St Mary Conference

Grafton St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP)

Grafton St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP) officially began April 3, 2001, and it was started by parishioners Jim Bissonette and his wife along with Paul and Jackie Foran. Dr. Stratford and Judy Goossens completed the group. They all saw the need to reach out and help those less fortunate, but there were obstacles to overcome. The startup began with a landline in Judy’s basement for calls and gifts of food and money from the people in the Parish.

In the 25 years since, the SSVP has had only five presidents; Jim Bissonette, Graham Stratford, Paula Blick, Patricia Westrope and Wes Krentz. Meetings were held around each other’s dining room table and records were handwritten as we learned the ways of the organization. We had wonderful meetings and grew into a large and cohesive group, with a base of friends of over 300 individuals.

A Christmas Hamper Program was soon started. St. Mary’s gym became our base of operations as hampers were filled with toys, candies, food and o turkey. Today, as the world has changed, we offer vegetarian and gluten free options, food vouchers instead of canned food and gifts associated with The Giving Tree.

In addition to assisting with food we have made payments for hydro, heat and some financial planning. We exchange recipes, gift crock pots with recipes and attended free lunches in Colborne to keep in touch with anyone who might be in dire need, or to just lend an ear.

The purpose of some of our events has been to share information regarding what we do. We have also held events to raise monies for our day to day operations. Some of these events have included the following:

• organizing a monthly breakfast for parishioners at the school.
• making presentations to the local elementary school and encouraging food drives that sustained the pantry for many months
• an auction in conjunction with the Parish
• a large ceramics sale by a local artist with all monies going toward SSVP
• Sourcing donations from the community. Ste Annes Spa has been a huge supporter of our cause with donations of rugs, robes, towels and lawn furniture, all through Jim Corcoran
• Jim Corcoran has been a big supporter of our Christmas Hamper Program, often sending volunteers to help put the hampers together.
• visiting and bringing Holy Communion to the sick and elderly in nursing homes

Our biggest event was a container for the North of 60 program run by the Ontario Regional St. Vincent de Paul. The Parish volunteered to put together a shipping container full of food for a community in Nunavut named Arviat.

We worked in concert with our community partners, sourcing 300 jars of peanut butter from the Anglican Church in Grafton, and having the Northumberland Players paint the shipping container. The Parish was most generous in donating coffee and olive oil, and a local businessman Jim Prentice paid for the lift and transport of the container to the port of Montreal. In total over $30,000 worth of food was collected and shipped to Nunavut.

Over the years the St. Vincent de Paul in Grafton has seen many changes. However, one thing has remained a constant and that is we serve anyone in need regardless of race, colour, creed, religion or anything else.