Local News

CUMBERLAND – Standing next to piles of neatly folded children’s shirts and dainty toddler’s dresses hanging overhead on hangers, Ellie Mantheiy was pleased with the quantity and quality of the apparel. “It’s mostly used clothing donated by parishioners,” said Ms. Mantheiy, coordinator of the children’s clothing outreach program at St. Mary, Cumberland. “Some of it is brand new. Our parishioners are very generous.” The outreach program started about three years ago to help struggling parents throughout the community clothe their children. The church accepts donations of pants, shirts, dresses, jackets and more which are then distributed free of charge to anyone who needs them.

K.C. Bersch first visited Haiti in 1997, when she was a student at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore. She accompanied her mother on a mission of mercy rooted in their family’s long-distance support of a child there.

WASHINGTON – Passionist Father Rick Frechette, the Haiti-based director of medical services for Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos International who served at St. Joseph Passionist Monastery Parish in Irvington in the 1970s, was at home in New Jersey with his dying mother when the magnitude 7 earthquake hit Port-au-Prince Jan. 12.

Before they stepped into noisy M&T Bank Stadium for the AFC Divisional playoff game Jan. 15, some members of the Baltimore Ravens quietly gathered for morning prayer at their downtown hotel.