The 11th annual Justice For All awards dinner was held on Sept. 25 to benefit Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Camden.
The evening cocktail hour and dinner, held at the Adelphia Grand Ballroom in Deptford, raised about $60,000 after expenses through ticket sales, sponsorships, and donations. The money is used to provide direct assistance to the clients Catholic Charities serves throughout the six southern New Jersey counties in programs ranging from homelessness prevention, to financial management, to immigrant and refugee services, to food pantries, to school-based counseling services and many more.
“Catholic charities’ presence is the face of Christ in places where Christ’s face has not been seen and is not known,” said Bishop Dennis Sullivan, who offered remarks at the dinner and presented awards.
“I visited every one of their offices and one of my goals is to duplicate and even triplicate that effort in the six counties of the diocese, because the work of Catholic Charities is so critical to the work of the church and for the good of God’s kingdom among us,” the bishop said.
The dinner honored the service contributions of the recipients of the Justice in ACTION awards, given in two categories. This year’s individual ACTION awards were presented to three long-serving volunteers with Catholic Charities’ family and community services center in Atlantic City. The organizational ACTION award was given to Andy Lipenta, state deputy for the Knights of Columbus in New Jersey, and honored the work of the Knights in the state, and particularly in the Camden Diocese.
Patricia (Patty) Bivins, Virginia (GG) Brannigan, and Kathryn (Kay) Noble, known collectively as ‘The Troops,’ have served the poor of Atlantic City through Catholic Charities for nearly 30 years each. Their volunteer work has included visiting shut-ins in Atlantic City, acting as liaisons between families and nursing home staff, orchestrating the Christmas toy drive program, and working directly with the homeless through the center’s food pantry and thrift shop.
Gracie’s Thrift Shop, named for the former director of the Atlantic City Catholic Charities center and mentor to the three women, Sister Grace Nolan, has been a particular focus of the volunteers. The shop serves men, women and children, selling clothing and household items at highly affordable prices. Since 2000 the shop has generated over $260,000, which is funneled directly back to the clients the center serves to help stave off evictions, prevent utility shutoffs, pay for prescriptions, and other direct assistance.
Andy Lipenta, state deputy for the New Jersey Knights of Columbus, was honored with the organizational ACTION award, accepting on behalf of his fellow Knights of Columbus.
“I gladly accept this honor on behalf of the other 9,000 knights in the Diocese of Camden and the 64,000 knights in the state of New Jersey. These knights, representing the 330 councils in the state and 70 sub-councils in this diocese, are the real backbone of the Knights of Columbus; they are the workers in the vineyard,” Lipenta said.
After accepting his award, Lipenta presented a $5,000 donation from the knights to Bishop Sullivan on behalf of Catholic Charities.
Andy Lipenta, state deputy for the New Jersey Knights of Columbus was honored with the organizational ACTION award, accepting on behalf of his fellow Knights of Columbus
Article written by Joanna Gardner for the Oct. 3, 2014 Catholic Star Herald
Photo by Alan Dumoff