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St. Rose of Lima Parishioners ‘Fish’ for Others at Annual Event in Metropolis

Story by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Start a fish fry in 1968 with a few friends, invite folks who fish to bring in their catch and share it among families.

Then expand it to include a whole community. Finish it by sharing some of the proceeds with those in the community who desperately need help.

That describes what has happened over the last 40-plus years at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Metropolis when Don Harper, Ed Ohms and Alan Wehmeyer decided to have a fish fry. Their wives made side dishes, the group spread the word, and the parish gathered to share.

Now, every year the parish puts on one fish fry the Friday before Palm Sunday, and they now purchase farm-raised catfish filets to feed all of the people who come.

No longer just a parish event, the fish fry draws people from the whole community to share a meal.
“It’s a week of hard work,” Harper said because “we serve over 700 people.”

Harper, who has helped with the fish fry for many years, has a kind of vested interest in its success. He is also a volunteer at COPE (Christian Outreach Program Emergency) — a local food pantry that receives some of the proceeds from the fish fry every other year. “Without COPE people would go hungry here,” Harper said.

Last month 610 families received food from COPE. “It’s growing some each month,” Harper said.
This year, Guardian Family Services (GFS) received $2,550.00 from the fish fry, Mark Thompson, parish council president, said.

Thompson has been involved with the fish fry for at least 10 years, he said.

GFS is a division of the Cairo Women’s Shelter, Rita Gower, director, said. The shelter, located in a home in Metropolis, shelters victims of domestic violence, their children and homeless women, Gower said.

“St. Rose is wonderful to us,” Gower said. In addition to the money they receive every other year from the parish, “they call once a month and ask what we need.”
The money they received this year will help keep the doors open. “The state is in a terrible budget crisis right now,” Gower said. “We have no contract, and even with a contract it took five months to get a check.”

The state gives GFS grants of $125,000 to $150,000 to operate, and Gower said the shelter can hold its own for a few months, hopefully until the state budget crisis is resolved.

Gower said the shelter offers a number of services, including writing orders of protection to be filed at court, counseling, resumé writing and parenting skills. This year, Gower said, it will take longer for their shelter residents to leave because of the flooding earlier this year which has made housing more difficult to find.

With all of the challenges the shelter faces in helping the women and giving them a place to stay, Gower said: “the hardest thing is when the mom wants to go back home (back into the situation she was in when she fled), and the kids begin to cry. “They feel safe here; they’re tired of what was going on at home,” she said.

The best part of managing the shelter are the success stories, Gower said. People who overcome their difficulties, change their situation, find work and return to volunteer at the shelter bring hope not only to Gower but also to the women who are now living at the shelter, she said. “They’ve come full circle,” Gower said. “It’s good to bring them in to participate in the support groups.”

Earlier this spring, shelter residents reached out to St. Rose to help when flooding was imminent. They joined the volunteers who were moving items out of the basement of the rectory, Gower said.

Everyone is looking forward to next year’s fish fry in a completely remodeled parish hall — necessary because of the flooding — because, as in previous years, everybody wins.

“I believe the local community looks forward to the fish fry as an annual event,” Thompson said. “For us the fact that we can help a local charity with a fifty-fifty donation is a rewarding feeling.”