Local Catholics band to deliver supplies to Bosnia

Titled "Giving From The Heart," the humanitarian relief effort of Diane and Tom Barber has been endorsed by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who suggests area churches "embrace this as a parish project" between now and Dec. 31.

A flyer detailing donation needs and collection points will be inserted in many parish bulletins this weekend. Other churches, like St. Clement's in Saratoga Springs, plan to hand-deliver the message to parishioners as they enter or leave weekend services. Still others are expected to elaborate on the project from the pulpit.

Fevered effort

In the space of roughly a month, a committee of 20 volunteers, assisted by five members of the Queen of Peace Prayer Group at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, poured their hearts, souls and creative energies into Giving From The Heart's foundation. In essence, their faith moved bureaucratic mountains.

While on a week-long autumn pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia (site of alleged apparitions by the Blessed Mother), the Barbers were invited to visit two nearby refugee camps and an orphanage. What they saw touched them profoundly.

"I'd been following the Bosnia-Herzegovina situation in the news, of course, yet somehow I still wasn't quite prepared for what met my eyes," said Mr. Barber. "Seeing the suffering and devastation first-hand hit me immensely, and I knew I had to do something about it when I got home. I just didn't know how I could possibly do what I felt needed to be done."

Doing something

His first step was to contact Rev. John Byrnes, associate pastor of St. Mary's of the Assumption Church in Waterford.

"I knew Father Byrnes had been to Bosnia many times and that he understood the magnitude of the suffering over there," Mr. Barber said. "I asked him to help me assemble a committee not of talkers, but of doers, movers and shakers. I called them to recruit corporate sponsors."

Through a combination of phone calls, letter-writing and door-knocking, the committee won the backing of Congressmen Jerry Solomon and Michael McNulty along with that of Price Chopper, Mabey's Moving and Storage, Time Warner Cable, the Albany Times Union, Tobin's First Prize, and the Knights of Columbus.

Misery and sorrow

Another "Giving From The Heart" committee member John Olenik, a parishioner at St. Clement's, visited Bosnia and was distressed by the war-torn landscape and the human misery in the refugee camps.

"The fighting may have stopped," he noted, "but the wars against hunger, hatred, disease and poverty continue."

Mr. Olenik said there is an urgent need for every imaginable kind of medical supply as well as clothing and bedding, dried and canned foods, toiletries, and school supplies.

(Collection points include DiSienna's Furniture in Mechanicville and all Mabey's Moving and Storage locations as well as at area Price Choppers. Ultimately, the donated goods will be brought to Tobin's First Prize Center on Exchange Street in Albany to be packaged for overseas delivery. Financial contributions may be made to The Riehle Foundation, c/o Giving From The Heart, 28 Norris Drive, Valatie, NY 12184.)

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