St. Mary’s Conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
We are 16 lay men and women of St. Mary Parish, quietly at work in the community. We serve everyone. Through person-to-person contact, the members provide personal and neighborly service to those having a difficult time. We swing into action when a person or family in need of a helping hand makes a telephone call to St. Mary’s rectory. The information is passed on to one of the members of the SVDP Society. That member calls another Vincentian, because we usually work in pairs. Within a few hours, a return call is made to the person in need, in order to make arrangements for a home visit. After learning more about the situation during the home visit, immediate help is given. All information is kept confidential, and each person is treated with dignity. Follow-up contacts may take place at the rectory, over the phone, or in the home again. Since our first meeting in January 1990, we have helped thousands of families and individuals (some are helped multiple times).
The SVDP Society offers short-term help to those in need. Help may take various forms: financial help, fuel assistance, food from our food pantry, transportation, medicine, clothing, friendship, referrals, eye glasses, furniture, informed help, or a gift card for milk, fresh vegetables, etc.
Our entire funding comes from donations. We have many sources of income: St. Mary’s Parish, SVDP members, parishioners, an envelope drive, local companies and organizations, a Christmas card donation program, faithful individual donors, neighborhood groups, and the Ash Wednesday Mass collection. Donations in memory of loved ones are also made.
Our monthly food collection always allows us to bring groceries to those in need. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, the SVDP headquarters offers us food boxes that include fresh vegetables and meats. The Society also gives us a wonderful supply of different meats, several times during the year.
When people need clothing, we send them to the SVDP Thrift Store in Plainville. When people need furniture, we order furniture from the SVDP store in Stoughton.
Throughout the year, our St. Vincent de Paul Society conducts various parish-wide drives. We have taken up collections of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gift bags, spring jackets for children, backpacks full of back-to-school supplies, and gift cards to movies in the summer.
We are able to give the people we serve Christmas presents through the generosity of the Caring Tree Committee and parishioners of St. Mary Parish. One year, on the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, we invited our benefactors to coffee, juice, and pastries after the 9:00 a.m. weekday Mass. To celebrate Easter, we sent greeting cards to each family we had served during the previous year.
This is who we are: volunteers who are always on call. All our work is made possible through the outstanding support from parishioners of St. Mary Parish and our friends in the community.
Thank you and God bless!
To learn more about the National Council of the United States of SVDP, please click here: www.svdpusa.org.
To learn more about our food pantry, please click here.
Name of ministry or group: St. Mary Conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Meeting days and times: Volunteers meet on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month at 7:00 p.m. for about an hour and a half
Location of meetings: Rectory
Total number of members: 16 dedicated volunteers
Examples of activities or ministry’s work: Make home visits to those in need of help, help with the food pantry, run parish-wide drives, help in any way possible. A member may give help in his or her area of expertise.
Time commitment for a member: Whatever the volunteer’s schedule permits
Who is eligible to join: Any adult in the parish. New members are always welcome and needed!
Contact person: Teresa Wilber or Joanne Brandenburg
Title / Position:v Co-Presidents of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society
Phone: 508-528-0020 (rectory)