 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
November
21, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 20Oakland,
CA
Churches, schools continue Katrina aid
As those who
stayed and those who left struggle to create new lives after Hurricane
Katrina, schools, parishes and individuals throughout the Oakland Diocese
are coming to their aid.
From Hayward and Pleasanton to Alameda and Byron, local Catholics have
extended a generous hand, and in doing so they have formed bonds of affection
and respect with the newcomers and with those suffering half a continent
away.
“They have been so unselfishly loving,” said Juana Peters,
a mother of eight from Slidell, La. She was referring to members of St.
Anne Parish in Byron, who “adopted” the family of
nine through Catholic Charities of the East Bay.
Earlier this year, Peters had moved to Louisiana to take care of her ailing
mother. After the hurricane hit and she lost everything, she piled her
kids into her car and moved back to the East Bay.
The parish helped with rent on a home in Brentwood, utilities, food, and
Halloween costumes for the kids, as well as resources for medical treatment.
Peters has cancer and two of her children suffer from severe asthma.
She said the parishioners are “a definite support system,”
quick to respond “if I call for anything or they’re just willing
to listen.” Peters now has a job and her school-age children are
enrolled in local public schools.
June Gray, a native of New Orleans, who came with her husband and three
children to stay with her brother in Hayward, expresses similar affection
for Mary Pult, principal of St. Clement School in Hayward. “She
has been wonderful to my family,” she said. “She’s made
Julia (her daughter) so comfortable at St. Clement’s.”
The Grays, who lost their home and their jobs in the hurricane, are waiting
to hear what their flood insurance will cover and when they can begin
to rebuild. In the meantime they are trying to find a home to rent in
the Hayward/Castro Valley area.
“I miss my home, waking up and being able to cook in my pots,”
she said. “I missed going to my parents’ graves on All Saints
Day. I miss going to my church at home. And I miss my co-workers in a
special education dept. in the New Orleans central office. There were
about 40 of us and now we’re spread all over.”
For her part, Sharon McKee of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton
speaks with affection of Charlene Blakes, her three teenage daughters
and 71-year-old grandmother, also from New Orleans. McKee and the other
members of a small Christian community adopted the family of five when
CCEB found them housing in Hayward.
“It’s unbelievable what can be done,” McKee said. “CCEB
found housing, Sleep Train gave them the beds,” and her community
provided $300 in cash (raised from recycling aluminum and plastic). The
group also collected sheets, towels, dishes, silverware, furniture and
other necessities to help the family settle into their home.
As with the Blakes, Catholic Charities has been matching
evacuees with adoptive parishes, groups and individuals when the families
move out of hotels and other temporary shelters into housing. About 28
families have been adopted after finding permanent or transitional homes,
according to Millie Burns, director of planning and program development
for CCEB.
“Our parishes have been phenomenal,” she said. Now the effort
is to get all of the evacuees out of hotels, where some still languish.
In all, CCEB has enrolled 142 families in need of assistance, which includes
everything from money for transportation and medicine to housing, clothing,
textbooks and other items. Burns hopes other parishes and groups will
step forward to help.
CCEB has received funding from Catholic Charities USA and from a group
of Oakland churches. The Pastors of Oakland Association collected $210,000
and divided the funds among seven organizations – such as Habitat
for Humanity, churches, and the Salvation Army - with $33,300 going to
CCEB.
Bishop Bob Jackson, pastor at Acts Full Gospel Assembly and president
of the association, said the account will remain open and donors can continue
to send checks made out to “Oakland United in Love,” care
of Bank of the West, 3400 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland, 94610.
Catholic elementary and high schools in the diocese are also reaching
out to help. Many schools took part in the National Catholic Education
Association “Child to Child” fund appeal. The diocesan school
board collected contributions from all its members and challenged other
boards to do the same.
Schools have linked up with counterparts in Mississippi and Louisiana,
providing funds, supplies, prayers and other support. In Alameda, Sacred
Heart Father Rich Danyluk, pastor at St. Joseph Basilica,
wrote to several dioceses in Louisiana offering help to a parish with
an elementary and high school.
His search paid off, and now the parish and its two schools — St.
Joseph Elementary School and St. Joseph Notre Dame High School
— have formed ties with Immaculate Conception Parish in Marrero,
La., that has Immaculata High School for girls and Immaculate Conception
Elementary School. “It’s a real natural fit,” said Chuck
Johnson, the Alameda parish’s business administrator, who oversees
the partnership.
Tony Aiello, SJND principal, keeps in touch with Sister Maria Colombo,
principal at Immaculata. The area, he said, was struck by a tornado after
the hurricane passed, leaving even more devastation.
“Some students and even faculty are without their homes and making
do with what they can find or be provided,” he said. “The
elementary and high school are using halls and meeting rooms and a Knights
of Columbus Center for classes.”
His school raised $3,500 during one classroom period, he said, and is
considering a letter writing project and food or gift baskets as well
as additional funds.
Mandy Tham, principal at St. Joseph Elementary School, said her students
have raised $6,500 and families were buying books to send to the students
who have lost their belongings. “Then we’ll look at textbooks,”
she said, as well as a pen pal program, Christmas gifts and other items.
Immaculate Conception School “has done extraordinary things opening
its doors to other kids,” Tham said. “They had 800 to start
with. Now they’ve got 1,200.”
Other partnerships include St. Clement School in Hayward,
which is supporting St. Clement of Rome School in Metairie, La. The Hayward
students raised $1,000 for the Child to Child campaign and also sent the
sister school $1,200 to replace textbooks and workbooks.
The teachers also sent materials for their counterparts in Metairie, and
the two schools keep in touch through e-mail.
St. John the Baptist School in El Cerrito has linked
up with St. James School in Gulfport, Miss., through the Sisters of Mercy
who teach at both schools. “Their families lost everything in the
hurricane and cannot afford to pay tuition,” said Terry Barber,
St. John the Baptist principal.
The El Cerrito school sent $2,300, the cost of a year’s tuition
for one student, and students in fifth and sixth grade wrote letters and
cards to students in Mississippi. They will also be sending stuffed animals.
“Our students have taken on this new project with generous hearts
and much enthusiasm,” Barber said.
St. John the Baptist School also sponsored one student evacuee from New
Orleans, Lakasia Williams, while she was staying with relatives in California.
She has since returned home.
St. Catherine of Siena School in Martinez has adopted
St. Anne School in Tomball, Texas. Students at St. Catherine sent their
new friends prayer cards and collected over $500 in donations.
At Christ the King School in Pleasant Hill, the community
has sent donations to two schools – St. Aloysius in Baton Rouge,
La., that took in 172 students from New Orleans, and St. Thomas School
in Long Beach, Miss., which lost its school building and is operating
out of a former skating rink.
Principal Linda Basman said Christ the King linked with the two schools
through personal contacts at the parish and school. The school sent $4,000
to St. Aloysius and $3,500 to St. Thomas in addition to $400 sent to the
Child to Child campaign.
Sister James Marien Dyer, principal at Carondelet High School
in Concord, reported that students there collected over $6,000
in four days for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille to help the schools
run by the congregation and for the Sisters themselves.
Students at St. Leo School in Oakland donated money to
hurricane victims and the student council is in the process of adopting
St. Leo the Great School in New Orleans as their outreach project this
year. St. Bede students in Hayward raised $442 in addition
to an original $500 in free dress days to help those who suffered losses
in the hurricane.
In addition, St. Bede admitted twin girls, Blair and Blake Washington,
after they relocated to the area.
At Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, five students
from the Gulf Coast have enrolled. “They’ve all received financial
assistance from Bishop O’Dowd,” said assistant principal Sandra
Arnsdorff.
St. Mary’s College in Moraga has been raising money
for the Christian Brothers’ “Bridges to Bayou” project,
a district-wide campaign to raise money for the order’s schools,
teachers and families in Louisiana.
Pamela Thomas, campus minister, said St. Mary’s plans to host a
“Liturgy of Light” the first Sunday of December, where representatives
from high schools and colleges taking part in “Bridges to Bayou”
will symbolically bring up their gifts. “Then we hope to send a
rather large check to the New Orleans district,” she said.
Three Oakland parishes – St. Benedict, St. Columba and St.
Patrick – are offering a different outreach, hosting a
liturgy and reception today (Nov. 21) for evacuees.
Besides offering hospitality, it is an opportunity for evacuees to connect
with one another.
Trystan Atkinson, Abby Sims and Jenna Anderson, students at St. Joseph
School in Alameda, pack some of the 150 books donated by the schoolmates
for Immaculate Conception School in Marrero, Louisiana.
CHRIS DUFFEY PHOTO
