THE LADIES OF CHARITY
The Ladies of Charity was founded in France in 1617 by St. Vincent de Paul. Their mission was to help the poor. In 1629 St. Louise de Marillac, our patroness, was appointed to work with the Ladies of Charity. The first Ladies of Charity in the United States was founded in1857 in St. Louis, MO. The Buffalo Ladies of Charity began in 1941 and has over 600 members throughout parishes in the eight counties of the Diocese. The Saint Brigid Bergen LOC was formed as a group in 1937. Today we are part of 150,000 volunteers in 53 countries across 5 continents.
There are many different levels of participation based on economic circumstances, employment status, family situations and health. You choose the level of involvement that is right for you.
Our members have various interests and support our community, church, family and friends in ways commiserate with their interests and abilities.
Individual members or committees of St. Brigid Ladies of Charity do the following:
- Support and collect for the back-pack program. Collecting food and purchasing back-packs when necessary.
- Plan and host the All Souls Day service at the cemetery.
- Host some of the Sunday coffee hours.
- Sell Advent candles, calendars and other religious articles in November. Although we make a little money this is mainly a parish service.
- Plan and sponsor the family Christmas party.
- Put together cookie plates and poinsettias for shut-ins and those who have lost loved ones in the past year. These are then delivered by our members.
- Gather information and provide tags for the Angel Tree. Wrap the gifts and delivering them.
- Plan and host sewing Saturday for the dress-a-girl project. We still call it that but have added purchased shorts and t-shirts for boys. We have added yarn dolls and match box cars to be sent along with the clothing.
- Plan and host the Soup Supper as a start to Lent.
- Provide a loaf of bread and a card to the first communicates.
- Host a coffee hour after the designated Mass for graduating high school seniors.
- We have done parish projects such as cleaning and organizing the kitchen and polishing and vacuuming pews.
- We have been involved with parish wide dinners both as fund raisers and strictly social events.
- We have members that are Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, and those involved with decorating the church for holiday celebrations.
- One of our members is a liaison to the Mother Teresa Outreach program which we support with monetary donations.
- Another member has gathered and donated over 500 pairs of new socks (and counting) to the Ladies of Charity thrift store.
- During Lent we collect socks and new underwear for the thrift store.
- A number of our members are also members of the Share-a-Yarn group where we donate our homemade knit/crocheted items.
Along with this we do the all everyday things Ladies of Charity do. Like being good neighbors, helping our own family members, serving and helping in our community. So we are pretty much like the rest of you.
We meet 7 times a year, the second Monday of the month in the Saint Brigid parish center. (Sept. Oct., Nov., Dec., April, May, and June)
Contact Jan Bausch for additional information. Home - 494-2114, Cell – 315-2717, E-mail bauschjj@gmail.com
Last Updated February 2021