CHARLOTTE — Homeless Relief Ministry, a grassroots ministry that provides furniture, housewares and decor items to families transitioning out of homelessness, completed its 440th move-in on April 17, furnishing an apartment for a single mom and her five children.
For the past 11 years, three Charlotte parishes – St. Matthew, St. Peter and St. Vincent de Paul – have collaborated to furnish one family’s dream at a time.
Furniture and housewares are primarily donated by parishioners or sometimes retailers like Costco and, when needed, purchased by the parishes. The ministry of more than 90 volunteers is committed to doing whatever it takes for their clients.
“I do this because they need it. We’ve got this crisis in this country as far as homelessness. This happened to them, as it could have happened to me,” St. Vincent de Paul parishioner and long-standing volunteer Nancy Kopfle said, as she plugged in a new coffee maker and showed off plastic children’s plates in a freshly stocked cabinet.
“This gives them dignity because now they will have their own belongings,” Kopfle said. “The point of all this is for them to have the tools to pick themselves back up. This makes their new place into a home. It is very moving.”
On move-in day, an HRM team typically meets early at St. Matthew’s warehouse in Wesley Chapel to load their moving truck with furniture and beds that match the client’s needs, while other members of the team load their cars with housewares and bedding that is stored in large closets at St. Vincent de Paul Church. The teams roll out and converge on their destination. There, they spend several hours moving in and arranging furniture, assembling beds and cribs, hanging pictures and shower curtains, plugging in lamps, and providing all the little details that create a cozy living environment.
Client Denise, whose last name is withheld to preserve her privacy, was introduced to the Homeless Relief Ministry by The Relatives, a local nonprofit that is one of many partner organizations that provide wrap-around services for clients.
For about seven months, Denise and her children were living in an unstable environment, moving from place to place, spending nights with relatives or at hotels.
She moved here from Georgia to get her life together, but the neighborhood she was barely able to afford was riddled with violence to the point where she fled in fear for her children’s safety.
“There were shootings and loud noises; people were outside all night,” she said. “It was just a bad situation.”
Her caseworker, Shanetta Black from The Relatives, works with 17 clients, helping to remove barriers so clients become financially stable enough to pay their rent and other bills. Yet, she notes this is not a homelessness problem but a housing problem.
“You have people who work two to three jobs but still stay outside because they don’t make three times their rent monthly (a common lease requirement), so they can’t afford to live,” she said.
With the average monthly rent in Charlotte at $1,600 or more, according to RentCafe.com, the scenario is not uncommon, so Homeless Relief Ministry works to ensure that once those in need find a safe place to live, they can move into a comfortable, fully furnished home.
“I like going to ground zero and helping from there,” said volunteer and St. Matthew parishioner Bill LeMay. He lives by Mother Teresa’s philosophy by finding his own Calcutta – a place where people need help – right in Mecklenburg County.
“Like Sister Teresa said, the people that need help are here, so that is where I love and help them.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Group shares teacher’s visit to grandfathers’ grave
During a field trip to Washington, D.C., students from Our Lady of the Assumption School had the privilege of placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Arlington National Cemetery. CHARLOTTE — A class trip turned into an emotional and personal encounter with history for eighth-grade students and a teacher from Our Lady of the Assumption School in Charlotte as they got to do something normally done by presidents and dignitaries: placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Twenty-seven students along with staff and faculty members visited Washington, D.C., on a whirlwind three-day tour beginning March 30 that took them to several museums, nine monuments,
the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Arlington National Cemetery.
At Arlington, several students were able to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, described by many as the most hallowed grave on U.S. soil. It is the burial site of unidentified service members who died in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, seven days a week by soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also known as “The Old Guard.”
Individuals, veteran’s organizations, school groups and others can apply to lay wreaths at the tomb. It involves a moving ceremony that includes guidance from a Tomb Guard and the playing of taps. By laying a wreath, the eighth-graders followed in the footsteps of U.S. presidents and other high-profile dignitaries who have also placed wreaths there.
Auggie Kojis, 13, was one of the students who placed the wreath.
While at Arlington, second-grade teacher James Moore visited the grave of his grandfather, Michael Ramon Silva, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
“Just to be at Arlington and see all of these graves that represented all these lives that have defended our country made me really emotional,” Kojis said.
While visiting Arlington, second-grade teacher James Moore took time to pause and reflect at the grave of his grandfather, Michael Ramon Silva, who served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
Moore said he knew his grandfather while growing up in California and made the trip to Arlington when Silva was buried there in 2020. However, he had not seen the headstone with his grandfather’s information on it until this trip.
The inscription on the headstone includes “2 Timothy 4:7,” a Bible verse written by St. Paul when he was imprisoned that reads, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
“It was really nice to be able to see the headstone for the first time,” he said. “It was also great to have that moment to share with the students. This was a good way for them to make the connection with history, to realize that these were real people with real families, and that their service for our country impacted other people. This headstone was connected with me, someone they actually know.”
Lindsay Palma-Salmeron, 14, who placed the wreath with Kojis, was moved by the chance to see Silva’s grave.
“We’re all like a big family at this school, so seeing him visit his grandfather and getting to learn about him was very special,” she said.
Students were also awestruck by the visit to the basilica, where they attended Mass and visited its many chapels. They also saw chairs used by former popes when they visited, as well as the 1963 papal coronation tiara of Pope Paul VI, which was gifted to the United States in 1968 and is the only papal tiara on permanent display outside the Vatican.
— Christina Lee Knauss. Photos provided