Catholic Charities launches campaign

Kelly Stewart’s life was in freefall. She was a methamphetamine addict with no home. Worst of all, she was a young mother charged with drug crimes and incapable of caring for her son and daughter.

Washington state’s Child Protective Services became involved and put her children in foster care in April 2006.

Rather than give up, Stewart sorted out her priorities and is receiving help from Catholic Charities Spokane.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself,” said Stewart. “The biggest is who I need to be for my kids.”

Now 30, she is living at St. Margaret’s Shelter and has regained custody of her two children. She gave birth in August to a baby boy. The family shares a room as Stewart maps out a future that includes staying clean and living in subsidized housing while taking college courses to be a social worker.

Hers is a face that Catholic Charities wants people to remember as the group’s 66th annual Christmas Collection begins.

The charity’s goal is $750,000, about 10 percent of its operating budget, said executive director Rob McCann. The nonprofit also receives money to serve Eastern Washington from local government and foundations.

At a fundraising kickoff Monday morning at the charity’s showpiece St. Anne’s Children and Family Center, McCann said about 50,000 people, including children, the homeless, older residents and people with disabilities are helped by the group’s 15 programs.

For the past three years as the local Catholic Church has weathered an epic child sex abuse scandal, McCann said churchgoers and non-Catholics alike have given money to help the region’s most vulnerable.

He hopes that this year, even as parishioners have been asked to contribute $10 million toward an overall $48 million bankruptcy settlement for the Diocese of Spokane, people will donate.

Donations to Catholic Charities supports the work of St. Anne’s, where about 30 percent of the children at the new center come from families receiving state financial assistance; St. Margaret’s, which gives shelter to homeless women and children; and the House of Charity and other services. Bishop William Skylstad lent support, calling on Catholics across Eastern Washington to give what they can.

Last year more than 4,600 donors gave $806,000, far surpassing goals.

While the Catholic community may have been fractured by the protracted bankruptcy, McCann said people understood the separate, distinct and important role Catholic Charities plays.

“The lines for us haven’t been blurred,” he said, pointing out that of every dollar donated, 92 cents goes directly to people in need. A spare 8 percent covers overhead costs.

“We’re there to help people with nowhere else to go,” he said.