As some of you may know, I participated in St. Vincent de Paul's annual Friends of the Poor walk this morning. This is an annual event held by many chapters of the Society of SVdP all over the country. Here in Columbus, they have been holding the walk for the last 5 years . . . this is my first time walking it. They hold the walk at St. Francis de Sales High School. When I first got there, a friend was telling me something about St. Martin de Pores, so I was starting to get a little confused among all the "de" saints . . (hee, hee).
The walk itself is only a mile - meant to symbolize "walking a mile in their shoes", however they also had a three mile challenge that some of us did. What was most inspiring to me was the little older lady walking the mile with a cane. It took her longer to walk one mile than it did for me to walk three, but she stuck it out and completed the mile. My friend, Phyllis, said that that lady is a member of her parish. Phyllis was telling me that the lady has been a recipient of SVdP food baskets in the past and this is her way of giving back. It just brings tears to my eyes!
Some things I learned: the Columbus, OH chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is one of the largest in the country. According to what the Bishop said, it is about 10 times larger than the chapters in New York City or Los Angeles! Bishop Campbell, in his remarks to the walkers this morning said the Society here is "the Heart of Christ in the heart of the country." I also learned that the St. Cecilia chapter is quite active in diocesan events. Many of the volunteers that were running the event today were from our parish and we had over 25 walkers from our parish there today (possibly more than 30, but I lost count). There were about 600 walkers all together.
I have thought about getting involved with SVdP before, but I just don't think I have the time to be involved on a regular basis . . . I think I will have to stick to this walk and the Christmas food baskets that they do in December.
Very neat! I talked about St. Vincent de Paul with the kids at the Catholic school this past week, and none of them had heard of a St. Vincent de Paul society before. We just don't have any in this area.
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