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Northwest Suburban parishes help refugees

Responding to an urgent call last month from Catholic Charities for help with a large group of refugees, four Northwest Suburban Catholic parishes came through with donations totaling $2,500.

The parishes are Our Lady of the Wayside, Arlington Heights; St. Emily, Mt. Prospect; St. Thomas Beckett, Mt. Prospect; and St. Zachary in Des Plaines. The money was used for rent, furnishings and food.

"Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Program had a sudden influx of 23 refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Bhutan and the Congo," said Mike Waters, north regional director for Catholic Charities. "One of the families consisted of a single mother with five children. Apartments needed to be rented, furnished and stocked with food prior to the arrivals. The crisis was met with an outpouring of support from local parishes."

Catholic Charities annually serves more than 1 million individuals without regard to religious, ethnic or economic background. The agency's Northwest Region office, 1717 Rand Road in Des Plaines, is a hub of human services, with a food pantry, clothing room, twice-weekly suppers for the hungry, and housing, counseling and referral programming.

For more information, call (847) 376-2100 or visit www.catholiccharities.net/northwest.

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