Catholic Charities welcomed numerous community members and officials to its 100th anniversary celebration at Ed Pickens Café on Main Monday evening. Charity leaders reflected upon the organization’s success over the past 100 years, and renown author Robert Lupton shared a brief message that referenced his latest book, “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help, and How to Reverse It.”
Rodney Schuster, executive director, commented, “I think what’s exciting about [the anniversary] is that we’re standing on the shoulders of so many people that have come before us who for 100 years have been doing everything they can to help people in need, to help change lives.”
“I think for us it’s a great opportunity to increase awareness of the work that we do and also where we’re going…we’re hoping that this helps springboard us into increasing our service to where there’s a need,” he added.
Catholic Charities Diocese of Toledo serves approximately 40,000 people each year in 19 counties within Northwest Ohio. The organization offers a variety of services that pertain to housing, community emergency, food, adult advocacy, payee, adoption, pregnancy support, among many others.
The Mansfield office houses the H.O.P.E Pantry—a food pantry that distributed 150,000 pounds of food to 7,200 households in Richland County in 2013.
Tammy Graves testified to the valuable contributions provided by Catholic Charities. A recovering addict of 19 years, Graves encountered various hardships in her life and decided to seek help from Catholic Charities. She said that she met Laurie Hamrick, case manager, at the agency and noted, “Laurie actually listened. She did not treat me as if I was a hand out, but she treated me as a ‘hand up,’ and she lifted me up. She empowered me.”
Graves praised Catholic Charities and credited the agency for helping her lead a successful life.
Andrea Slivka, marketing and communications manager, stated, “It’s very rewarding to come to work every day knowing that what I’m doing makes a difference… I write our newsletters so I often get to hear the success stories.”
She talked about a client who was homeless and received assistance from Catholic Charities and was able to become more self-sufficient. “It’s really great to see things like that and how grateful people are,” she said.
Rebecca Owens, Mansfield site manager, also shared the rewarding aspect of her job, noting, “It’s been exciting to see how we’ve evolved. Our office here in Mansfield used to be in the Red Cross building…but one of the big things about four years ago we moved into our new space [on Smith Avenue]. So it’s been exciting to be on this journey…we walk by faith a lot.”
Monday’s event helped raise money to meet the needs of the increasing number of people who are helped locally through Catholic Charities’ ministries. “Over the past seven years, our local office has seen little to no increase in funding,” said Owens.
However, she noted, “We’ve managed to increase our volunteer pool to approximately 100 individuals who in 2013, contributed over 13,000 hours of volunteer time; in dollars that equates to $265,000.”
She went on to thank the community for all of its support toward the organization’s mission of “doing something.” Catholic Charities’ theme for 2014 has been “Do Something,” she explained. She said that everyone has something of value to offer and that one must be willing to set aside any misconceptions, opinions, or stubbornness and simply “do something.”
“Big, small, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has something to contribute,” she said.
Lupton echoed that statement of “everyone has something to contribute” in his message. He described that for charities to be successful, there needs to be more of an emphasis placed on the idea that everyone has something to contribute as opposed to one-way giving. This can help prevent “toxic charities,” which he described as “doing too often for others what they have the capacity to do for themselves.”
He encouraged attendees to explore this idea as Catholic Charities enters into another 100 years and shared, “You have reason to be proud for 100 years of impact.”
“…we’re standing on the shoulders of so many people that have come before us who for 100 years have been doing everything they can to help people in need, to help change lives,” said Rodney Schuster.
