they zigzagged back and forth from volunteer to staff and expanded their expertise along the way.
After their first meeting, Ms. Wall, today a grandmother of six, built a successful career in public relations and fund raising for nonprofit organizations while volunteering on a variety of boards and committees. Meanwhile Ms. Marshall, a former IBM employee, volunteered as president of a local nursery school board, Parent-Teacher Association, garden club and more before volunteering at Catholic Charities in Ulster County in 1990. She joined the agency staff in 1993 and has since worked her way up to her current position as Director of Catholic Charities Community Services in Poughkeepsie.
Now this social service agency is in the midst of a major drive to tap into volunteer expertise so that it can enhance and expand services offered. Ms. Marshall has taken a leadership role in the effort in Poughkeepsie by drawing on expertise she developed working with and as a volunteer.
“We want to make sure we honor people who are generously giving their time,” Ms. Marshall said as she took a quick break from a monthly volunteer orientation and recruitment session in Dutchess County. “Instead of fitting people into narrow volunteer positions, we let them bring who they are and match them with what they have to offer.”
For Ms. Wall, this means the opportunity to do hands-on volunteer work by greeting clients, taking intake information and referring clients to Catholic Charities staff for help.
“I volunteered on boards and committees before but this has been an eye opener,” Ms. Wall said. “I hadn’t expected the caliber, education and gratitude of people needing help,” she added, “and I’m impressed by the professional, gracious staff here that goes over and above in their efforts to serve.”
Looking for your perfect volunteer opportunity?
Visit www.CatholicCharitiesNYVolunteer.org to learn more information about volunteers and volunteer opportunities.
Catholic Charities Community Services of Orange County, NY joined forces with the Orange County Bicycle Club on Sunday, September 16, for The Ride With the Camels, a 10-to-62-mile ride through forested ridges and rolling farmland that celebrated open space in Orange County, NY.
The event was named after a large pasture that bikers pedaled past that is filled with a herd of grazing camels. They were rescued after movie, advertising, and circus careers by the Sanctuary for Animals, and they live on the farm with hundreds of other rescued animals of different species. The hills, riders say, remind them of the camels’ humps so they saluted them as they rode by.
Proceeds from event celebrated open space in Orange County Proceeds and benefited Catholic Charities of Orange County, NY, the Orange County Land Trust, and the Sanctuary for Animals.
Click here for more information.
Click here to post your response.
Catholic Community Services in Rockland County –along with a core group of representatives from Rockland county-based organizations that work to feed the hungry — are using National Hunger Awareness Month, September 2012, as a springboard to call attention to local needs and local organizations working to combat hunger.
They are proclaiming September 6 – September 13 as Rockland County’s inaugural “Hunger Awareness and Action Week” to increase donations to food pantries and feeding programs and step up efforts to raise awareness of the issue of hunger.
Click here to learn more about Hunger Awareness Action Week events that you can join to help feed the hungry.
