Catholic Woman's League hosts fall benefit

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Rosalie Mirabelli, chairwoman of the Catholic Woman's League Fall Tapestry luncheon, models an outfit at the annual event's fashion show.

SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the Catholic Woman’s League filled the room with happy chatter as they met for the first time in three years for their annual Fall Tapestry benefit on Oct. 22 at the Marriott University Park Hotel. It was obvious the women were delighted to be there and to renew friendships with those they had not seen in many months.

CWL president Linda Burt welcomed the women to the benefit luncheon. “I’m so glad that you came out to support the Catholic Woman’s League; I know you’ve missed us, right?” she said. “It’s so nice that we can come together once again.”

“This is the largest attendance we’ve had in a while,” said Burt, who reported that 142 women were present at the benefit.  

The nonprofit Catholic Woman’s League was established in 1916 by the Right Rev. Joseph S. Glass, second Bishop of Salt Lake. Each fall the organization sponsors a luncheon to benefit two local nonprofits.

Christopher Smith of The Sharing Place, one of the beneficiaries of the proceeds of the opportunity drawings, thanked the women for their contribution. Smith is a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and heard about the CWL’s charitable giving from a parish bulletin, he said.

“We provide peer-to-peer grief counseling for children ages 3 to 18 who have had a parent or sibling or loved one die,” he said. Participants meet twice a month in peer groups “so there is tremendous empathy there,” he said. Most families take part in the free program for 18 months to two years, but they are welcome to continue with it as long as they like, he added.

 Smith related the story of a father whose wife had passed away and whose son was enrolled at The Sharing Place. The father told Smith his favorite part of the program was the ride home, “‘because that is the only time my son will talk to me about his mom,’” Smith said. “That’s how critical this is. We are 100 percent supported by organizations like this.”

In thanking the CWL for its contribution, Shauna Brown of the Literacy Action Center/Project Read shared how she got involved with the program, which helps functionally illiterate English-speaking individuals with reading, writing, math and basic computer skills.

More than 20 years ago, Brown started as a volunteer tutor for the program. She was inspired by one of her first clients, a single mother of two small children. When the client came to Brown with a bottle of prescription drugs for her 4-year-old because she could not read how to dose her child, Brown realized how critical the work she was doing was, she said. “I realized that this could be a life-or-death experience if she didn’t have the skills and the resources that she needed to be successful and to take care of herself and her family.”

The funds from the CWL will help the Literacy Action Center to directly provide these services to hundreds of adults in Utah and Salt Lake Counties, Brown said.

After the presentations, several CWL members modeled clothing and jewelry by Avon for the event’s traditional fashion show.