Sister BJ's Pantry
Foot Clinic
Open the 1st and 3rd Thursdays each month
9 a.m. to Noon.
There's no address on the card. It's not necessary. The homeless people who walk there know exactly where it's located.
Sister Barbara Joseph, a Carmelite, opened her pantry for the homeless 14 years ago. It's tucked into a small building in the 800 block of N.W. 4, near downtown Oklahoma City. A flower-filled patio area behind the building welcomes all with picnic tables and a statue of Mary holding the Christ child in her arms. Fresh fruit is on one table for the taking.
Volunteers help with the various ministries provided by the pantry. On Holy Thursday, the focus was on feet.
A year ago, Sister BJ, as she is known, approached Dr. Jim Flynn, an Oklahoma City podiatrist.
"It was after Mass and sister comes up to me and says, ‘I'm starting a foot clinic for the homeless, and I say, ‘What's that got to do with me?’”
Now, Flynn and a small band of dedicated volunteers gather every other Thursday making it their mission to care for the feet of Oklahoma City's homeless. Every person who uses the foot clinic receives a new pair of shoes as often as they are needed.
With help from generous supporters, Sister BJ has purchased hundreds of shoes from boots to sneakers. There are shoes made especially for diabetics. Sizes are purchased to cover small feet up to size 16.
"She buys quality shoes," said Mary Cotter-Lalli, one of the foot clinic volunteers, pointing to dozens of boxes of name-brand footwear.
A sock manufacturer, BOMBAS, donated 5,000 pairs of socks and word is, another 1,200 pair are on the way.
About 100 volunteers from Christ the King Catholic Church packaged hygiene kits for the homeless and Cotter-Lalli has learned to make sleeping mats from plastic bags like those found in grocery stores.
Raymond, one of the patients, said the plastic bag mat helps him stay dry.
The foot crew consists of Flynn, Tim and Pam Archer, Maya Kanaan, Cotter-Lalli and Erin Gayer. The volunteers prepare a warm foot bath for each visitor, while Flynn handles the medical procedures inside a treatment room equipped with two chairs made especially for foot care.
The clinic normally sees about a dozen people every other week, but on one particular day, Flynn treated 22 people. Father Rex Arnold, pastor at Saint John Nepomuk in Yukon, blessed the foot clinic when it first opened. Sister Barbara Joseph said the blessings also was on Holy Thursday.
"Then, Fr. Rex stuck around and washed some feet!" Flynn said.
Ray Dyer is a longtime newspaper publisher and former editor of the Sooner Catholic.