The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Page: 3 of 16
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The University News October 26, 2005 3
News
T1
CHARirf
D&I Ladies of Charity living up to name
by Monica Tomutsa
(STAFF WRITER)
Following the mission of St.
Vincent de Paul, the Ladies of
Charity of Dallas serve the Greater
Dallas area striving for social justice
by helping the needy in a spirit of
humility, simplicity, and charity,
Mary Anne Harmon, UD ceramics
stud ent and Lady of Charity said at
last week's Dinner and Discourse.
St. Vincent was very worried
about the well being of people in
his congregation and in his neigh-
borhood. He knew a poor family
in great need and asked his com-
munity to donate food and clothes.
Everyone was so generous that there
ended up being too much.
Noticing that unless charity
was organized it would be wasted,
he started several foundations to
organize donations and serve those
in need—the first of which was the
Ladies of Charity.
According to a LOC
brochure,Ladies of Charity is staffed
primarily by Catholic lay women,
but non-Catholic men and women
may also join as associates.
"In Dallas we have a group
of about 250 active women and
worldwide about 420,000 active
members. Our focus is the mission
of St. Vincent, which is to see Christ
in the poor and the suffering,"
Harmon said.
Harmon had felt a calling to
volunteer her time with the Ladies,
but kept putting it off because of a
busy schedule.
"I kept donating and I thought,
'Someday when I have some time,
I'll volunteer,' so my 'someday'
came and I had to put my someday
right in my mouth and take my
feet to the car and say, 'I think I
want to volunteer here,'" she said.
Herman is involved in their mission
of charity in Dallas, volunterring at
the store one day a week.
"There are thrift stores every-
where, but we have the best prices.
Because our mission is to the poor,
we truly believe that every person
has dignity and everyone, whether
one has a few pennies or a few dol-
lars, ought to be able to buy some-
thing nice. So you can buy a really
fabulous dress or pair of jeans for $3
at our store," Harmon said.
In addition to running a store,
LOC offers other services to the
poor and homeless of Dallas.
"Every day from 11:30 a.m. to
1:30 p.m., we serve about 70 sack-
lunches and three days a week we
have complete changes of clothing
available for the homeless. And if
someone needs something other
than clothes such as a blanket or
back pack, we give that to them
too," she said.
Harmon said LOC limits each
person to coming in once a month,
because they have to stay true to
St. Vincent's words about being
responsible stewards: people can't
come in everyday just because they
want a new shirt.
However if something happens,
and someone really is in need be-
cause it has rained or the person
has thrown up, they get clothes.
LOC not without compassion, but
has limited resources and wants to
be able to serve as many people as
possible.
Harmon said the Ladies also
provide clothing for people who are
unemployed, just getting out of the
hospital, recently released from the
prison system, or whose houses have
burned down.
"We recently got a call about a
mom whose 6-month-old baby was
having a bone marrow transplant
at Children's hospital. The social
worker noticed that she had not left
her baby's side for about a week, and
later found out that the mom knew
no one in Dallas and did not have a
change of clothes," she said. " The
mom would not leave her baby to
come to our store for clothing so we
called her to find out her size and
then we took some clothes down to
the hospital. When I saw her, she
looked so worried and exhausted,
but all she said was, 'gracias.'"
Another time Harmon was
manning the phones, and a man
called who caught her attention.
All he said at first was, "I'm at a
bus stop in South Dallas. Where is
your store?"
"But then he called right back
and continued calling about 10
times before he told me his story.
"Humanist More," the Annual Thomas More
Lecture by Dr. George M. Logan, principal
editor of the Cambridge Utopia; co-editor
of the Norton Anthology of English
Literature, editions 5-8; author of The
Meaning of More's "Utopia" (Princeton
UP); editor of the forthcoming The History
of King Richard III by Thomas More;
Cappon Professor of English, Queen's
University Canada.
Friday, November 4, 2005 7:30 p.m. Lynch Aud.
Reception follows in Upstairs Haggar.
For his writings on good and bad government, and on
education, More found his principal sources of wisdom, and his
literary models, in the Greek and Roman classics—which is to say
he was a Renaissance humanist. By far his most important works
of 1510-1520 were Utopia and The History of King Richard III, whose
particular nature and special triumphs are best understood (as
the lecture will attempt to demonstrate) in terms of their
patterning on, and transcendence of, their classical models.
For Information Visit
www.thomasmorestudies.org/conference.html
or call (972)-265-574l or email: ctms@udallas.edu
He was a truck driver from Boston
and had his wife and two-year-old
baby with him. He had had a mas-
sive heart attack while on the road,
lost his license and was fired.
"He could not support his family
by trucking so he came to Houston
to work repairing apartments and
doing construction, but when it
came time to get paid, his contact
skipped town leaving him stranded .
He was Catholic and a St. Vincent
de Paul member, and believed that
if he could just get his family to
Dallas, the Society would get him
to Boston.
"His wife's purse was stolen, and
they couldn't stay at a shelter so we
lost track of them, but we took a
leap of faith and hung out at the
Dallas Greyhound Bus station for a
couple of hours. The first thing I saw
was this big guy and his wife and a
toddler in a stroller with a scapular
around his neck. We knew that this
must be our family, so we went over
and gave them three bus tickets and
food for their trip," she said.
Dallas has a large homeless
population that the LOC has been
trying to assist.
"Most probably wouldn't know
it as they drive by, but there are
hundreds of people living in the
woods down by the river on White
Rock Creek, and they are hungry
and on the move.
"We have been fighting for about
6 years to build a shelter and the
fight is not about whether we want
to build it, but it's that some people
don't want to build it. So it keeps
getting stonewalled," she said.
The Ladies also have an open
phone line for emergency financial
assistance three hours everyday,
Harmon said.
" [The St. Vincent de Paul society
or other social workers] call us, tell
^ODY Ev4
us what their needs are, and we
write a check. We have $300 a day
from donations and thrift store sales
and it might be used to help pay for
medication or utility bills. We can
give a little money to each caller and
spread it around," she said.
Harmon encourages students to
volunteer and said the women who
founded the Dallas group in the 50's
are still volunteering.
"If you like to be around people
and you like to be around people
who love other people, go work with
these women. We have volunteers
who might work two hours a week
or two hours every other week. We
would love to have people come and
make sandwiches with us. We make
about 250 sandwiches at a time on
Monday and Thursday mornings.
We need good strong backs to help
unload groceries and stock the
refrigerators and freezers. The most
awesome thing in the world is to sit
with someone on the other side of
the table and have that sack lunch
that is shared like communion,"
she said.
Everyone is very generous. "We
have a homeless man who donates
money whenever he gets an odd job.
He might donate $.50 or maybe
even $5, and it's earmarked to help
others with bus tickets. We also
have some members who are very
wealthy and we have other members
who only have the wealth of time.
The resources God gives us are var-
ied, and we might think they are
only in the bank but often they are
within us," she concluded.
The store is about 20 minutes
from UD in East Dallas, at 2710
Samuel Blvd. on the corner of
Grand. Store hours are Monday
through Saturday, 9:30 to 3:30. For
more information or volunteer op-
portunities call 214-821-5713.
Help prevent the spread of
infectious diseases and
viruses on campus!
PLEASE
WASH
YOUR
HANDS!!!
Thank you—Office of Student Life and Student Health Services.
from Staph on page 1
needed to do what we could
to prevent it from spreading."
Deckat said.
Although it is mainly spread
through personal contact, MRSA
can sometimes be transmitted
through shared equipment. Be-
cause of this, extensive efforts have
been made to keep common fa-
cilities as clean as possible, Deckat
explained.
"The whole gym got a huge
cleaning. There has been major
cleaning of bathrooms every-
where, not just in the residence
halls but throughout the campus.
The [workout] equipment is being
cleaned every three hours. But we
do not know that the equipment
was the source,'" she said.
Dekat stressed the importance
of remaining conscious of how
easily germs can be spread.
"I know people are tired of
hearing it, but any time you have
any kind of infections disease,
whether its a bacteria or a virus,
handwashing is paramount," she
said.
"Much more concern is going
to be the flu virus coming up.
That's going to infect a lot more
people on campus, and we should
have the vaccine for that in about
mid-November," she said.
%
'OBET |
Naked
WITHOU
7 pm - 9:30 pm
9 am - 5:30 pm
10 am - 2 pm
WHEN:
Friday, Nov. II
Saturday, Nov, 12
Sunday, Nov. 13
WHERE:
University of Dallas
Lynch Auditorium
COST/REGISTRATION:
*Event is FREE for Religious, Consecrated & Seminarians
Pre-Registration (by 11/1/05)
Adults $25
Students $ 10
Registration (after 11/1/05 and at the door)
Adults $30 T„ T„ , Sponsored By:
Students $10 The Theology of the Body
Evangelization Team, The
CONTACT: University of
Sheila Duncan: 972-939-5226 °a'las, Department of
Theology, & Campus
Dr Mark Lowery: 972-721-5357 Ministry
SEMINAR
To download registration
forms go to:
www. to bet, org or
www.ChristopherWest.com
Space is Limited,
Register Soon!
All Faiths are Welcome!
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Martinez, Eric. The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 26, 2005, newspaper, October 26, 2005; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201416/m1/3/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.