Catholic Commission announces award recipients
Sérénité includes executive chef Gilbert Brenot, who hails from Les Landes, France, which is wedged between Bordeaux and the northern Spanish border.
The Catholic Commission of Wayne, Ashland, Medina announced its 2019 award recipients for its 32nd annual Pope St. John Paul II Proclaimer of Justice Gala Dinner and Silent Auction, which will take place on Saturday, April 6 from 6-9 p.m. at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Wadsworth.
Sérénité Restaurant and Culinary Institute will receive the 2019 Michael Berken Peace and Justice Award. In 2014 chef Brandon Chrostowski, chef Gilbert Brenot and general manager Michael Flaherty opened EDWINS Leadership Restaurant Institute, a nonprofit French fine dining restaurant training former incarcerated adults and recovering addicts in culinary hospitality.
The program has had great success in the rehabilitation and recovery community. Spring 2018 marked Sérénité Restaurant's anticipated Medina opening. Sérénité works with the Recovery Center of Medina Co. and is open to any in recovery wishing to learn French cuisine and service while earning a living and job-placement assistance in an environment of strength and support.
Students are paid to attend, like any restaurant, while an eight-month course teaches each restaurant position and has a short apprenticeship at another fine restaurant. Upon completion students gain full access to Sérénité job-placement resources and Recovery Center of Medina Co. peer support, life skills coaching, recovery support and legal aid.
The persons/organizations nominated for the Berken Peace and Justice Award must demonstrate an active commitment to Gospel justice in harmony with biblical values; make positive systemic change in the community via organizing, education and advocacy; and exhibit a spirit of solidarity with the poor and marginalized.
Community Help Mission will co-receive the 2019 Faithful Servant Award. CHM was founded in 2011 when Loudonville's main service program pulled out of town. Local churches formed Community Help Mission in response. Each church contributes financially and has a board member.
They utilize the Bridges Out of Poverty model, where return visits from neighbors add levels of work on budgeting, job readiness and supportive counseling. In 2015 CHM saved Meals on Wheels from local closure. In 2016 they collaborated with Cleveland Food Bank, Ashland Co. Families and Children First, and the library to offer free lunches twice weekly, which in 2017 grew to four times weekly.
Other main services are emergency financial assistance and basic needs to local school district residents; rent, utilities, medical needs and purchasing durable medical equipment; food, gasoline and other urgencies; negotiation of repayment plans; cooking and home management; and other agency referrals as needed.
In 2017 CHM served 161 families and individuals with financial assistance (average $100 per request). Meals on Wheels delivered 2,694 meals (1,768 meals at no cost to recipients). They served 1,073 children's summer lunches.
Joyful Café will co-receive the 2019 Faithful Servant Award. Joyful Café offers integrated employment for persons with special needs and adds to the local economy. Heather Yates founded the nonprofit in November 2018. Yates' daughter Amanda lives with Down syndrome and was soon to age out of school.
Yates saw few work opportunities for persons with special needs who want to work and live more independently. She formed a business model for persons with special needs to thrive, learning important jobs skills and finding success. Inspired by a coffee shop at Wooster High School staffed by students with special needs that proved a success, Joyful Café expanded the idea to full-time work.
Yates met with Barry Romich, who mentored her in the nonprofit process to make Joyful Café a reality. Wooster Community Hospital leases Joyful Café, located at HealthPoint, for $1 a year. The café partners with Sure House Coffee Roasting in Wooster for coffee and Salt Creek Café in Fredericksburg for food. The café employs seven adults with special needs who work alongside a full-time manager.
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception School Wooster's Make-a-Difference Social Justice Club will receive the 2019 Youth Justice Award. The new student-led program integrates important social concerns of their faith and action.
With teacher-advisor Kathy Gorman, the Make-a-Difference Social Justice Club challenges students to learn about Gospel justice issues and put faith into action via service projects, issue awareness and fundraisers.
Students chose the Corporal Works of Mercy as a road map. They created skits, announcements and posters to publicize among school and parish. They led several major projects: a Walk-a-Mile-in-My-Shoes Refugee Simulation Walkathon and Shoe Drive raising over $1,500 for Catholic Relief Services' refugee programs and 557 pairs of shoes to Soles4Souls; Caring for Our Earth Art Exhibit; Build-a-Better-World Food Drive; fair trade promotion; and more.
Persons/organizations nominated for the Faithful Servant and Youth Justice Award must exemplify a servant-leadership style in the image of Jesus and the washing of the feet (John 13:15); live the Gospel call to care for others, the lost and forgotten, recognizing their dignity, gifts and talents; and be recognized for integrity, collaboration and creativity in addressing poverty in the community.
"The Catholic Commission proudly honors these outstanding witnesses of Christ's love in action for such important work with vulnerable neighbors and building a more compassionate community," said Jeff Campbell, Catholic Commission director.