Sisters of St. Joseph Call on Wheeling Community for Annual Service Day
Trending
WHEELING -- While the Sisters of St. Joseph lend their time and talent during their annual service day, they ask the Wheeling community to give their treasures at the Community Non-Perishable Food and Personal Care Drive.
Community members can bring donations to the two drop-off locations at the St. Michael Parish parking lot and Mount St. Joseph's front door from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
The focus of the drive is to fight food insecurity in the area, as Sisters of St. Joseph have partnered with the Ohio County Family Resource Network to fill up Blessing Boxes across the city with non-perishable food, personal care items and cleaning products.
Those who donate will see their items spread across Blessing Boxes in the area, with locations in GC&P Road, South Wheeling, Valley Grove and Bethlehem. These 24-hour accessible pantries allow those in need to take whatever they need available in the box.
This is not the first Blessing Box drive the congregation has orchestrated, with Sisters of St. Joseph Coordinator of Community Life Rose Mathes highlighting the congregation partnering with one of the Blessing Boxes in South Wheeling this summer to assist kids who had "greater needs" while school was out.
After the success of the first drive, they decided to bring the event back during the group's annual Service Day.
Beginning in 2017, Service Day was born by the congregation wanting to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph with a day that focuses on community outreach.
While donations are collected, volunteers will also head up to St. Joseph Retreat Center to assist the sisters in their service efforts.
One group lending their time will be the Dear Neighbor Knitters, who will knit and crochet blankets for children in need.
"The group's focus is serving our "dear neighbors" in the community without distinction," said Sister Kathleen Durkin. "They have done lots of work for the homeless and veterans, so on Saturday, they will focus on making sure kids in the area have blankets."
Other volunteers will also assist in installing seven bluebird boxes on the grounds. A garden clean-up and garage clean-out will also take place, doubling as a collection of recyclable items to be distributed to local recycling sites.
"The retreat center is a place for people to come and relax in this beautiful space," said Durkin. "We want to keep the environment beautiful for those who visit."
Sisters of St. Joseph members will also be packing bags for two women's programs in the area: Laughlin Chapel's Blossoms program for unsheltered women and the YWCA's Women Inspired in New Directions program.
"We have a variety of different projects that are part of our outreach to help meet the needs in the community," said Mathes on Service Day. "Both our sisters, Catholic parishes and other organizations are all taking part in the effort."
The last group needed for the Service Day is the Wheeling community to fill up Blessing Box donation sites. Mathes outlined that goods accepted include non-perishable foods such as jars or cans of sauce, peanut butter and jelly.
Apart from food, the congregation will also be accepting donations of personal care items, including women's feminine products, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
Mathes added that another item category often needed for the Blessing Boxes is cleaning products.
"A lot of people don't have money to buy dish soap, detergent and lots of other items needed for cleaning, too," said Mathes. "We didn't ask for cleaning products specifically in the drive, but those items are definitely appreciated as well."
To assist those with food insecurity in the community is of "great importance" for the Sisters of St. Joseph, said Mathes, who emphasized that "hunger is a real thing" in the area.
"There are people out there not getting what they need, so if we and those in the community have something that we can share with a neighbor, that's a blessing," said Mathes.
Using the Blessing Boxes to fight hunger is also important to the congregation, with Mathes describing the program as "protecting the dignity" of those with food insecurity.
"Once people find out about the boxes, they can go as often as they need to," said Mathes. "It's sometimes very humbling to have to go and sign up at these food pantries, but the Blessing Boxes allow them to access food without all the red tape."
Hoping that the event "empowers" those in the community in the same way it empowers congregation members, Mathes added that the Sisters of St. Joseph do not want to "just throw money at different organizations" to try to solve the needs of Wheeling.
"We're inviting partners in the community to be with us and to do this work," said Mathes. "We want to work with those in need to get them out of situations where they're stuck in poverty in different ways."