Posts Tagged ‘Neediest Cases’

Pressing on for the Children

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

By Alice  Kenny

For more than a decade, Marjorie Suarez worked as a sergeant at New York University Department of Public Safety.  She supervised a staff of 80 officers and earned enough to provide a comfortable life for herself and her young son, Eugene.

But a freak accident that began with a fall and sprained ankle morphed into a chronic condition, complex regional pain syndrome, CRPS, left her wheelchair bound, unemployed and in constant pain.

The New York Times profiled her and the help she received during last year’s Neediest Cases campaign.  This year, it caught back up with her in this online video along with two other women helped by the campaign.

“This entire situation made me humble and opened my heart,” Ms. Suarez said.  “I see now that even a small gesture like saying “good morning” to someone – “how are you doing; how can I help you” — can change a day and turn a life around.”

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Posted in New York City, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »

A Widow Struggles to Pick Up the Pieces

Monday, November 26th, 2012

By Alice Kenny

Beaulah Smith sat on a hospital bed beside Isaac, her husband of 40 years, as a team of doctors explained the grim state of his health.

Terminal colon cancer. Inoperable.

Mr. Smith died three weeks later, on Feb. 2, 2012.

While grieving, Ms. Smith simultaneously fought her own life-and-death battle with ovarian cancer.  The two contests broke her heart and depleted her savings.

Click here to read her story published this past Sunday in The New York Times and learn about support and intervention that Catholic Charities provided.

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Posted in New York City, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »

Beaten, Blinded and Homeless, Young Man Rebuilds Life

Friday, November 16th, 2012

By Alice Kenny

Carlos Castro does not remember the last thing he saw before losing consciousness on March 7, 2003. He collapsed onto a sidewalk in Flushing, Queens, after one of the five attackers he had been fleeing stabbed him in his chest, shoulder and stomach.

But the memory of what Mr. Castro, then 16, first glimpsed when his eyes opened next is indelible. “It was black,” he said. “I had no sight.”

Click here to read about his struggle to recover his sight and care for his elderly mother and the crucial help he received from Catholic Charities Guild for the Blind.

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Posted in Agencies, New York City, Policy and Advocacy, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, Supporting the Physically and Emotionally Challenged, Uncategorized, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »

Pregnant and Homeless, Teenage Mom Finds Help. Read her story in The New York Times.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

By Alice Kenny

The New York Times Neediest Cases Campaign kicked off its 101st year of profiling the people Catholic Charities serves.

Lataja James, 18, for example, planned to attend an all-expense-paid volunteer program in Nicaragua the summer before her senior year of high school.  But when she went to her doctor for the required vaccinations, a simple blood test revealed that she was pregnant.

The following day, Lataja’s mother bought her a suitcase.  But it was not for the trip Lataja had planned.

“‘I don’t know where you’re going,’” Lataja recalls her mother saying, “‘but you’re going to get out of my house.’”

Click here to read about the home and help Lataja found at Catholic Charities affiliate Elinor Martin Residence for Mother and Child in New Rochelle, NY and the future she and her baby son, Dillyn, have begun to build.

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Posted in Feeding the Hungry and Sheltering the Homeless, New York City, Policy and Advocacy, Protecting and Nurturing Children and Youth, Strengthening Families and Resolving Crises, What We Do at Catholic Charities | No Comments »