FREELAND – As spring flowers blossom and Easter draws near, volunteers at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish have been remarkably busy.
Parish volunteers recently assembled dozens of “forget-me-not” gift bags for elderly and homebound parishioners. On Saturday, April 12, the bags, along with Easter lilies and palms, were delivered to nursing homes and residences.
“When we deliver the bags and lilies, we receive a lot of very positive feedback from the parishioners. They’re extremely grateful,” John Chuckra, chairperson of the parish community service team, said. “A common comment is ‘my parish family always remembers me’ and that is very, very great to hear.”
Tucked inside the thoughtfully prepared bags are more than just essentials – they also contain lotions, hand creams, stamps, warm blankets, and puzzles that are all carefully selected by parishioners.
Each bag is, in truth, a vessel of love, and a message of remembrance sent to the senior members of the parish.
“We are very concerned with letting them know that they are treasures of the past and this program goes hand-in-hand with an ‘Hour of Kindness’ where we meet every month, the last Saturday of the month, and we sign and address greeting cards for our elderly,” parish secretary Janet Croshaw explained. “Every month, instead of a bill or junk mail, they also get a lovely message, a lovely greeting card from their parish family, reminding them that they have not been forgotten.”
Croshaw and a small team spearhead the special ministry. They say it began after realizing the parish does a lot of children – like collecting coats and backpacks – but wanted to also do something for its eldest members.
“My mom was in a nursing home, and they would come, and she enjoyed getting that bag of goodies. She called it her bag of goodies. She really enjoyed it,” volunteer Sharon Yefchak said. “It’s good for us as a parish to reach out to people. It makes you feel good, and it makes them feel good.”
Parishioner Cheryl Turri not only helps assemble the “forget-me-not” bags but also helps to deliver them.
“One of the ladies is 97 and she just loves this. She loves the cards she gets, the pictures, because sometimes we’ll send pictures with the cards,” Turri stated. “The whole congregation can take part in this beautiful idea.”
This outreach effort has become a lifeline, especially for those who can no longer attend Mass in person. Volunteers not only deliver the bags door to door, often staying to chat, pray, or simply sit in silence. For some recipients, these visits are a rare and treasured connection to the church community they so dearly love.
“I get a lot of pleasure doing this,” volunteer Sally Shupp said.
Shupp began helping with the distribution in memory of her mother and father. Shupp, a retired nurse, had a mother who lived in a nursing home and knows that there are many residents that don’t get visitors.
“There was just such a want of being remembered, wanting to be complimented, anything that gave them another human connection,” she explained.
In the simple act of giving – a lily, a blanket, a prayer – the “forget-me-not” bags have become a radiant sign of Easter hope for so many at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish.
“I’m hoping that they know that they’re not forgotten. We do think of them, and we pray for them,” Yefchak said.