The Brainerd/Baxter conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul welcomes all to join its first Walk for the Poor 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, to raise funds for the poor and marginalized in the community.
Participants may gather at St. Francis Catholic Church, 411 N. 10th St., in Brainerd with registration beginning 8:30 a.m.
Donations are welcome but not required. Face masks, comfortable clothing and walking shoes are suggested for a short walk around Gregory Park. Social distancing will be observed. Sponsored by the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Conference, 100% of donations will be used to help needy neighbors in the Brainerd/Baxter area. The event is hosted near Sept. 27, the feast day of the society’s patron St. Vincent de Paul, who ministered to the poor in Paris in the 17th Century.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide organization founded over 150 years ago in Paris by a compassionate layperson Frederick Ozanum, to assist people in distress with no other means of assistance. Today in the U.S., there are 4,400 chapters with four in north central Minnesota, serving the residents. The local Mother Teresa of Calcutta Conference, founded in 2017 and with 24 volunteer members trained since 2018, has confidentially served hundreds of families in crisis in the Brainerd lakes area when all other resources were exhausted. In most situations, an emergency financial donation is all that is needed to rescue individuals from eviction, disconnection from utilities, loss of transportation to work or unforeseen disaster. In other instances, spiritual support, referral and counseling services are offered with a home visit and follow-up contact. A visit from a trained St. Vincent de Paul volunteer is often the last resort in averting a crisis, the organization reported. The local Mother Teresa of Calcutta St. Vincent de Paul Conference operates solely on donated funds and charitable grants with 100% gifted to the needy, the organization reported.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international nonprofit Catholic lay organization of more than 800,000 men and women who voluntarily join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to the needy and suffering in 155 countries on five continents. With the U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, membership in the U.S. totals more than 100,000. The service offers home visits, housing assistance, disaster relief, education and mentoring, food pantries, dining halls, clothing and assistance with transportation, prescription medication and utility costs. The society works to provide care for the sick, the incarcerated and the elderly. Over the past year, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provided more than $3.4 billion in tangible and in-kind services to those in need, and made more than 2.1 million personal visits.
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Currently in Brainerd/Baxter there is an unmet need for affordable car repair, necessary because of the long distance travel to maintain a job, the society reported. The local society is seeking volunteers to assist in this capacity.
For information about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Mother Teresa of Calcutta Conference, contact 218-656-0345 or stvdpsaintteresa@gmail.com .
For more information on the Walk for the Poor, contact Katy at 612-242-4446 or Pat at 218-831-3631. Donations will be received on the day of the walk or may be sent to St. Vincent de Paul, P.O. Box 394, Merrifield, MN 56465.
