#MiddleburyCT #Homeless #BlessingBags
Parishioners and the priest from St. George’s Episcopal Church in Middlebury hold the blessing bags they packed for the homeless. The project was organized by Ken Heidkamp, foreground. (Donna Finneran photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
St. George’s Episcopal Church parishioners and their priest spent the morning May 11 filling “Blessing Bags” with a variety of items. Then they drove to Waterbury to hand them out to the homeless. Diane Finneran of the Brian O’Connell Homeless Project guided the group through the process and then went with them to hand out the bags.
Inside each bag was a variety of useful items. First, a bottle of water. Finneran said that’s the most important item and needs to be in each bag. Also important are a pair of new socks. Homeless people walk a lot and go through a lot of socks. Other items in the bags were a simple first aid kit, protein bars, chicken and tuna lunch packets, crackers, razors and shaving cream for the men, personal products for the women, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, a rain poncho and other food and toiletry items. Finally, each bag included a note of encouragement to let each person know someone cares about them.
The Blessing Bag project was conceived by Ken Heidkamp, who described how it came to be as one thing led to another. First, Rev. Tara Shepley then the priest at St. George’s, asked Heidkamp if he’d be willing to serve as a senior warden. He questioned if others weren’t better qualified for the position, and Shepley said, “Pray on it.” He became a senior warden. Then she asked if he would become a lay preacher. Again, he wasn’t sure he was qualified, and again she said, “Pray on it.” He started serving as a lay preacher.
As a lay preacher, he based his sermon one Sunday on the Biblical passage, Matthew 25:31-46, the parable of the sheep and goats, which includes the words, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Doing research for the sermon while he and his wife, Lucy, were at their second home in Tennessee, he watched videos on interacting with the homeless. Then, as he was driving out of a parking lot, he saw a homeless woman asking for help. No one was acknowledging her. “When our eyes met, I knew I had to help her,” he said. He pulled over, gave her $20 and chatted with her. Then he wrote his sermon.
Wanting to do more to help the homeless, he reached out to fellow parishioner Tom Hungerford. “Everything just falls into place,” Heidkamp said. That’s because Hungerford, who works at Westover, said Finneran had just spoken there. He connected Heidkamp with Finneran, and the Blessing Bag project moved ahead.
Finneran said a tragic event led her to her current full-time work helping the homeless. Her twin brother, Brian O’Connell, was working in New York City and witnessed 9/11. Afterward, he struggled with PTSD. He left New York, came to Connecticut and ended up living homeless in Naugatuck. Sadly, his remains were found along the Naugatuck River in 2016.
Finneran decided to honor his memory by helping others in his situation. “I knew out of a tragedy I was going to change the world,” she said. She does this by filling “Brian’s Bags” and giving them to the homeless, first asking, she said, “Can you use a hand up?”
Learn more about the Brian O’Connell Homeless Project at www.brianoc.org.
You must be logged in to post a comment.