Constable: Food pantry work earns pope trip for 'local Mother Teresa'
By Burt Constable
bconstable@dailyherald.com
When Pope John Paul II performed an open-air Mass in 1979 in Chicago's Grant Park, LaVerne Horgan didn't go.
"I couldn't. I had children. I was working," remembers Horgan, now 77, retired and running the food pantry at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg.
On Thursday, Horgan will be sitting in the gallery alongside U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth to watch Pope Francis deliver the first papal address to a joint session of Congress.
"I am proud to bring one of my outstanding constituents, LaVerne Horgan, as my guest to Pope Francis' address," Duckworth says. "I first met LaVerne when I visited the Church of the Holy Spirit in Schaumburg to volunteer at the food pantry she manages. The work of the volunteers at the food pantry is inspiring and is critical."
In an email announcing the honor to family and friends, Horgan noted, "I'm flabbergasted." Then she thanked all of her food pantry volunteers for making the papal honor possible.
"She's a very humble person," says Charlene Gulik of Schaumburg, who says she and her husband, Bill, have been volunteering since 1999, when Horgan started the church's program to shelter the homeless. "I think she embodies what the pope is talking about when he speaks about helping the needy. She's just one of these people who likes to help others. Doing things for others just seems to be part of her nature."
The middle of three children born to Anthony and Theresa Slauter in Cicero, Horgan grew up in a Lithuanian parish that often worked in conjunction with the neighborhood's Irish and Polish Catholic churches. As a teenager, she started working at the Sears corporate office as a secretary. When she graduated from Morton High School in 1956, that became her full-time career. She met her husband, Bob, at a party.
"One of his friends got drafted, and my girlfriends got invited to a going-away party, and I met him," Horgan says. The couple married, had children Kathleen, Robert, Richard and Randy moved to Roselle, and then Schaumburg 24 years ago. Her husband, who died in 1993, worked for a plumbing supply house.
In addition to serving on a school board and a library board and as a volunteer for her kids' activities, Horgan took on several secretarial jobs. "Woodfield (Mall) just opened then. I worked in customer service part time," Horgan says.
When her daughter, Kathy, left to be a student at Illinois State University, Horgan got an itch.
"My daughter started college, and I was so excited," Horgan remembers. "My daughter said, 'Well, why don't you start?' So I started college when I was 42."
Beginning at the College of DuPage, Horgan took night classes for 7½ years before earning a bachelor's degree in business management from Elmhurst College. She landed a job with Rolm Corp., a telecommunications company in Schaumburg, and stayed with the company after it was acquired by IBM and later Siemens, before her retirement in 2000. She put her management and financial experience to work in her charity life.
Horgan started a PADS homeless program at her church in 1999 and served as site director. The date she started the food pantry - Oct. 21, 2004 - is as ingrained in her brain as the birthdays of her children.
"The first day there was one family that came in and they were looking for financial assistance from Sister Marianne," Horgan recalls, adding that the nun had them swing by the food pantry first. As pastoral associate for the Church of the Holy Spirit, Sister Marianne Supan says there was no doubt Horgan would build a thriving food pantry. Open every Thursday, the pantry served 105 families last week and doles out about 500,000 pounds of food each year.
"She's like our own local Mother Teresa," Supan says. "She's a very gifted organizer and leader, and very fair."
Duckworth discovered Horgan's efforts more than two years ago when the congresswoman visited the Church of the Holy Spirit food pantry while learning about the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
"She was in her old clothes, and she sat here and handed out stuff," Horgan says of Duckworth. "She was impressed. She just liked what we do here."
As she volunteers with Schaumburg Township helping people apply for food stamps, Horgan also visited Duckworth's office to provide information about that program.
"Hunger is an issue that is deeply important to me, and I am very happy to see that Pope Francis has made it a priority," Duckworth says. "As a teenager, I personally experienced how difficult it can be to struggle with food insecurity. Too many of my neighbors continue to deal with hunger. I am hopeful that the example set by volunteers like LaVerne will inspire others, including my colleagues in Congress, to answer Pope Francis' call to end hunger in our communities."
Horgan was helping the poor long before this pope emphasized that need.
"Everyone thinks no one deserves it (the papal trip) more than LaVerne," Supan says.
"Just the fact that she's being recognized is thrilling," says Kathy Wildman, Horgan's daughter from Hoffman Estates, who will travel to Washington, D.C., with her mom and sit on the lawn outside the Capitol during the pope's address.
"Just being in his presence will be such an honor and a joy. I never dreamed that would happen," Horgan says. "You dream of things that might be possible. This is something I never thought would happen."
In addition to the 25 hours a week she spends running the food pantry, Horgan volunteers with the Society of St. Vincent DePaul, which provides many services for the poor. She coordinates Mass one day a week at the Church of the Holy Spirit and also serves Communion. But the food pantry is her baby.
"You're right with the people who need help. You know the faces. The hugs and fun are yours," Horgan says as she prepares for her trip to see the pope.
"We have a lot of dedicated volunteers. I'm representative of the food pantry. If it wasn't for everything everyone does, I wouldn't be doing this."