Earlier this year I started volunteering at the Thea Bowman Center located in the Mt. Pleasant community in Cleveland, OH. The Center functions as a community center providing a food bank, GED classes, after-school tutoring, and a host of other fine programs.
John Carroll University students and members of suburban parishes, such as, Saint Cecilia, Church of the Resurrection, Saint Rita, Saint Dominic, and Saints Cosmas and Damian donate time, talent, and treasure to the community through volunteering at the Center. Here is the latest letter to partnering parishes:
Dear Friends from our Partner Parishes,
A great big thank you to all of our partner parish parishioners for providing the children and families of Thea Bowman Center with a summer full of health, hope, and great experiences.
Faithfully, even in the worst heat of this summer, all of our hot meal providers came with nutritious and abundant meals every Saturday: Ss. Cosmas and Damian, St. Dominic, St. Rita, and Resurrection.
The ongoing monthly support of Resurrection helped us pay our basic bills which are increasing as we take responsibility for the full maintenance of the buildings. St. Dominic also helped with funds for new building issues by paying for the security bars which needed to be placed on the doors in the former church and two new security cameras to protect the Oakfield Avenue side of the building – a total of $ 900.00.
Much of our summer children’s programming happened in that sacred space which has been surely blessed and “secured” by the many prayers of the Epiphany parishioners over the 65 years of worshipping presence there.
St. Rita parishioners restocked our depleted shelves with toiletries and other supplies as a result of their Christmas in July Collection. St. Rita also connected us with a wonderful youth volunteer opportunity, called Servants 4 Christ. This is a multi-parish program in which high school youth volunteer for three days at a site where they do repair and grounds work and other needed tasks. At Thea Bowman Center the youth fixed and painted our front porch, trimmed bushes and cleared debris, organized craft supplies and then did a great Fourth of July project with our children, using the supplies that they organized so well. Through this program we hosted volunteers from St. Basil parish, St. Mary Hudson parish, and St. Columbkille parish. We invited them to return this fall with their youth groups to spend more time with our children.
Gesu parishioners have begun coming monthly with craft projects to engage the children on Saturday, and to bring donated supplies and help with other volunteer projects.
Thanks to parishioners from Gesu the children also participated in the Youth Day at the Tall Ships exhibit. Many of our children did not know what a Tall Ship was until that exciting day of nautical activities.
TBC was the recipient of a large donation of much-needed furniture from both a Gesu parishioner and a Ss. Cosmas and Damian parishioner --a great help to usage of the former church space: tables, chairs, room dividers, cupboards, lateral files, etc. These furnishings were well-used for our summer programs.
Assumption parish enabled us to have a full program of activities for our neighborhood children as a result of a major donation. We started the summer with Parade the Circle, sponsored by the Cleveland Art Museum. The children participated in the preparation of costumes designed by an artist from the museum working with the children. We were also chosen as one of the sites for a performance by the African Dancers, who were the special parade leaders this year.
The summer lunch program served about 60 children each day, and many came early to attend computer-assisted learning review sessions conducted by a retired Cleveland Public School teacher with great creativity and enthusiasm. After lunch the children played outside using the playground equipment donated through parish Giving Trees at Christmas time.
An exciting addition to this year’s summer program was the music program directed by a skilled musician. Our children performed the songs they had learned at the County Fair and at their own Back to School Send-off where they were challenged to be Instruments of Peace in their schools. Their parents and invited guests, including board members, attended that event. At that time they received full school uniforms and backpacks of school supplies. The 50 plus uniforms were donated by the Christ Child society, the school supplies by Assumption parish, and the backpacks were from St. John of the Cross parish. A great collaboration!
As a result of another generous donation from Assumption parish, our summer garden flourished and provided fresh produce for the food pantry – the collard greens were a big hit! (By the way, if any of your parishioners have extra produce from their garden, we are always grateful to receive it for the food pantry!)
Other contributors to our summer activities included the Congregation of St. Joseph and Gesu parish who were responsible for keeping the adult literacy classes going throughout the summer. Many other adult programs like ours have to close for the summer due to lack of funds, or limitations on the space they use in the summertime.
Again much gratitude from the staff, board members, and participants of TBC for a blessed summer of healthy and wholesome activities for so many people of the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. In this area that is daily more ravaged by the effects of foreclosures and violent gangs, our supporting churches are truly “being the Eucharistic presence of Jesus” for people in great need.
Gratefully,
Sheila Marie Tobbe, osu
