2009 MIDNIIGHT RUN WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!
We had our BEST run ever! After a beautiful liturgy at the 4:00 pm Mass on February 7, Deacon Roland Blier blessed the parishioners who contributed in any way. Next , he called up all those going on the Run and he sent us with blessings for a safe trip to and from NYC. Galen Tate and the choir led us in song. The music was beautiful with many social justice messages. Our group of 46 (30 teens and 16 adults) left St. Thomas More at 9:30 pm with a blessing from Fr. Bob. We traveled with two vans (one clothing/one food) and six vehicles. In my experience, it was our biggest crowd making the Run from St. Thomas More. We were 10 minutes late for the first stop. We got there at 10:40 pm only found one person (Anthony). He went to look for others only two more showed up. We waited for Anthony to come back to get the things he needed. He was kind enough to go scouting others for us. We were at the stop for about a half hour. At the second stop, we saw maybe 10 or 12 people. Here Billy was a little upset that we were late. He said he was a homeless representative to the Midnight Run board. By the time we left, he was happy, said we were the most organized group coming through, and had good stuff. At the third stop at the FDR underpass, we found no one. We moved to the 4th stop and only saw three at Madison Square Park. We got to our last stop, Penn Station, about 1:30 am ….there had to be 70 to 100 at that stop. We met Malcolm who said he was on the Midnight Run board and he also complimented us on our organization. By 2:30 am, we ran out of everything …. food, clothing, toiletries, etc. We even took all the snacks/water/juice (for the kids) out of the vans and gave those out. The BIGGEST HIT was the whipped cream we had for the 100 cups of hot chocolate we served. Another hit was the home made chicken soup. Parish volunteers packed lunch bags with two meat loaf sandwiches/fruit/juice/crackers/granola bars/cookies/brownies and a Valentine card made by our kids from grades K to 6. The Valentine cards were much appreciated. One man with tears in his eyes after reading his card from a 4th grader named Emily, came over to thank us on behalf of all the homeless people who were there. Our kids K-6 decorated the lunch bags and they were also very much appreciated. Jackie Fitzpatrick’s class made 49 fleece scarves, wrapped them with bows and decorated the paper with a Valentine theme. We received many blessings from our homeless friends. Our kids and adults traveled home on a high. We were happy to return with only two small bags of women's clothing. We left the city about 2:30 am and got to Darien about 3:30 am.
In my four years as Youth Minister taking the Senior High youth group and adults on the Midnight Run, this one was the most memorable and the best we have had. With many prayers for good weather, the temperature at midnight was 49 degrees... that was a big help! Thank you to all the parishioners who contributed in ANY way to make this year’s Run the success it was. Thank you to our supportive staff and to the 46 adults and teens who represented our parish well. These 46 did the work that Jesus calls us to do for the least of our brothers and sisters. In the coming weeks, look for reflections from those who went on the Midnight Run. There were some interesting experiences and powerful lessons.
--Janis Pataky
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