Catholic Charities hosted their third annual Harvest of Hope Breakfast on Tuesday at Café on Main in downtown Mansfield. Rebecca Owens, site manager of Catholic Charities, said the breakfast is the agency’s sole fundraiser.
“It’s our chance to bring awareness to the agency,” she said. “It’s also our chance to say thank you to the community and the many, many different businesses and individuals and volunteers that we work with throughout the year.”
Owens emphasized the positive relationships and partnerships the agency has with the community.
“We could not be where we’re at now without the relationships that we have with the many, many people, businesses, and organizations we have in the area,” she said. “We appreciate that very much.”
During the breakfast, Owens again highlighted the importance of the agency being an active part of the community.
“We are very grateful to be included in many activities throughout the community or projects in the community that involves touching peoples’ lives, involves making a change — involves being important and contributing to the community itself and not just being seen as a social service agency,” she said. “We are part of the community and we are very much in the mix of things.”
Owens challenged the audience to leave the breakfast thinking of charity in a new way. For the past six months, she said, her office has been debating the idea of toxic charity versus transformative charity; the idea of asset based community development and “keys.”
“We have had conversations on how to evolve into a new model of care,” she said. “How do we help people but help people in a different way so that they can help themselves?”
The event’s main speaker Harvey Alston.
Alston, a motivational speaker, educator and author from Westerville, gave a humorous, positive speech to the crowd.
“The general message is being the best you that you can be in this world,” Alston said. “I think mediocrity has set in for a lot of people and they set the bar down a little bit.
“So what I want to do is inspire people to give them that extra nudge to take it up another notch and give the best that they have inside themselves – not to match anybody else, but the best job that you can do each and every day.”
Catholic Charities is a part of the Diocese of Toledo and provides local services such as: The H.O.P.E. food pantry, the Wellness Works Project, emergency services which help people with prescription and medical assistance and financial literacy programs, adult advocacy services, and payee services. They help to people of all faiths and offers many local services that help people when they need it most.
The agency is located at 2 Smith Ave., Mansfield. The agency is a United Way partner.
Along with financial donations, Catholic Charities accepts food donations. There are also many opportunities to volunteer.
For more information, call the office at 419-522-0733.
“We are very grateful to be included in many activities throughout the community or projects in the community that involves touching peoples’ lives, involves making a change — involves being important and contributing to the community itself and not just being seen as a social service agency,” said Rebecca Owens.
