WILLIAMSTOWN — Gail Keenan believes all the parishioners at St. Mary Church are involved in stewardship in some way.
Gail, who is a steward with St. Mary’s Social Concerns Ministry, noted that every time she turns to the congregation for help for donations in items and food, they respond so well that she often has a surplus that she can share with the other local agencies she works with.
“This is very much stewardship, although the parishioners may not call it that or even realize it is,” she said.
Gail has been giving her time, talents, and treasures to St. Mary’s for about 15 years. In the last couple of years her husband, Jim, has also pitched in. Jim is a SEPTA employee and in May of 2007 a railroad car he was in was hit by a train. He’s been on disability but will soon head back to work. In the meantime, he’s been helping his wife deliver items to the needy and to transport people around during the week and sometimes on weekends.
Their daughter, Megan, 24, helped her mother with the Religious Education duties. Jen, their other daughter, a senior at Williamstown High School, has been helping since she was one of the first girls to be an altar server at St. Mary’s.
Up until last year Gail taught second- and third-grade Religious Education classes but she had to give it up for the time being. “I really love doing it but between my work (for the past 25 years she’s worked for a law firm in Philadelphia) and family and ministry I was putting in a lot of time and couldn’t give teaching the time it needed and deserved. I’ll probably go back later.”
Gail said she works “hand-in-hand with Joe Bradley” at the ministry. Bradley had been chairman of Social Concerns until recently. Because it had gotten so complex he appointed captains to handle various functions. Gail, for instance, oversees Mother’s Day and Baby Shower (baby items are distributed to women’s shelters in the area) and the ongoing food and clothing distribution.
“I’m responsible for all donations brought into the parish during the year, such as clothing, except for money which goes through the rectory,” Gail noted. “My role is to see that items are given out to the community and to various agencies. If we have things left over after a particular drive, we often give them to the agencies that can use them.”
The groups helped by the Social Concerns Ministry include, among others, The Catholic Worker, Catholic Charities, St. John’s Men’s Hospice, Atlantic City Rescue Mission, New Point Health Care, and St. Peter Church in Pleasantville.
Because of her involvement in the ministry over the years, Gail said parishioners and others in the area “know my name and I’ll be contacted by people needing help or be told of those who are in special need. Agencies will also contact me.” The parish itself will often be called for help, and then Gail will be contacted to see what she can do.
During Thanksgiving, donation requests for food and other items to be included in holiday baskets will be posted in the bulletin and elsewhere in the parish and, she explained, she will get — without fail — so many things that she will have enough after the drive to give to agencies who will share with their people.
“My role is to see that everything gets to the right place,” she explained. “If it weren’t for the generosity of the parishioners — and from people throughout the area from Atlantic City to Philadelphia — we couldn’t do most of what we do. I’ve never been socially active until joining the Social Concerns Ministry and now I couldn’t imagine not doing it.”
Gail said she was inspired to be a steward by Father Carmen Carlone, a former pastor, who led by example. “Whenever he celebrated Mass he always said, ‘When you give, you get it back tenfold.’ And he was so right,” she added.
Many times Gail is moved by circumstances that she has been involved in and is happy and pleased she could help.
“I was contacted by a woman’s shelter,” she said, “and was told of a woman there who was about to deliver her baby. She had nothing for her and she was very down. She thought God had abandoned her because she had to go to a shelter. The director of the facility asked me if I had anything to give her.”
On a Sunday Gail pulled together a basket of items the woman would need for herself and her baby at the hospital. Gail brought the basket to the facility and the director of the shelter placed it on the woman’s bed when she wasn’t around. When the woman saw the basket, she cried and realized God had not abandoned her but had answered her prayers.
“The woman was given hope,” said Gail. “When you’re involved with stewardship you realize there is no coincidence. Everything has a reason and a purpose. I was able to give this woman a basket through God’s help and the donations given by St. Mary’s parishioners. When you give to others you give them hope and a renewed faith in God. That woman thought she was abandoned but realized she wasn’t.”
Through the stewardship program, said Gail, “God answers your prayers. He brings hope and faith to others, especially to those who may have lost both.”
One of Gail’s talents that she uses in her ministry is her artistic ability. She wanted to be an artist when she was young but was never able to achieve that. However, she is still pursuing that dream through her ministry.
“My father was an artist,” she said. “All my life I wanted to paint. But I didn’t go to school because I thought I couldn’t paint.”
Gail went to a St. Mary’s concert not too long ago and was amazed that not many people were in the audience. She later approached John Agresta, the concert director, and suggested that for the Easter concert she would make a poster advertising the event.
“I made it and a lot of people responded and came to the concert,” said Gail.
Now she does posters for all the concerts and other events and for donation drives. “I’ve been contacted by other ministries for posters,” she said. “I never thought I could do that. It’s like marketing. When people come to a concert or event, they’ll bring items for the needy.”
Father Kenneth J. Johnston, pastor, said that Gail goes about her work “quietly and unobtrusively and you often don’t even know she’s there.” But she’ll spend hours with her husband and daughters sorting out clothes.
Her ministry and the rectory work together, said the priest. “If she gets calls for a donation of food from Shop-Rite, let’s say, she’ll contact the rectory,” Father Kenneth said. “And if we get calls for donations of furniture or clothing or other items like that, we’ll contact her.”
But what happens if you get too much?
“There’s no worry,” he said. “We have storage places. Sometimes we’ll put things under the stairwell,” he added with a laugh.
For more information on stewardship contact Russell Davis, Office of Stewardship, at 856-583-6102.