Many people have trouble keeping up with housework, as they may be disabled or otherwise unable to do the work themselves. Many people in Ponca City, including Saint Mary Catholic Church parishioners, offered their time Sunday, April 23, for the annual “Great Day of Service” to help those homeowners who simply need help.
Saint Mary Catholic Church participates annually with other churches to serve other members of the community. Brothers Rick and Donnie Steichen are the organizers for Saint Mary Catholic Church.
“Some people just need help,” Rick Steichen said.
The Great Day of Service is a joint event through churches across the Ponca City community. Leaders come together to help one another to put on the event.
Each church that participates chooses neighborhoods near them to serve, which helps cover the larger Ponca City community. Within that neighborhood, they identify homes that may need help with maintaining their properties.
“The community churches get together, and they canvass areas,” Rick Steichen said. “They pick an area in town they want to serve, and find houses that need help, and they get a group of volunteers and go out.”
The neighborhoods are typically within a few blocks of each church.
“We try to canvass around our church, and most churches try to do the same thing so that volunteers cover the city, as the churches are spread out across the community,” Steichen said.
Once houses are identified as potential properties for cleaning, the volunteers approach the homeowners about the program.
“They have a form to fill out, and when they return the form to church and I get the form, I assign a team leader, and a team to go to each house, and depending on how bad it is, they may do multiple houses,” Rick Steichen said.
The churches typically hold it on a Sunday, and for Saint Mary Catholic Church, they gather after the 8 a.m. Mass. Volunteers who have signed up in the weeks leading up to the event learn which group they will work with, and which properties they will be at. Volunteers can also sign up to participate the day of.
The Great Day of Service only focuses on yard work, including mowing, weed eating, tree and shrub trimming, gardening and even brush pile removals. Anything else, such as painting, is not part of the program.
“This is just yard work. We don’t go in the house or on the roof,” Steichen said.
Each year, the number of volunteers is different, along with the number of houses served, as well as the number of volunteers. For 2023, Saint Mary Catholic Church had 33 volunteers, spread across five teams and 13 houses, eight of which they did as part of their own program. Another five were in conjunction with LifeChurch.tv.
“The pastor told us in the (pre-meeting) they were overwhelmed with houses, so I told him, depending on the number of people we had, we might be able to help,” Rick Steichen said.
Driving through the neighborhoods, it wasn’t hard to find a property that was being cleaned by community supporters. Many homeowners were gracious for the help they received.
George Wilhelm was one such property owner. He was seen helping the volunteers on his property.
“It gets ahead of me, starting off a little, and it gets bigger,” Wilhelm said, referencing ice storm damage to his trees. “After the ice storm a few years ago, there were so many trees damaged, and a lot of branches didn’t come down. This year, there were problems, with three to four times the number of limbs than usual.”
For the volunteers, it is a chance to help those in need.
“It is humbling to help those less fortunate,” Susan Babley said.
It is those homeowners, though, who have the most to gain: someone showing up, simply wanting to help.
“It helps those who aren’t able to keep their yard cleaned up,” Wilhelm said. “I praise God for bringing this group down to help.”
Everett Brazil, III is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
Photos: Parish volunteers at St. Mary Catholic Church in Ponca City joined with churches and organizations from the community on April 23 for the annual day of service – a program that brings community members together to do yard work for homeowners who do not have the ability to do it on their own. The parish participates every year to clean properties in the neighborhood. Photos Everett Brazil, III/Sooner Catholic.