St. Benedict's Blanket Drive Helps Out Migrant Workers

By Unknown Writer #3

They learned that the migrant workers are bent over crops for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to earn about $400 a week before taxes. Many of them became migrant farmworkers to support their families.

Youth from St. Benedict's saw rows of rooms side by side at the migrant camp. Each room, about 10 feet by 20 feet, houses up to nine adults. They also saw rooms with walls made out of plywood, floors of concrete and roofs of sheet metal. The rooms lack heat and the only available toilets were outhouses.

St. Benedict's decided to assist the workers by having a blanket drive with a goal of at least 300 blankets.

It is estimated that St. Charles Parish alone is serving nearly 500 migrant families this summer. Many of the workers will continue on to other fields at the end of the berry season this summer. Others will remain to harvest cucumbers, corn, potatoes and squash through October.

August 12, the day after the blanket drive was over, volunteers took two vans packed with 317 blankets to St. Charles Catholic Church in Burlington, which is storing and distributing the supplies to migrant camps throughout the Skagit Valley. The migrant population in the valley continues to grow, as does their need for donated food. More than 3,300 pounds of rice, flour, corn meal, sugar, tortillas and powdered milk were purchased with the money that was donated in addition to the blankets. After returning with the bulk food that evening, the church volunteers drove to a farmer's field outside Burlington where they joined the migrant workers and a visiting priest from Mexico for an outdoor mass. One group of migrants they saw that evening had just arrived from Yakima where they had been picking cherries. The group did not have any food for themselves. The temperature in the valley that evening was in the low 50s.

"I think it's a pretty moving experience for anyone who goes," said parent Cathy Brannan. "I think it's valuable for kids." She said it shows children a more difficult way of life. She also said that she plans on continuing to help the migrant workers every year. She enjoys the satisfaction of helping people.

"The conditions they live in are just horrible," said Brannan. "They live pretty meagerly. I think the kids saw that. It was pretty difficult to see."

One of the challenges of the project is the language barrier. "It is challenging some of the time to talk," said Brannan. The kids take Spanish as part of their curriculum at St. Benedict's, but the church also tries to take Spanish-speaking parishioners. Every year, the children bring a piata, food and a soccer ball to the migrant camp, said Brannan.

"Soccer becomes the common denominator." This year, they did not have a soccer ball, but they still had fun with a piata and they ate Mexican bread that the migrants brought, said Cathy Brannan's daughter, Katie.

"Last year, we played a big game of soccer," Katie said. Katie started an additional group to the church groups, going for the entire summer instead of a whole week. "I really wanted to do something to help them," she said.

Both groups consist of middle school children, ages 12-14. "I always see smiles on their faces when we come," said Katie. "They were really happy."

She said she enjoys working with the kids and if someone is considering volunteering, she recommends that they bring a lot of supplies with them.

"It was quite a week," said Joe Chernowski of the Youth Migrant Project Advisory Board. "It was definitely a good experience. There's no doubt we'll do it again." This was his first year to experience the12-year-old program. St. Benedict's has been involved with it for about 5 years.

For more information about this program or other programs at St. Benedict's call 632-0843.

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