Homeless advocate Pamela Atkinson is this year's speaker for the Aquinas Lecture series

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Pamela Atkinson

SALT LAKE CITY — Pamela Atkinson has been selected as the speaker for the upcoming Aquinas Lecture, "Making a Difference and Giving Hope."

Saint Catherine of Siena/Newman Center has sponsored the Aquinas Lecture for several years. The lecture series is meant to give parishioners and people from the community at large an opportunity to learn from respected leaders from within the University of Utah and from all over the country, said Mike McGinley, Aquinas Lecture co-chairperson.

"This year we selected Pamela Atkinson because our parish has been involved in stewardship and she is well-known for working with people in difficult circumstances," said McGinley. "Hopefully people will realize it doesn’t take somebody who is rich to give a lot of money or is retired to give a lot of time to make a difference in someone’s life."

Atkinson is an advocate for the poor on issues that address homelessness, health care and basic needs.

"I want to share with people how very easy it is to help other people with just a small action on their part," she said. "I come across a great many people who think you have to do huge projects to make a difference. I want to tie some of what many of us do in scripture with stories of people who have been helped with just a small amount of caring."

For example, Atkinson tells the story of once, when she was leaving the First Presbyterian Church on South Temple, she met a family in need of a small amount of money for gasoline on their way to California.

"I later heard from them to say with my small donation they had made the trip and the husband had found a job," Atkinson said. "He thanked me and said what a difference it had made in his life."

In her presentation, Atkinson wants to share with people how easy it is to make giving people hope a part of daily life, she said. "I believe by illustrating with stories of what I’ve done and what others have shared with me, people will get ideas of how to get involved, and know what to do and what to say. For example, I’ll use the example of what a smile will do in affecting other people’s lives."

Atkinson works directly with homeless families and individuals, refugees and low-income people and collaborates with a variety of nonprofit and governmental organizations as well as agencies such as Catholic Community Services that serve these populations. She also is an advisor on policy and planning to Gov. Gary Herbert.

An Aquinas Lecture follow-up series will feature social justice topics and include time for discussion, questions and answers and Catholic perspectives and teachings. Parishioners will be asked to share how they can make a difference in the world and also find out ways to live the Catholic call to be compassionate agents of change, McGinley said.

"Lent will start shortly after the Aquinas lecture, and one of the things we talked about was taking positive actions such as taking food or clothing to the homeless shelter or volunteering an hour or more of one’s time," said McGinley. "Or people can also offer contributions to the Rice Bowl collection. The idea is not to make people think they have to make a life-time commitment, or commit to so many hours a week, but to simply make an act of kindness."

The Aquinas Lecture will be Feb. 3 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena/Newman Center, 170 University St., Salt Lake City. The lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. The follow-up series will be Sunday mornings starting Feb. 10 in the student lounge from 9:40 to 10:40 a.m.