People affected by tornadoes benefit from a Folk Lenten project
A Lenten project at St. Anthony of Padua parish in Folk is giving some Easter hope to people affected by recent disasters.
Between Ash Wednesday and Easter, children of the St. Anthony Parish School of Religion (PSR) collected items such as toiletries, water, adhesive bandages, combs, treats, protein bars and other items to assemble into “Blessing Kits” for people who are homeless.
They also collected donations from parishioners to buy socks, hand wipes and extra toiletries that the children thought people who are homeless might need.
The students assembled the kits, adding hand-written notes such as “Jesus loves you,” “God is with you” and “Hang in there. We care.”
They gave about 60 of the kits to parishioner Kate Massman, a student at Saint Louis University.
Miss Massman is member of the university’s Labre group, which goes out each week to visit and give food to people who are homeless in the St. Louis neighborhoods surrounding the university.
The PSR students also gave some of the kits to a local food pantry and put some in the back of St. Anthony of Padua Church so parishioners could keep them in their cars and give them to people in need.
Even then, there were still more than 40 bags left over.
Then on the night of May 22, a tornado tore a swath from near Eldon to the Missouri River bluffs in Jefferson City.
“After watching the news and seeing the destruction of the tornado, we decided to donate the rest of these Blessing Kits to the Cole County Resource Center,” said Mary Veltrop, the parish’s PSR coordinator. “The people accepting donations were thrilled to have them.”
People who receive the kits often talk about how much they love the items they contain.
“But even more they were truly touched by the notes the kids put in the kits … the love!” she said.
