St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Bakersfield The Blessing Bag Ministry Colleen Scanlon
When I first heard about blessing bags many years ago, I was intrigued. What a great idea it was to put together items that would help the homeless! These little bags had items such as soap, deodorant, food, water, and more to give a little bit of comfort to the most vulnerable. My daughter and I would occasionally make them and then keep them in the car ready to be handed out to the next needy person. Eventually we got out of the habit of doing it. At the end of 2019, like most people, I was thinking of a way to better serve in 2020. My mind went back to the blessing bags that I used to make. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like what I wanted to do. So, I set a goal to make a certain amount each month and hit the streets looking for people who might need a bag. Everything was going well until Covid hit. With people sheltering in place and myself not really going out into the community, I needed to find a different way to distribute the bags. Fortunately, I have a friend and parishioner who is with the Bakersfield Police Department. I asked if she would be willing to pass out bags while she was driving around Bakersfield. She agreed. Then she told me a story that I will never forget. She was called out to a Goodwill where the manager had called the police when a homeless woman was trying to steal a coat because she was so cold. When my friend arrived, the woman was very agitated. To diffuse the situation, my friend grabbed a blessing bag and handed it to the woman. The woman started crying because she was so grateful for the bag. The manager who initially called the police was so moved by the woman’s gratefulness over a bag that he turned around and purchased the coat she was trying to steal. God put it on my heart to do more. I asked my boss, Monsignor Perry Kavookjian, if I could start a blessing bag ministry in our parish and he agreed. We make 140 bags a month and give the bags to the Bakersfield Police Dept, The Mission at Kern County, Catholic Charities, and St. Vincent de Paul. We have just surpassed 5000 bags that have been made. Stories like the one above is one of the many reasons we continue to do what we do. God is SO good! To donate or volunteer, please email Colleen at cscanlon@setoncatholicchurch.org Checks can be made out to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton with “blessing bags” in the memo line.
30 Fall 2023
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