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| August 7, 2008 |
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Few weeks remain to collect shirts for farmworkersThe Florida Catholic’s Long-Sleeve Relief shirt drive for farmworkers ends on March 20. 
Long-sleeve shirts provide protection against sun, insects, pesticides and other harsh conditions that farmworkers experience while working the fields. ORLANDO | Volunteers statewide are visiting thrift shops, rooting through storage and searching through their dresser drawers this month in anticipation of the March 20 end date of the Florida Catholic’s Long-Sleeve Relief shirt drive to benefit Florida’s farmworkers. The drive, which began Ash Wednesday, is collecting the long-sleeve, button-down cotton shirts to help make fieldwork more comfortable for farmworkers, who deal with health risks including heat, sunburn, bad weather, insects, scratches, and exposure to pesticides. Because of the physical nature of their work, farmworkers can go through shirts in a matter of days, and it isn’t always easy for them to locate affordable, serviceable replacements. Individuals and organizations of all kinds, including Catholic institutions, public schools, businesses and independent charities, became involved this year. They’re picking their own format and structure to fit their needs, from understated shirt collections after Mass to loud campaigns that involve goals and teaching elements. Shirts will only be accepted through Holy Thursday, March 20. Drop-off spots are at diocesan chanceries, Florida Catholic diocesan offices, thrift shops, outreach centers, charities, and rural ministries across the state. In the Diocese of St. Petersburg, volunteers are collecting shirts through a Catholic hospital and a local school for teenagers with special needs. In Miami, the archdiocesan office of campus ministry rallied the city’s collegiate population and one primary school invited schools of other denominations to collect shirts. Business got involved, too, including a small Miami-based pool-service company. The appeal of the drive, according to volunteer Barbara Richardson, is in its concrete structure: doing a specific thing for a specific group of people. Richardson, a parishioner of St. Ann’s Church in West Palm Beach, said she can’t turn away from the migrants she sees every day while driving around the city. That’s why she suggested that her local Pax Christi chapter and the St. Ann’s social concerns committee unite to run a drive locally. “There are a lot of migrant workers in our area, and I see them standing, waiting to be picked up for work,” Richardson said. “I have a concern for them, especially right now with the economy as bad as it is. I see more and more men later and later during the day, and I worry for them.” Richardson and her fellow volunteers put out a cardboard box and decorated it with information from the Florida Catholic and pictures printed from the Web site of a local farmworkers’ rights organization. Bulletin announcements and pulpit talks at St. Ann’s became part of the way that uninvolved parishioners became aware of the drive, she said. Volunteers drive by every few days to empty the box and stay after Masses to process collected shirts. She said her efforts are paying off: She has “three big boxes of shirts in my bedroom” waiting to be brought to a drop-off point, she said. Parishioners “have been very generous,” Richardson said. “Each week, people will be reminded. The goal is to raise awareness of the situation, of their plight here in this country and how hard it is for them, and to collect as many shirts as people are willing and able to give. I think it’s a wonderful thing.” Ten-year-old twins Max and Mia Pennekamp, fourth-grade students at St. Hugh School in Miami, heard about the drive through their mother, Galia Pennekamp. Using posters, flyers and an “infomercial” script they wrote themselves, they went classroom-to-classroom making presentations about the drive, and made a bar graph poster to chronicle donations. The trio set a goal of 240 shirts and made their goal in early March. The Pennekamps also enlisted the help of two other local schools: Coconut Grove Montessori School and the nearby Plymouth Congregational Church preschool. “I help my kids count the shirts, but they’re doing the whole bit,” said Galia Pennekamp. “Hopefully, if they enjoy it, they can do it every year.” At Most Precious Blood Parish in Oviedo, parishioners decided to bolster their shirt collection with a cash collection, according to volunteer Linda Nolin. “I’d seen the article in the Florida Catholic, so I spoke with Father Stephen (Parkes) and asked if I could take that on as a project,” she explained. She said Father Parkes told her another parishioner was also interested in implementing the drive — and that the money taken up during the Ash Wednesday collection at Most Precious Blood was to be put toward the purchase of shirts for the drive. The parish’s main shirt collection will be held on Palm Sunday, and parishioners are being encouraged to bring shirts to Mass. The volunteers are also making trips to thrift shops and discount stores in the Orlando area to convert the rest of the $2,000-plus Ash Wednesday collection into wearable fabric protection. Nolin and her fellow volunteers “couldn’t believe it” when a local branch of the Salvation Army gave them a discount on 150 shirts bought during a recent shopping spree, where they made sure to buy shirts for both men and women of all shapes and sizes, she said. “We lived in Palm Beach County for 30 years, and while we were there I was with migrant ministry,” she explained. “These were the projects we did all the time. Five years ago, we moved up here, and I missed that hands-on involvement. I said, ‘This is the work I want to be involved with.’ I know that we’ll get a really good response,” she said.
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