Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner is an advocate for the less fortunate in community

Intermountain Catholic

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The Marrufos group gathered last week to talk about the details of the dinner in which they will collect found and also they are asking people to also donate cans of food for the food pantry.

SALT LAKE CITY — When Virginia Marrufo-Martinez was a little girl, her mother taught her that people have to help each other no matter where they are from or who they are.

She took her mother’s words to heart. With 27 volunteers, she created a volunteer group known as the Marrufos – named after her mother.

"Right now we are all working together to help people that are in an economic crisis and older people that are by themselves and need a hand," said Marrufo-Martinez, a Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner.

The Marrufos also work with West Valley City on projects; the most recent was the donation of some mobile homes by the city to be turned into housing for the needy.

"The homes are not luxurious or anything like that, but at least they are a roof and a safe place for the families in need," said Marrufo-Martinez.

The range of help that Marrufos give to the community is very wide. Sometimes they have helped veterans. Other times, it has been people who are by themselves and can’t get out to buy their groceries, or families is really bad situations.

"The volunteers go to people’s houses and give them rides to the stores or they simply go out and buy the groceries. Other times they even go to the houses to give haircuts, or to clean the houses, or to cut the grass," said Marrufo-Martinez.

In 1919 Marrufo-Martinez’s mother immigrated from Mexico to the United States, where she met her future husband. After some time together, they adopted Virginia and always taught her the importance of the word ‘community.’

Marrufo-Martinez received a Catholic education. She also used to participate in the local Virgin of Guadalupe procession in December.

"I remember, we used to walk from the fairgrounds to the Cathedral, and I remember people used to do it bare-foot," she said.

Those teachings and experiences marked her; in 1965 she started working for the Community Action Program, for which she currently organizes mobile home park residents. She has received numerous awards, including Governor Leavitt’s Utah Woman’s Achievement Award and an award from the Mexican Civic Center for her contributions to the Latino/Hispanic community.

"My mom used to tell me the importance of helping each other because the community is part of our family and it’s where we live, so we need to help all the people no matter where they are from, we are all a big family," Marrufo-Martinez said. "We need to get together and support each other, more these days, which are very difficult."

"So many people need someone to fight for them, and she will just get into that fight," said Sister Miriam Joanne Frankenfield of the Holy Cross Ministries, a non-profit organization that helps low-income families with critical needs in Utah. "She is willing to help anybody she can. She is like a hidden treasure."

Even small things can make the difference for some people. A quadriplegic one time told Marrufo-Martinez that the most wonderful thing for her would be to eat ‘mole’ (a Mexican sauce), and one of the volunteers jumped into the kitchen and prepared a delicious mole.

The Marrufos’ next event is Sept. 9, when they will host a dinner in which they are asking people to also donate cans of food for the food pantry. The dinner will be at 5 p.m. at the Park Hill Mobile Estates Clubhouse, 4010 South 300 East in Salt Lake City. Cost is $5 per person. Part of the proceeds will go to support advocacy efforts for low-income communities. For information, call Marrufo-Martinez at 801-637-3410.

"At the dinner we are going to offer a wide variety of traditional Hispanic dishes, such as mole, tamales, tacos, chile rellenos, tostadas and nopales. We are asking people to donate cans for the food pantry, because there’s a lot of people in need of food and the resources right now are very limited. We ask them to please donate whatever they can," Marrufo-Martinez said.