CWL luncheon raises funds for nonprofits

Friday, Oct. 24, 2025

SALT LAKE CITY — Funds from this year’s Catholic Woman’s League Fall Tapestry luncheon benefited children with mental health care needs and the capital campaign for the building of Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Riverton.

Almost 200 people attended the luncheon, held Oct. 18 at the Sheraton Hotel in Salt Lake City. Among them were Father Joseph Delka, pastor of Saint Andrew’s; and Deacon Duane Padilla and Deacon Mike Bulson, who minister at the parish.

The Catholic Woman’s League is a non-profit organization that works for the interest of Christ, promotes spirituality based on the principles of the Catholic faith, and works toward literary, educational and philanthropic efforts in the community, according to its mission statement.

The beneficiaries of the luncheon were The Children’s Center Utah and the St. Andrew Women’s Society. Representatives of both spoke at the luncheon, giving a brief explanation of their organization and thanking the CWL for their donation.

The Children’s Center Utah, founded in 1962, is “the only organization in Utah providing trauma-informed, evidence-based mental health services exclusively to children from birth through age 6, as well as their caregivers,” said Mary Burchett, development manager.

The center provides care to more than 1,200 children, families and providers each year, according to its website.

“Research shows that up to 20 percent of Utah’s youngest children will experience emotional or behavioral challenges, and many families struggle to find help,” Burchett said, explaining that “at The Children’s Center Utah no family is turned away due to the inability to pay, so your support helps us continue to keep that promise.”

The donation from the CWL luncheon “will support the children and families we serve through programs like our outpatient clinical services, where families receive evidence-based trauma-informed therapy and psychiatric care; our therapeutic pre-school program, which is a nationally recognized research-informed group therapy model for children ages 2 to 5 with acute mental health needs; caregiver support and education – helping parents and guardians build skills to support their children’s emotional growth; and our statewide consultation and training, ensuring childcare providers and educators have the tools to support children’s mental health in their own settings,” she said.

St. Andrew Parish was established in 2006; currently it has a school but no dedicated church building.

Six months after the parish was established, the first Mass was celebrated “in the basement of 3129 Martinez Way in Riverton,” said Melissa Samson, president of St. Andrew Parish’s Women’s Society, at the luncheon. “About 15 people attended both the Spanish and English Mass.”

As attendance grew, Mass was moved to a funeral home, then the Megaplex movie theater in The District, she said.

The parish broke ground for its school in 2007, and a year later “the first Mass was celebrated in the new school gymnasium, where it has been week after week ever since,” she said. “It’s now 17 years later, and we have over 1,300 families registered at St. Andrew’s Parish. Our gym struggles to hold all of the people that come to hear the Word of God.”

Samson became involved in the parish in 2021, when she moved to the Riverton area. Eventually her husband, who wasn’t Catholic, joined her at Mass. They began to volunteer at the parish, and last month he was initiated into the Church.

“Something very special happens in that gym every week,” she said. “There’s a community there” that offers support for people looking for Jesus to be in their life, people to talk with, children playing, and “people that have lost their spouse, and they feel comforted by a congregation coming together to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

The parish is still growing, she said, and “we all have dreams one day when we don’t have to fold 200 chairs at the end of Mass to turn it back into a school gymnasium.”

Funds from the CWL luncheon will go toward the parish’s own fundraisers for their capital campaign, she said.