Mother Teresa School families help brighten holiday in Appalachia

Families in Elkhorn City, Ky., will have a brighter Christmas thanks to families from an elementary school more than 260 miles away.

Students at Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School in Liberty Township, Ohio, collected bags of gently-used clothes for St. Joseph the Worker Mission in Elkhorn City. The clothes were distributed through the mission, said Precious Blood Sister Margie Zureick, pastoral associate at St. Joseph the Worker.

It was a case of one Precious Blood Sister supporting another in mission.

Sister Anne Schulz, principal at Mother Teresa, was cleaning out her closet and found some clothing that could be used by someone else. She thought of Sister Margie, who works with the poor in the Appalachian mountains in far southeastern Kentucky. Sister Anne put a notice in her school newsletter for additional clothing donations and school families responded.

Margie visited the school to collect the clothes just before Thanksgiving.

“We ended up with a whole van full of the clothes,” Sister Margie said. “It was really nice clothing. There were some nice shoes in there.”

The next day a family of four adults and nine children came to the mission looking for clothes. They found something for each of the kids and one of the adults found a jacket that he needs in the colder weather in the Mother Teresa donation.

It’s an example of how simple donations can have a greater impact, and how Precious Blood Spirituality is expressed.

“I want to thank the people at Mother Teresa for the beautiful, good quality clothing that they provided,” Sister Margie said. “How could we supply that family with clothing if they hadn’t donated it? We pray every day for all those who help us. We call them partners in ministry. We’re completely dependent upon our benefactors.”

Story and photo by Dave Eck

Comments are closed.