Unsung Hero to be honored

Courtesy photo/CCS

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Katherine Mahoney (second from right), greets the Lian Nei Thang family from Myanmar.

DRAPER — Catholic Community Services’ annual Humanitarian Awards Dinner will honor Katherine Mahoney as this year’s Unsung Hero. Mahoney helped launch the Parish Refugee Resettlement Ministry at Saint John the Baptist Parish, where she is a member.

"We honor an unsung hero every year at our awards dinner to give back to those in our community who are doing amazing philanthropic things," said Lauren McCarty, CCS public relations and marketing coordinator. "St. John the Baptist was the first parish to adopt the Parish Refugee Resettlement Ministry, and Katherine Mahoney started it for the Salt Lake Valley and serves as the role model leading the way for other parishes."

CCS couldn’t possibly employ enough people to reach out to every refugee family long-term to really help them integrate into society, McCarty said.

In preparing for the awards dinner, McCarty had the opportunity to accompany Mahoney on a visit to some of the refugee families she has helped mentor. "It was amazing to see how the families welcomed her," said McCarty. "They made her a part of their family in such a short time. Her warmness, her openness and her willingness to help them has created a bond."

"As soon as Katherine heard about this ministry, she was so excited and formed a group from her parish," said Raul Yumul, CCS assistant volunteer coordinator. "The people who are coming into Utah don’t have the necessary knowledge to be able to survive, so the importance of the refugee ministry is to give respect and trust both for the volunteers and for the refugees. In developing trust and respect, the volunteers are able to mentor the refugees in basic life skills."

For Mahoney, the work is all about the families she helps, not her.

"We are on our fourth family and every family has been totally different from any other," she said. "We find out what the family’s needs and concerns are, and go from there. Our last family wanted to get jobs, find a car and get driver’s licenses. The concern of the new family from Burma (Myanmar) we are helping is to learn English. They have lived in a city before, so we’re not starting out with, ‘This is a fridge, this is a stove and this is how the water works.’"

Mahoney said it’s very hard for these families, who have been living in tents in refugee camps for 10 to 20 years, to know how to take care of a home. "We are still learning how to be sensitive in teaching them how to be good housekeepers."

"The thing about this ministry is you make connections with people and you realize that people are the same wherever they come from," Mahoney said. "They are parents and they want to do the best for their children. One of the Somali dads said we give his family hope. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of pressure,’ but I think we give them friendship and unconditional love. We fall in love with them and that is why when the six-month period is over we still keep in touch with them. It’s interesting to see them a year later and to see how well they are speaking English, and what proud housekeepers they’ve become."

The challenge of the ministry is getting the parish more involved, said Mahoney. "There are a lot of ways to help without visiting the families. People can also help by keeping them in their prayers, donating clothes, furniture, books, games or toys, or help by taking them to soccer practice, or raising funds for them."

Katherine Mahoney will be honored along with other honorees at the Humanitarian Awards Dinner on Nov. 10. For tickets, call 801-428-1231.