Stories

by Abby Wass, Youth Minister
January 10, 2023

On a very cold and windy Saturday in mid December, a group of teens from GO FISH!’s Confirmation Prep program generously donated their time to give back to the community.

They were tasked with picking up the amazing donation of 170 bicycles from the St. Vincent de Paul stores in Waukesha County and delivering them to the Sister MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary in downtown Milwaukee. The teens (along with their sponsors or parents) were not only able to do the leg-work of moving the bicycles, but they were also able to distribute them to the homeless community of Milwaukee.



The teens were truly humbled by the experience of distributing the bicycles and generous donation of mittens and hats from the parish as the number one takeaway of the experience was the overwhelming sense of gratitude that the recipients felt towards our teens and all of those who donated and helped make the day possible. One of our teens, Alison Skowronek, took on the role of reporter for the event and wrote an article about the experience.

"On December 17th I had the opportunity to join members from the St. Paul and St. Bruno parish to load and deliver bikes to adults and children in Milwaukee.


To start off our day we went to St. Vincent De Paul in Pewaukee, who generously provided the bikes to distribute, and we loaded them into trailers. While we were loading the bikes, I interviewed one of the volunteers who took time to share with me how she felt about being able to give back to her community. Natalie Miles, a junior from KM, shared; “I love helping out in the community and being able to give back. Helping all these people makes me feel fulfilled and it's great being able to do it with my community members.”


After having loaded all of the bikes onto the trailer, a group of us headed to the Milwaukee area to the Sister MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary to distribute the bikes. Seeing the kids and adults being able to receive the bikes as gifts was certainly a good feeling of being able to give back this holiday season. What Sister Brown does is certainly amazing and her dedication to helping is more than admirable, and thanks to her and Deacon Joe, who started this tradition eight years ago, this area in Milwaukee is blessed to receive bikes every Christmas season. Giving back this Christmas was an amazing way to not only give to those who are less fortunate, but it reflects God's love through the coming together of the community and giving back what we can."