Working for the better of children, families, and the community
By COURTNEY BECKER
Contributing Writer
Promoting mental and physical well-being, St. Catherine’s Center for Children is raising money to provide extra experiences like art and dance lessons to the children in their care. St. Catherine’s is devoted to raising money to support and offer growth to the child who have experienced abuse, neglect, homelessness, or are mentally ill, to live healthy and loving lives.
St .Catherine’s was established in 1886 originally as a Catholic orphanage. Over the year’s St. Catherine’s has grown tremendously. Today social workers run many of the programs
to help distressed children and their family for the better, as a whole, by educating them through therapeutic programs and experiences.
St. Catherine’s is a non-for-profit organization. The funding comes from the state county, federal government, and donations.
To raise money for the extra experiences for the children, St. Catherine’s is hosting their fundraising event, Annual Golden Age of SCCCript & SCCCreen. Every year St. Catherine’s throws a fundraiser around an old film.
This year the fundraiser will be a “Grease” theme held in St. Catherine’s very own R & E May School, at 30 North Main Ave., on Friday, May 3 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $85 dollars a person or $150 for a couple and $65 for any guest under the age of 35.
“This year is unusual that we are having the event at our own school but because of the theme, the story took place at high school so we figured our own school would be a great setting of show casing the event at our own school,” Joanne Gambino-Morehouse, St. Catherine’s Director of Development.
The school will be decorated in the film Grease’s 1950s style. Though the film will not be shown, a white drape screen will be set up outside the building recreating the “drive in theater” feel, antique 1950s cars will also be on display, and guests are encouraged to dress in leather jackets and poodle skirts to help shape the Grease atmosphere.
The proceeds from the Annual Golden Age of SCCCript and SCCCreen will be going towards the little extras in life for the children of St. Catherine’s. These little extras are dance lessons, art lessons, baseball games, and trips to the museum, the kind of experiences that are simple but can mean the world to a child.
“The funds raised by the Foundation of St. Catherine’s at our SCCCript & SCCCreen event–and through other fundraising activities–pay for services and activities that help promote the mental and physical well-being of a child such as art and dance lessons, visits to fun parks and museums, etc. These are the types of activities that every child should have the opportunity to experience,” said Brian Bell, St. Catherine’s Director of Community Relations
The event is not only a fundraiser but also as an opportunity for St. Catherine’s to show donors, volunteers, and the community what they do. They set up tables with their annual report and train board members to talk to guests about St. Catherine’s programs and how each program is doing.
One of the many programs the school offers is foster care. The foster program is for children who are removed from their homes due to difficulties. Some reasons children are removed from their homes are neglect, abuse, emotional/behavioral problems, have become emotionally disturbed due to trauma and so on. St. Catherine’s goal for foster care is to work with both the family and child to reunite them.
Children who are removed from their homes go to the care of foster parents where they live until they’re ready to be reunited with their parents. St. Catherine’s makes sure potential foster parents are fit for the job by having specific regulations to be a foster parent. Potential foster parents must be 21 years or older, have a home safety inspection, have their fingers prints taken and cleared through the State Central Registry, a dependable income, reliable transportation, and take a 10 week training called Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting. These regulations are to insure that the children are being put in capable hands to help them grow in a loving and nurturing way.
“Many of the children come into care thinking that abuse and neglect is normal because that is all they know. Watching them enjoy the simple pleasures of having 3 meals a day, clean sheets on a bed they call their own, and someone around to help them with homework is very rewarding. It doesn’t really take much to help a child feel loved and valued,” said Pat Gagnon, St. Catherine’s Foster Care Recruiter in Therapeutic Foster Care Program and foster parent.
It’s the encouraging words and warm gestures that makes St. Catherine’s successful at what they do; help those who are in need. St. Catherine’s determined nature and eagerness to help is what’s helping them reach their mission of offering hope, fostering growth, and improve the lives of the children and their families in their care.
