Human Concerns Committee 

Human Concerns Committee is simply a committee dedicated to the concerns of humans and their needs. Our committee meets every first Monday of the month at 6:30 pm, for one short hour of business. We presently have 3 main committee members: Donna Friemoth, Ed Hojnacki and Sue Healey. Our Parish Council representative is Ron Chimel. We also have at least a dozen other parishioners who assist us with the projects listed below:

PRO-LIFE:

Pregnancy Helpline of Walworth County is in Elkhorn. We assist them with their quilt drives, rose and cheesecake fundraisers, annual baby shower and spring banquet.

Pro-Life Wisconsin (PLW) is located in Brookfield. Kathy Ribnek is our Walworth county coordinator. Kathy keeps us abreast of the latest political issues that harm the preborn children in our country. Many of our parishioners have traveled PLW busses to Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life held every January. The March protests the 1973 legalization of abortion. Planned Parenthood (P.P.) is the largest provider of abortion and we silently pray in front of their Delevan clinic the first Monday of every month. We put information pertaining to Life Decision International in the bulletin. It allows people to know which companies support P.P. One hundred thirty-six companies have stopped supporting P.P. due to boycotting. The first Sunday of October is the annual Life Chain and we meet on the corners of Hwy ES & 20.

NATIONAL:

Every advent season we have our Hat & Mitten tree which the Oehler family has been in charge of for years. These items are donated to schools in downtown Milwaukee. Jan Barkei has taken over our Equal Exchange program this past year - which assists farmers in developing countries earn a fair wage, rather than being exploited due to their poverty.

Our parishioners, the K.C.'s and St. Vincent de Paul have been heavily involved in donating funds and items for Haiti these past five of the eight years that Sue Healey has been going down to Haiti. Sue's CCD classes have been assembling sewing kits these past three years - donated items that might otherwise end up in the landfill, will now make beautiful dresses or shirts for Haitians.

ELDERLY:

We are thankful to have a commitment from Ed Hojnacki and Sr. Mary Wolf and their group of volunteers that have wonderful social functions that gives our Senior parishioners opportunities to socialize and gather together often on Thursdays after morning Mass and at the monthly senior luncheons and annual flu shots.

Communion is distributed to the homebound, the Heritage, Brolen Park and Kiwanis Manor.

SOCIAL:

Thanks to Donna Friemoth for heading up the Blood Bank blood drives, we now have an opportunity to donate blood, knowing the blood will only be used locally. The K.C.'s have been wonderful with helping set up and take down each time.

We now have in place, volunteers who will come to your home to sit with the homebound parishioner so that the family member has a chance to leave the home for appointments, etc. Our volunteers also take a parishioner to their appointments or bring them to Mass, Eucharistic Adoration or Benediction - if there is a need/desire.

We have an adult education class that meets every month, based on F. McCarthy's Non-Violent Jesus tape series. We have now incorporated other DVDs such as speaker F. John Corapi. This gathering began because we had adults asking for more religious education in our parish.

Human Concerns always welcomes any new committee member to join them. We are forever grateful to anyone who would want to assist in any of the above projects.

John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." I'd like to suggest, "Ask not what your parish can do for you, but what can you do for your parish?"

Sue Healey