Volunteers & Benefactors
The Franciscan Connection is a nonprofit organization, relying heavily on the financial support of our donors. The Secular Franciscans of St. Peter’s Fraternity in Belleville have been especially generous. Each summer, members collect pens, paper, crayons, glue, rulers, and other classroom supplies to help needy children as they head Back-to-School. What an investment in both our young people and their futures!
Individual Secular Franciscans have also been very generous in their support of our ministries among the poor. Two members, Jerry Anderson and Tom Casey have even become faithful benefactors, sending in monthly contributions which especially helps us bridge the gaps between our Christmas and summer mailings.
Quincy University celebrates its 150th Anniversary this year. Students graduate with a deep sense of service and a genuine compassion for the less fortunate. Each fall, current students give up their Fall Break to help fix up a home for a family. In the spring, it’s the Alumni’s turn. Erin Hannigan, Ed Andrade and Brendan Ford are all members of the QU National Alumni Board. For years, they have promoted the Franciscan Connection and encouraged local schoolmates to get involved with hands on projects that dramatically impact the lives of families here in our neighborhood. They carry on that truly Franciscan spirit!
Need a hand hauling furniture to this house or that? Maybe bringing a truckload of lumber, ladders, flowers, mulch and other supplies to a jobsite? Or perhaps, someone to provide parking lot security on those cold winter Trivia Nights? Who you going to call? Bro. Damian Pfeifer, our longtime and faithful volunteer.
Tom Ruoff has been a member of Little Flower Parish all his life and an active promoter for the Little Flower Theatre Group. As a member of the Franciscan Connection’s FRIEND-Raising Committee, Tom has helped organize many of our special events, like hawking tickets for our big Trivia Night 50/50 raffle or packing up school supply kits with his mom and dad. Tom also helped us build up our database of local businesses, delivering newsletters door-to-door along Cherokee Street.
Business & Corporate Support
Pat Kelley was a founding member of our Contractors Committee. Over the years, he has helped us evaluate, expand and enhance our home repair efforts. He often advocates on our behalf to local tradespeople, collecting basic supplies to enable us to carry out emergency home repairs. This year, he even helped us get a special grant from the Home Builders Association.
The Joseph & Elsie McBride Charitable Foundation takes a special interest in the housing needs of St. Louis families, but director Pat Kiehl has gone out of her way to support Franciscan Connection ministries, collecting backpacks for underprivileged children or dropping off candy for our annual Halloween Trunk-or-Treat. She’s even wrangled in a team of her best friends to come in and help stuff newsletters for our big mailings in November and June.
Accountant Tim Marshall has been a longtime benefactor of the Franciscan Connection. Last year, though, he took things a step further, introducing us to the Crestwood-Sunset Hills Rotary. Tim’s work garnered us multiple donations and a new network of interested supporters.
Similarly, Peter and Jane Reinecke made the Franciscan Connection a personal cause. As local residents of the neighborhood, they appreciated our small size and grassroots approach to impacting the community – one home at a time. Over the years, they have promoted our efforts to their friends and clients, especially utilizing our Missouri State Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits. Their care and concern for us is evident, not just in financial donations, but in everything from lunches to delivered to volunteer crews on a jobsite to an open house held in their very own home.
Church & Community Support
St. Peter’s in the Loop is a Franciscan church nestled in the hustle-bustle heart of downtown Chicago. Their “Poor Box” collections regularly support Franciscan Outreach, our homeless shelter & soup kitchen in Chicago, and the ministries of the Franciscan Connection here in St. Louis.
The parishioners of St. Nicholas Church in O’Fallon, Illinois have taken their call to stewardship very seriously. A committee of church members regularly reviews special ministries going on in the greater metropolitan area. For the past several years, Secular Franciscan Khai Ngo and his wife Oanh have presented our efforts and enabled us to receive donations that enable us to carry on our work among the poor.
Support and collaboration often extends beyond church boundaries and backgrounds. The members of New City Fellowship have demonstrated a true compassion for the “poor, widow, and refugee.” Andrew Stern was a founding member of the Stone-by-Stone Project Board and has partnered with us on many occasions to enhance our home repair ministries. Their new south city branch will be expanding their WorkDay activities to help continue this unique outreach effort.
Students at Padua Franciscan High School in Cleveland, Ohio are charged with a special regard for the forgotten and marginalized. Their annual Spring Break Service Retreat here in St. Louis gives them a firsthand experience of making a difference in the home and lives of a family in need. Over the years, they have built fences, laid floors, painted kitchens, and cleaned basements – all with love and compassion, sweat and lots of smiles.
Like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Vincent DePaul is a great defender of the poor. The Gateway Vincentian Volunteers each dedicate a year of their lives to service here in the St. Louis area, tackling everything from visiting the mentally ill to advocating for equal housing. Over the years, the Franciscan Connection has been proud to host five of these outstanding young people. Directors Jim and Geri Ryanhave been dedicated spokespersons, not only for our cause, but for the needs of the Greater St. Louis community.
Founders & Builders
When the Franciscan Consulting & Referral Center first began in June 1991, little did we know where the Lord would take us. It was Bro. Bill Schulte’s idea to expand the presence of the friars out into the neighborhood surrounding St. Anthony of Padua Friary. Fr. Thomas Shaughnessy andFr. Gratian Nosalwere the first to answer the call, to plant seeds and to begin ministering to the needs of families trapped in poverty, unemployment and the daily struggle to survive. Over the years, our ministries have grown. Volunteers have gotten involved. Families’ lives are being touched. And a new sense of community is being reborn.