Catholic Woman's League serves those in need

SALT LAKE CITY — With a snow storm outside, it was hard to tell if it was fall or winter. But whatever the season, the Catholic Woman’s League benefit luncheon, "Fall Tapestry" was a success.

The luncheon was held at Little America Hotel Oct. 11, and the annual fashion show was presented by The Wight House in Bountiful. The models were members of the Catholic Woman’s league from various parishes throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

The two beneficiaries honored this year were the Utah Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children and the Literacy Action Center.

Vicar General Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, in his opening remarks, said he is grateful to the women in the Catholic Woman’s League for their service to the parishes, the community, and to the Church.

"We are so blessed with your enthusiasm and your ministry," said Msgr. Fitzgerald.

The Catholic Woman’s League was established in March 1916, under the direction of Bishop Joseph S. Glass. In the early history of the league, committees were formed to serve the unemployed, prison inmates, homeless children, and those in the juvenile court system.

Ninety-two years later the Catholic Woman’s League is still assisting those in need.

Brandy Farmer, who works in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Utah Attorney General’s Office, is on the board of directors of the Utah Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children (POMC).

Farmer is a member of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, and has been a survivor three times. Her niece’s husband murdered her niece, her nephew was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant, and another nephew was murdered by two 19-year-old girls who killed six individuals in a killing spree. They are serving life sentences without parole.

"POMC is not just for parents, it is for anyone who has lost someone to murder, even if it was a friend," said Farmer. "In the aftermath of a murder, which is probably the most profound injustice, families need some sense of counter balancing justice. Exactly what that justice might entail differs from survivor to survivor."

Farmer said having a support network is a key element to surviving the tragedy. POMC was founded in 1978 by Charlotte and Bob Hullinger after their daughter, Lisa, was murdered in Cincinnati, Ohio. POMC provides emotional support, education, information, advocacy, and awareness, as well as helps with grief, and the criminal justice system.

Monthly support groups began in Utah in 2007, by Chapter Leader Rose Maree Sazesh, to help survivors cope with grief, the criminal justice system, emotional support needed for survivors to reconstruct a new life, and to promote a healthy resolution.

Farmer said survivors can also include people with seemingly more distant relationships such as neighbors, schoolmates, and members of the community at large.

Murder and homicide are defined interchangeably as the reckless or intentional taking of a human life by another individual. It includes those killed in drunk driving crashes, since driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol is quite properly considered to be criminally reckless conduct. But murder involves more than death. For a majority of victims, it cuts short a healthy, young life, and for all victims, it is committed through an act of wanton human cruelty.

The dimension of cruelty compounds the sense of sorrow and loss with acute feelings of injustice, distrust, and helplessness.

The Literacy Action Center empowers individuals by teaching English-speaking adults to read.

"These are adults who have made it through the school system. More than one-third of the adults we serve have high school diplomas," said Deborah Young, Literacy Action Center executive director. "They may have dyslexia – problems hearing individual sounds in words, analyzing whole words in parts, and blending sounds into words. Letters such as "d" and "b" may be confused. Adults may also have a learning disability where incoming data from the vision and hearing senses is distorted and transformed into something unrecognizable. It could also be from a childhood illness when the child was kept out of school, or from emotional or physical abuse that started from the cradle and made learning difficult."

"Adults enter with less than fourth-grade level reading, writing, and math skills," said Young. "They live in Salt Lake or Davis Counties, and typically have gross incomes at or below 50 percent of the median income.

"Often these adults are ashamed and have no way to find us in a phone book and are frustrated with their situation," said Young. "They do not know how to get help, so our mission is to teach them. Traditional teaching methods do not work. We have to find alternative methods for them. We work with about 140 adults a year, and each one of them struggles until they get some support.

"We impact adults’ lives, their families, work situations, and future generations through economic and emotional change," said Young. "More than 70,000 functionally illiterate English-speaking adults live in Salt Lake and Davis Counties. We are the only adult literacy organization in these two counties. We began in 1984, and have empowered more than 2,200 adults, who can now read and write."

Sindy Coleman has studied with the Literacy Action Center for 10 years.

"It has changed my life," said Coleman. "My story actually started 13 years ago. I was a volunteer room parent at Head Start where my children were attending. I had been there three years and was given an opportunity to become a teacher’s aid, a paid position, which could have led to a teaching position. But I would have had to take a test and fill out the application, but I could not read or write.

"I could not take my children to a doctor or dentist they had not seen before, or to the Health Department for shots because I could not fill out forms," said Coleman. "I could not take the bus places I had not been before, or drive. So I decided I needed help and was given the phone number of the Literacy Action Center. I am now employed and can read and write."

As a child Coleman was hyperactive and slightly dyslexic, so her learning disability went unnoticed.