Saint Albert the Great is looking forward to its service day(s) Friday March 4 and Saturday March 5. This year, Service Day comes smack dab in the middle of Lent, the six weeks of preparation and penance before the great rejoicing of Easter and the Resurrection. The reason for giving few hours of elbow grease service as alms for the benefit of another is expressed by St. Theresa of Avila, “….Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the earth. Yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good, and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.”
The goal was to secure one hundred and fifty Parish Service Day project sites. They surpassed the goal with one hundred seventy one PSD sites just waiting for enthusiastic helpers. Sign-up Sunday was January 24. Parishioners could stop in after Mass and sign up for one of the many areas of need. Online signup began on January 25 and continues through March 3.
There is lots of work to do in the Greater Cleveland area and North Royalton. Volunteers have already signed up to get a real workout in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Trail Sweep; dragging/carrying cut invasive brush to designated area for chipping, and splitting and stacking fire wood. That takes muscle, work gloves, and the right warm clothing for the day. Other jobs are just as important.
Last year PSD cleaned Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on East 53rd Street near Broadway, in Cleveland which hosted the Cleveland Orchestra’s neighborhood residency concert April 10, 2015. This year St. Coleman’s, St. Adalbert, St. Aloysius, and St. Mary’s, in Collinwood, are among the many parishes awaiting the scrubbing talents of this year’s participants.
There are windows to clean at Holy Family Hospice and medical supplies to sort at Medwish. The Parma animal shelter needs no-sew blankets for its animal residents. The bird feeders at Crown Point Ecology Center, on Ira Road, need filling, the paths need to be cleared of brush, and flats of flowers need to be planted in the greenhouse. There are bag lunches to be made for the hungry and night-night bags for homeless children. A smiling face and some conversation are needed for the elderly in assisted living or nursing home facilities. A visit, conversation, coffee cake and a cup of coffee or tea is just the thing to lift the spirits of someone who would like a bit of company. There are even opportunities to deliver at St. Albert the Great world renowned fish fry dinners to several homebound residents.
St. Albert the Great Service day started with 700 volunteers in 2013, and has grown by leaps and bounds. This is the fourth annual PSD and they anticipate 2000 volunteers this year. Entire families took the opportunity to sign up last year and they are looking for greater participation this year. For more information contact Denise Bobulsky volunteer/ service coordinator at dbobulskysaint-albert.org or Mary Pat Frey at mfreysaint-albert.org, St. Albert the Great Parish, 6667 Wallings Road, 440 237 6760.
By LINDA KWARCIANY
Contributing Writer