The Rest of the Story… (continued from today’s Ambo talk)

 

You were a retired Special Ed teacher, new to the parish, and you vigorously began a mission to teach Paul about the Eucharist.  Because of you, Paul made his First Communion.  When St. Joseph’s Stars were born you grew as a core group and as entertainers, musicians, and even Santa Claus.  You told us what had to be done to make the parish accessible to all. Sitting in your wheelchairs holding the new bathroom plans in one hand and steel measuring tapes in the other, you critiqued the plans and saved the parish money by eliminating some new plumbing and built-in cabinets. You removed a church bench and leveled the choir flooring so that singers in wheel chairs would not roll into the organ box. You gave up some of your favorite parking places to accommodate disability parking.

 

As volunteer Religious Education teachers you rolled up your sleeves and accepted kids with cognitive, emotional or physical disabilities into your hearts and classes.  You attended workshops by master teachers from the U. of Dayton and Notre Dame, and remarkable local talent to help you recognize that attitudes and environment can limit significantly more than any particular disability.   As lower grade students you attended our puppet shows featuring puppets with disabilities. As older students you used wheelchairs from the Stroke Center and rolled through an obstacle course designed to demonstrate what happens to people in wheelchairs when they try to access banks, restaurants, grocery stores, and rest rooms that are inaccessible.

 

 You attended ASL signed Masses by priests from Oakland, Los Angeles and Florida and you signed the readings from the Ambo; you will still sign the Life Teen Mass if asked to do so.  You helped create an annual weekend retreat to give rest, relaxation, and spiritual uplifting to our extremely deserving Caregivers.  You moderated a Mental Health program to address some of the problems affecting the lives of a portion of your fellow parishioners—nationally estimated to be three out of four families--and to hopefully erase the stigma of mental illness. You courageously came forward and told your own stories at those sessions. Whatever the program or need, you supplied refreshments, took photos, drew posters, supplied graphics, stuffed envelopes and bulletins, and prayed.  You transcribed the pastor’s weekly homilies for mailing to the homebound who are without computers.  You supported concerts by musical artists Rene Bondi and Tony Melendez who demonstrate the giftedness of people with severe disabilities. You attended our interfaith symposium on disabilities keynoted by the blind administrator of the National Catholic Partnership for Persons with Disabilities from Washington DC . You worked on rummage sales and the golf tournament to raise funds to buy the small van. You and friends bought the large disability van in your wife’s memory. You gave up your Sundays to drive homebound parishioners to Mass and the Stars to their bi-monthly gatherings.

 

You starred in a play to introduce the parish to this outreach ministry by playing the parts of the angel Malachi and of a malevolent choir director and her choir members. The roles of the parishioners who were blind or deaf or had paraplegia or Down syndrome were played by those of you who owned those disabilities.  Our first funding came from Holy Family Sisters followed by two national cash awards and generous donations from several of you and the ICF.  You baked and bought at our holiday sales and later, in the Human Race, you ran, jogged or walked or supported someone who did.  Some of you needed canes, walkers or wheelchairs but you volunteered to be greeters, Eucharistic ministers, choir members and lectors.  You didn’t give up on the elevator despite horrendous obstacles. You didn’t hesitate to step forward when I had to retire.  In the history of this Spirit led outreach ministry you supported our efforts and demonstrated that you are parishioners with loving hearts and open minds.  God bless all of you for your generosity to the ministry with people with disabilities.

 

Gay Pollock