Catholic Charities' persons with a disablity give back to area homeless

Christmas is the season of giving–at least that is what a group of visually impaired thought when they handed out sandwiches, shoes, toiletries and coats to area homeless on Dec. 2 at the Mother Teresa Shelter. "We've been given so much that we wanted to give back, because they don't have what we have a home," Elouisa Guerra, who is visually impaired, said.

The group, made up of about 15 people, was mostly from the visually impaired group that meets at the office of Ministry and Life Enrichment for the Disabled at Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi. They made sandwiches that morning and had been collecting toiletries for some time.

According to Celia Mendez and Dora Marquez who are directors of the Ministry and Life Enrichment for the Disabled office, the group wanted to do a service project.

Musician Ray Paz, who is also among the group of visually impaired, played Christmas music on his keyboard and sang, while the group of homeless people ate their sandwiches, tried on their new used shoes and coats. The coats were collected from a "Coat Drive" by youth from St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles Parish.

Some of the homeless also sang along, using the music sheets that were passed around. Paz said they were all excited about the project and felt that the Holy Spirit worked through all of them to make it possible.

"When Celia came up with the idea of doing a service project, I said, 'let's do it'," he said.