FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS VOL. 41, NO. 45 •
Friday, November 21, 1997
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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$14 Per Year
Winners of house
A happy holiday for the DaSilveiras By
PAT MCGOWAN
It·s going to be a wonderful Thanksgiving for Cape Verdean emigrant Maria DaSilveira of New Bedford and her little daughters Melissa and Denisa. On Monday, Nov. 17, they became the lucky winners of a drawing for a once abandoned two-family home on New Bedford's South Sixth Street, in St. John the Baptist parish. Renovation of the home was a collaborative effort on the part of Community Action for Better Housing, a project of the New Bedford office of Diocesan Catholic Social Services and the City of New Bedford Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development. Applications for the house were accepted from income-eligible families and individuals, and eventually six were selected to participate in Monday night's drawing, held in the living room of the coveted property. James Malone, manager of Community Action for Better Housing, explained that the proces!; began with an Oct. lon-site open house, widely advertised in the New Bedford area, at which persons previously qualified
as eligible to become fil1lt-time home owners had the opportunity to view the house and indicate ~heir interest in it. Bishop Sean O'¥alley was present to bless the house and also on hand were representatives of New Bedford city governme':lt and of the first-time home-buyers' program of Compass Bank, New Bedford, which had provided Ms. DaSilveira with a $70,000 mortgage. Representing Catholic Social Services was executive director Arlene A. McNamee. Then came the breath-holding moment. Bishop O'Malley asked one of the children present to pick the winning envelope from the six in a red basket held by another child. Whom should he choose but Melissa DaSilveira, who will be living in the house! "Thank you, God!" shouted Melissa's mother as the bishop opened the envelope and read her name. Malone, a semi-retired real estate development agent and director of Community Action for Better Housing, said the nearly century-old house was rehabilitated und~r his supervision and that Catholic Social Services
plans to start work on a second house, also in New Bedford's south end. Ms. DaSilveira expects to move her family into their new home as soon as all negotiations are completed and she plans to rent her second apartment. Malone said the house cost a total of about $180,000 to purchase, renovate and delead, and that the Com-
pass Bank mortgage covered 95 percent of its value, asking a down payment of only three percent. The remaining two percent Ms. DaSilveira needed came as a lO-year loan from the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development; and it will be canceled in 10 years if Ms. DaSilveira continues to live in the house.
Speaking for a grateful neighborhood association, Latisha Silva told the New Bedford Standard-Times that the house had been vandalized and was a "neighborhood eyesore." Rehabilitating it, Malone told the newspaper, was "an attempt to help stabilize a neighborhood that is not bad but is kind of on the edge."
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KITCHEN ANGELS Dan De Palma, Wendy Lacerda, Nancy Marotto, Yvonne CabralEdwards and Irene Joseph work on angel-motif holiday decorations for the upcoming holiday bazaar at St. Peter's, Provincetown. They've been very busy with projects like this one and their holiday meals to holiday shut-ins program.
Cape "Kitchen Angels" bring food to needy
BISHOP O'MALLEY stands with the happy DaSilveira family. From left, Maria, Melissa and Denisa. (Malone photos)
Several years ago, a handful of parishioners of St. Peter the Apostle, Provincetown, learned that Meals on Wheels, the program that delivered daily meals to local shut-ins, did not do so on holidays. Apparently the lack of funds and the difficulty of attracting holiday volunteers were the culprits so these parishioners sought to correct the situation. First they obtained permission to do so from the person in charge of the local Meals on Wheels program, who incidentally thought it was a wonderful idea, but also needed approval from her bosses. Once that came through, Meals on Wheels recipients were contacted and asked if they would like a holiday meal delivered to their home and if their name, address, and phone number could be given to the new volunteer group. "It was a green light all the way," explained Dan De Palma, the group's organizer. A list of 12 people was handed to him and when he shared it with his first two cohorts., Nancy Marotto and Yvonne Cabral-Edwards, they realized they knew each person on the list. They also added three more names of people not in the Meals on Wheels program, but who were shut-ins who might enjoy the meal. Nancy and Yvonne contacted each person to explain that they would deliver their holiday meal between noon and one
o'clock on Thanksgiving Day and the trio also financed, prepared and delivered holiday meals on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter of that first year. "We wanted to avoid using plastic or styrofoam food containers and to make the food more appetizing we set up each meal on oval plates with side dishes for salad and dessert, and with cloth napkins and real flatware which we borrowed from the restaurant Dan was then associated with," said Nancy. These were picked up the next day and returned until the next holiday arrived. Soon the Interfaith Food Ministry Coalition, The Soup Kitchen at the Universalist Meeting House and the group organizing the sit-down holiday meals at the Methodist Church made it clear to the group that there were far more than 15 who needed holiday meals brought to them. It was not long before three more volunteers joined the group: Pat Sullivan, Wendy Lacerda, and Irene Joseph and with them the group could begin to satisfy that bigger need. Last Easter they prepared and delivered over 45 meals to shut-ins all over town. "If people couldn't get to the sitdown Easter dinner at St. Mary of the Harbor Episcopal Church which is open to everyone in the community and we knew who they were and how to get to them, we were most
happy to do so," said Pat Sullivan, delivery coordinator. "We had some extra plates made up and brought them to people who were not at home because of work, like at the police station or local shops." Recently the group was commended by the Friends of the Provincetown Council on Aging for its "quiet" volunteer program. At that point they did not yet have a name for their group and were taken by surprise when asked what it was. They eventually settled on "SI. Peter's Kitchen Angels," and use the slogan "holiday meals for holiday shut-ins." The Kitchen Angels are getting ready as this Thanksgiving rapidly approaches and ask that any shut-in who is not on the Meals on Wheels program or is unable to attend the sitdown holiday meal at St. Mary's of the Harbor keep them in mind. If they would like a meal delivered, people are encouraged to contact any of the town's places of worship and leave their name and phone number. These will be passed on to the Angels coordinator, who will verify the request by phone before the holiday. Anyone who would like to help deliver these holiday meals in their own vehicles or would like more information about St. Peter's Kitchen Angels may contact Dan De Palma, tel. 487-2434.