We’ve just offered an upbeat update on our efforts to increase the size of our live-in community so we can re-open the Dan Corcoran House for overnight hospitality to families. But equally important to the sustainability of our work is our larger support community (that includes you!).
It is your donations and practical help that keep the houses running. And your visits to the houses—even just to share a meal or play cards—are more valuable than you might imagine for boosting the morale of our guests and live-in volunteers. The engagement of our support community is a very real measure of the vitality of the Winona Catholic Worker. We recently discussed what we can do to create a broader, more inclusive, more lively, community of people doing the works of mercy with us.
We’ve always extended an invitation for you to “just stop by” for a meal or to hang out, but we realize that many people are initially most comfortable coming to do something. So, beginning with this issue of the newsletter, we’ll list some of the many concrete ways that people can help out and to make it easier for you to connect with our guests and one another—to create community!
We also intend to schedule regular, communal “work days”. This will be a time when you can just show up and help with projects around the houses: cleaning, gardening, small maintenance projects, etc. We’ll also continue to schedule fun social activities that allow people in our wider support community to celebrate with one another and our guests. All in all, we’re looking to build community WITH YOU! And hope that one day you might think of yourself as a Catholic Worker too!