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Saturday, July 13, 2013
House News
by Tina Sipula
Emily Blankensberger
Each person
who comes to help at Clare House comes to add to our ministry and add to all of
our lives here and touches all those we serve.
Some of our volunteers have been with us for decades; some have been
with us only a few months. And then,
occasionally, a rare and gifted student comes along who asks to do an
“internship” with us for a major or class.
Emily Blankenberger is with us for the summer, and I honestly wish she
was moving in and staying for the duration!
Emily hails from Chicago Heights and I had the great fortune to meet her
mother, Mary Helen, this past Saturday when she came to work with Emily in the
basement. When I meet a really special
young person, I really want to meet their parents, because I want to know those
who helped to mold them and make them the incredible people they are. After briefly meeting Emily’s mother, it was
easy to nod and say, “Now she makes more sense.” Please come by and meet Emily, (who rides her
bike here on Wed. morning, Wed. afternoon, Wed. evening, and Sat. morning) and
you will be wowed by her enthusiasm, creativity, intelligence, compassion,
humor, and personalism. (She won’t
forget your name!)
Our little garden in the back is
flourishing with all the rain and heat.
Soon we will pick all the lettuce and hope the radishes, broccoli, and
Swiss chard will adorn our plates as well.
If you have any extra produce this summer or fall, please share it with
our folks in line by just putting it on our porch at any time, and if you have
any bags to go with it, that would be great.
Our pantry mostly has canned goods and dry goods, so anything fresh from
a garden is a real treat! And Emily
wants to learn to can this summer, so if you would like to learn also, contact
us and we will teach you the long lost art of preserving food.
My oldest sister, Dorothy, passed away
this spring at the young age of 67. In
her memory, the volunteer crew at the Thursday soup kitchen pitched in and
erected a beautiful stone bench in the back yard of Clare House. It has a prayer carved on the top of the
bench and each time I walk in or out of the house, I think of my sister and say
a little prayer for her and for all those who were so kind to memorialize her
in this precious way.
With summer upon us, we knew the numbers
at the soup kitchen would increase now that school is out, but the onslaught
was a bit overwhelming our first few weeks.
We continually ran out of our homemade soups or casseroles and have had
to resort to opening cans of soup to keep up with the need. We are averaging around 100 people for lunch
now. Even though we do not serve until
11:30, folks fill the dining room by 8:30 in the morning to drink coffee (it is
generally depleted by 10:00) and enjoy donuts from Denny’s Donuts, pastries
from Panera’s, bread from Great Harvest and enjoy a cool and quiet safe
space. Folks play cards, read, and the
children have a play box where they can color, play games and have fun. When one comes to “Loaves and Fishes,” or
works our food line, it is easy to see why Dorothy Day wrote the
following: “We cannot love God unless we
love each other and to love we must know each other. We know Christ in the breaking of the bread
and we know each other in the breaking of the bread and we are not alone
anymore.”
General Information
General Information
Food Pantry Hours:
Wednesday and Friday 1:00 to 1:15 pm
Soup Kitchen Hours:
Tuesday & Thursday 11:30 am to 12:30
pm
St. Mary’s Church
527 W. Jackson, Bloomington
House Hours for Donations:
Wednesday 9-11 am and 7-8 pm
Saturday 9-11 am
We are not tax exempt…
In keeping with the
Catholic Worker Tradition, we have not sought tax exempt status since we are
convinced that justice and works of mercy should be acts of conscience that
come from personal sacrifice without government approval, regulations or
rewards. Therefore, gifts to Clare House
are not tax deductible.
Wish List
Stamps, celery, onions,
chickens, hams, eggs, cheese, lunch meat, ground beef, chuck roasts, soup base,
fruit, large cans of soup, tuna, tomatoes, baked beans, chili beans, hot dogs,
buns, 1 gallon baggies, 33 gallon trash bags, small heavy paper plates,
powdered drink mix, cereal, vegetables, macaroni and cheese, baby food, baby
wipes, baby formula, diapers, toilet paper, sanitary pads, paper towels.
·
Money
for bills, taxes, and insurance
·
Gift
Certificates for grocery stores
·
Coffee,
coffee creamer, sugar
·
Please
plant an extra row of vegetables for those in our line
·
Tickets
to anywhere
·
PRAYERS!
THANK YOU FOR WHATEVER YOU CAN DO!
Scenes from the Soup Kitchen
Connie Yeagle and Mary Ann Saulcy
Ann Larkin and Nancy McCriskin
Mike McNeil
Debbie Mizer making chicken salad.
Gerry Green and Tina Sipula at the Soup Kitchen
Sue Quane, Katie Saulcy, Brenna Poncin, Connie Yeagle, Laura Cain, & Mary Ann Saulcy
Jack Wilz, Gary Yeagle, Gerry Green, John Ray, Ann Larkin
Special Request:
The Clare House dining room table is an 1890's Honduras mahogany table that has been with the house for 35 years. it is used a lot and is very special to us, but it is in need of being refinished. if there is an expert out there who could help us refinish this lovely piece of furniture, please give us a call at the house at: 828-4035. Thank you!
Connections and What Did I Miss?
Connections
Sister
Glenda Bourgeois, OSU
Think about it. Life is all about connections, isn’t it? Our
needs, our loves, our stories, our inspirations connect us with others.
As I awaited donations
on Saturday morning my mind turned to the activity that take place at the side
door of Clare House. I see it as a place of remarkable connections. It is at
that door that we take in donations and through which those donations are
handed out making all the difference in the lives of those who queue up twice a
week every week of the year. In a real
sense the side door at Clare House is a really sacred place, a place of such
compassionate connection. It is a place where connections are life lines. It is
a place where need connects with grace, where hope connects with nourishment,
where brother connects with sister in our human family and where both connect
with the tender mercies of our God whose love embraces us all.
Our twenty-first
century is one in which good and evil, life and death, those who have enough
and more than enough and those who are deprived live in close proximity no
matter how far apart. Clare House gives us the opportunity to connect and make
our world a better place. And it is such a gift to see it happening at the side
door week after week.
What Did I Miss?
Stew Salowitz
There are several definitions of the
word “miss” – one is “to fail to attend” and another is “to feel the lack or
loss of.” Hopefully you’ll figure out which one is accurate in these next few
sentences.
I
missed working last week at the soup kitchen, out of town at a convention for
work. I’m sure everyone got along fine without me, but I missed being there.
I missed Elmer carrying and cleaning the trays. I missed
Paul, sitting in the corner reading a thick book, and the tall, electronic
musician, Abraham, coming back for another bowl of soup. I missed exchanging
words with Brian and Andy and the twins.
I’d mention the co-workers I missed, but would get in
trouble if I left anyone out - I’ve only been “working” at the Soup Kitchen one
day a week for about two years, but in that relatively short time I’ve made
wonderful connections with those people, dedicated and caring and working with
a sense of humor and humility.
The soup kitchen has become part of my routine and I
missed it when I missed it. (Oh, I missed my cookies, too.)
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and
you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” – Matthew 25:35
A Dinner Hour Caller
Bob Sampson
It was the dinner hour on a typically long Wednesday at Clare
House and the knock on the door broke the last hour of quiet before the
donation hour began. Answering the door, I found Ralph, a regular in the food
line, leaning on the side of the house, the bag of groceries he received four
hours earlier at his side.
Obviously intoxicated, he asked for a ride home. Clearly, he
could not walk the several blocks to his house and, given his history of
literally collapsing in the middle of busy streets, to send him on his way
would have been risky. The decision was easy. What followed was more
challenging.
As we moved toward my car, Ralph suddenly announced that he
wanted to go to the hospital emergency room. “My roommate’s an alcoholic and he
won’t let me get any sleep if I go back to my place,” he explained. Not sure if
Ralph was going to pass out or vomit in the car, let alone become belligerent
when the hospital sent him on his way, I began the drive trying to figure out
what to do in the worst-case scenario—of which there seemed to be several.
We parked in the hospital lot. Ralph staggered out of the car
and we made it through the door of the emergency room. I immediately caught the
eye of a police officer on duty, figuring this fellow could be very important
in a few seconds. As I was schmoozing the cop, a young lady walked out from
behind the admission counter. “Ralph,” she said in a friendly, welcoming tone,
“what can we do for you?” Ralph, who was wobbling as he struggled to
remain upright, replied, “I need a bed.” “Have a seat, we’ll have it
ready in a bit and you can keep your groceries with you,” she said.
Until that moment, I thought I had seen just about everything.
But now I learned that Ralph knew exactly what he was talking about. The good
folks at the hospital knew of his problem and realized he’d be better off
drying out in a safe bed than on the pavement of a busy street.
Just another day at Clare House, I thought as I drove away.
Compassionate
Loving
Accepting
Respectful
Encouraging
Humble
Observant
Understanding
Serving
Enthusiastic
Brian and Donna
Brian Bernhardt, who has been volunteering most of his life on Saturday mornings.
Donna Boelen, who has been "taking the door" for many years.
No Job is Too Large and No Job is Too Small
Bill Tolone
Over the years, I have come to the
realization that I am not the one doing God's work but that, if I make good
decisions on where to be in life, God is able to work through me. Also, I've learned that "no job is too
large to accomplish" and that "no job is too small to be beneath a
person's dignity." What this all
means for us at Clare House is quite clear.
When we provide food for our sisters and brothers in need, we are in a
position to allow God to work though us to reach out to people. And, we realize that whether it's a large
food drive or individual people and families donating single items of food, God
and we are able to get the job done.
When we see people sitting on the
front porch of Clare House and standing in line every Wednesday and Friday, we
understand that the need to help is great. Any number of times, Scripture
writers remind us that the "poor will always be with us" and that it
is our responsibility to help them. Of
course, those people who are poor are not lacking in a spiritual way, but in a
material way as they need food, clothing, shelter, etc.
So, we are all in this together. On Wednesday evenings when I volunteer at
Clare House, we first note the number of bags of food that have been
distributed earlier that day. We use
this as a sign of how many people were in line and what we need to do to
replenish the supply of food-filled bags for Friday's distribution. Sometimes, Wednesday's line was so long, Tina
tells us that, in addition to the usual number (100) of filled bags, she and
other volunteers had to fill 25 or maybe even more additional bags. Then, she also asks us to fill significantly
more than our usual 100 bags for Friday because she knows that the line of people
will be long, again.
Working in the basement of Clare House
filling individual bags with food, it's possible to only focus on the task of
doing this, one bag at a time. But, when
we learn about the great need for many bags of food, it shows us the larger
picture of suffering experienced by our friends and neighbors. It is then that we more fully realize how,
one bag of food at a time, together we trying to reach out and help.
Scenes From the Clare House
Jennifer Poncin handing out baby formula, diapers, and wipes.
Emily Blankenberger and her mom, Jackie.
Richard and Donna, handing out bags of food.
Clare House Top 10 Random Thoughts
Jennifer Poncin
1.
Working in the stairwell during handout is
sometimes powerful; hearing small children fussing or crying outside causes one
to pray extra hard for them.
2.
There are women who come every week and
hand-write thank-you cards to everyone who donates to Clare House. That’s
pretty awesome.
3.
You meet the nicest people when you work, and
you meet new people whenever you come at a different time.
4.
It’s never too late in your life to learn
Spanish.
5.
If you give away the soy milk, you’ll be in
serious trouble!!! ;)
6.
It’s also never too early to teach your children
to give to others.
7.
We go through a lot of diapers, and we always
seem to be out of a certain size at any given time.
8.
The Little Library is adorable, and could use
some children’s books in Spanish.
9.
You can talk about Clare House on Facebook and
your friends start coming out of the woodwork to give you food and diapers to
take there.
10.
You will never work anyplace that does more for
others than what we do, and I’m so proud to be a part of our group.
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