Program seeks ‘Sharing the Warmth’ of generosity to seniors in need

By Ann Piasecki, Catholic News Service

KANKAKEE, Ill.—Ann O’Gorman opted to quit her job to raise her own three children, but is hardly housebound. The former special-education teacher routinely gathers her baby in her arms, while directing the older two to follow her on a path where values, sensitivity and faith are ripe for the taking.

The family tour is anything but grandiose; it consists of shopping trips to discount department stores, resale furniture shops and, sometimes, grocery stores. Like more than 80 other senior service volunteers of the Diocese of Joliet Catholic Charities office in Kankakee, Ill., O’Gorman is intent upon remembering the forgotten and lonely members of a generation whose prime has passed.

In 2000, O’Gorman set out on a plan during the holidays to remember those who once served as role models for today’s young and middle-aged families. From a nursing home she visited regularly, O’Gorman acquired the names of a few elderly residents that time and distant family members had forgotten.

She requested a wish list from each recipient and shopped to fill the gaping hole left over after Social Security checks and meager pensions were spent.

The initiative was expanded two years ago after she presented a formal proposal to Catholic Charities. Holy Heart of Mary Sister Kathleen Rickelman, a retired psychiatric nurse who refers to herself as a “full-time volunteer,” dubbed the effort “Sharing the Warmth.”

“It’s a wonderful concept,” Sister Rickelman said.

Dependent mostly on word-of-mouth to spread the news about the sharing program, the two women successfully tapped into the spirit of generosity that typically exists around the holiday season by contacting schools, organizations within the community and area congregations to consider the needs of the elderly. Catholic Charities enlisted the help of volunteers to deliver the gifts before Christmas.

“People remember children (at Christmas time), but they don’t think about seniors,” said O’Gorman.

Catholic Charities identifies a list of seniors and asks them to fill out a prepared set of simple questions about individual necessity shortages, which could include nonperishable food, personal items or even a sweater or a coat. A few more lines are available for items that potential recipients consider luxuries.

“You’d be surprised to see what they consider luxury items,” Sister Rickelman said, “like hand lotion, a new toothbrush and tube of Pepsodent (toothpaste) and sugar-free candy.”

Since the recipients remain anonymous, donors are only made aware of the recipient’s gender, O’Gorman said. Donors from numerous congregations, including St. Joseph Parish in Bradley, Ill., Maternity Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Bourbonnais, Ill., and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Kankakee, have purchased everything from four-drawer dressers and recliners to newspaper subscriptions and microwave ovens, gifts worth more than well beyond the $35 minimum donation per senior, said Sister Rickelman. “The overwhelming generosity that I found in the community for seniors is great.”

In the past two years, the program has grown by leaps and bounds from 86 recipients in 2002 to 162 in 2003, according to her last count.

“The donors call us and offer to be part of the program. We contacted the donors from last year and some passed the information onto others,” Sister Rickelman said. “We match them up with a client or with someone we know who needs somebody.”

“I view the Christian philosophy as giving and loving,” O’Gorman said. “You give to someone you don’t know. It’s like simply providing someone with a hug.”

The first and second graders at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Elementary School in Bourbonnais took the program to heart, with each of the two classes collecting funds to furnish gifts of two seniors.

A total of 27 third graders and 20 second graders considered the program a challenge not only to their giving spirit but also a test to their commitment. They first had to earn their contributions by doing chores around the house or in the neighborhood, and then they offered their hard-earned profits on behalf of someone in need, explained third-grade teacher Cheryl Bevis. Laura Reney’s second graders gathered $35, buying T-shirts, socks, a shirt and a bag of Hershey’s kisses.

For 8-year-old Tim Fry, the realization that financial hardships impact the aged was disconcerting. “I don’t like it,” he said after learning that some elderly receive no Christmas presents at all. “Usually grown-ups have a lot of money.”

Donating for the second year in a row, Roger Rainbolt of Bourbonnais dropped off a giant green package, while Sister Rickelman checked off the contribution. He revealed that he tries to create a mental picture of his anonymous recipient. Later, he and wife Jeannine were matched with a man in need of new clothes. “I’m fixing him up with my taste. I hope he likes it,” he said.

The success of the program has spurred O’Gorman to seek to broaden the scope of the Christmastime vision to a year-round venture. “I hope to get more volunteers to help with the program,” she said.