Archives for July 2021

By Nelia Bernabe
Manager of Social Media and Communications 

Maryville, which is located just over Mount Prospect’s eastern border, was founded in 1883. It is a child care organization rooted in Catholic social teaching and dedicated to the preservation of the dignity of children at every age. Our mission is to protect children and strengthen families while helping them reach their fullest potential by empowering their intellectual, spiritual, moral and emotional growth. 

Maryville serves the children and families through our life-changing programs in the following areas: behavioral health services, early childhood services, education services, family and residential services. We care for babies and young adults, ages birth to 21, across all of our programs in Bartlett, Chicago and Des Plaines. 

During fiscal year 2019 Maryville served more than 8,700 children, families and adults and more than 5,000 children, families and adults in fiscal year 2020 (the decrease in number served was due to the pandemic). Maryville has about 500 staff members at its Bartlett, Chicago and Des Plaines campuses. On the Des Plaines campus, we have approximately 70 children in residence. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, serving our beautiful ministry of protecting children and families in our care was paramount. As soon as Gov. Pritzker ordered the lockdown, our Executive Director Sister Catherine M. Ryan, O.S.F. and Maryville’s leadership council moved to action swiftly. Necessary precautions were taken immediately to protect the children, families and staff. 

Our Jen School Principal Anne Craig submitted its remote learning plan to the Illinois State Board of Education and received approval right away. Our Jen School faculty took up the challenge of going from in-person to remote learning. Maryville shelter, residential and health care programs continued to care for the children. 

When Gov. Pritzker announced the stay-at-home order in late March of 2020, some Maryville staff in support departments did so and worked from home. Staff in family and residential homes continued to report to work daily to care for the children who are not able to be at home for a period of time. 

Maryville did not have any serious outbreaks. Safety protocols such as social distancing of at least six feet from any other person, frequent hand washing, wearing of face coverings and checking of temperature at each building were strictly implemented and followed. Deep cleaning was enforced and air filtration in our homes and administrative offices was improved. Additionally, all programs were closed to outside visitors and non-essential medical appointments for our children were canceled. 

To accommodate remote learning, our information technology (IT) department provided additional Chromebooks to our youth whose school buildings were closed. 

In addition to providing tools for a successful remote learning experience, the children and young adults in our residential programs were engaged with different educational activities that allowed them a virtual classroom experience. For instance, the girls on our Eisenberg campus engaged in arts and crafts such as painting, decorating small tote bags with donated art materials, making a piñata, brainstorming science fair ideas, learning the history of the Ferris Wheel in Chicago while they bult popsicle stick Ferris Wheels, playing games and many more. 

Maryville’s IT department made it possible for our children and youth to learn remotely and for staff to hold meetings virtually. All of our programs adapted – and warmed up – to using technology to communicate and get connected. 

Maryville’s leadership team, led by Sister Cathy, sent daily communication via email to all staff. She made sure that staff had the most up-to-date information from Gov. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s offices, IDPH, CDC and other partner agencies, and what that meant for Maryville and staff. One of the first communication emails that Sister Cathy sent was announcing to staff that no one would be laid off. Sister Cathy and her leadership team had daily conference calls to discuss communication and updates to staff. 

We purchased PPEs, enforced deep cleaning and improved air filtration in our group homes and administrative offices at all campuses. 

Once vaccines became available, as essential workers, Maryville’s frontline workers were included in the first phase of the rollout. The majority of Maryville’s staff are vaccinated and we are working on having the youth in our care, ages 12 and older, get vaccinated. 

Maryville does not foresee any long-term changes due to the pandemic but having the option of offering remote learning to students and virtual meetings to staff when needed – and knowing that they work – shows how Maryville proactively reacted and acted swiftly to address the challenges that unfolded. We strictly adhered to, implemented and followed safety protocols that protected our children and staff; allowed Maryville to operate daily; and allowed staff to keep their jobs. 

Planning for the future includes consideration of what actions we would take in the event of another pandemic.

By Liz Mika, Office Manager

Much of Mount Prospect’s Polish community gathers for worship and fellowship at the St. Thomas Becket Catholic Church in the northeastern corner of the Village.

The word came from the Archdiocese to close all churches due to COVID-19 on Friday, March 13, 2020. The last Mass celebrated that day was at 7 p.m. in Polish. This was a huge shock, especially to the faithful of Polish descent. They remember World War II, Communism and other persecutions to our faith, but the church had never before fully closed. 

We announced the sad news via our email blasts, Facebook, parish website, signs on the door and the media was blasting this, as well. Yet, there were many people who still stopped by and called to ask if it was really true. Our current pastor, Fr. Chris Kulig, started livestreams of Masses via our Facebook: on Saturday in English and on Sunday in Polish. Easter was only four weeks into the pandemic closure. The inability to be at church as a community during the three most Holy Days in our faith was especially tough on parishioners. 

When parishes first reopened on June 6, 2020, under strict Covid-19 guidelines, St. Thomas Becket was one of the first parishes in the Diocese to receive needed certification to safely reopen with limited capacity and with trained volunteers. Marks in church were set to show where parishioners could sit and stand. Since that first Sunday, reservations were taken to attend Mass to ensure everyone’s safety and limit attendance. Our volunteers wore construction vests when checking people in at the door. They sprayed guest’s hands with sanitizer, sat parishioners at least six feet apart, followed strict guidelines for receiving Holy Communion and enforced face masks. 

Each week, when the reservation link was opened, there was an incredible rush to register, especially for the Polish Masses. Our pre-pandemic attendance was 800+ per Mass, and the limit went down to 50, and then to 150! Christmas of 2020 was also interesting, as a very limited number of parishioners were allowed in the church under a strict reservation and safety system. 

Easter of 2021 was still under limited capacity of worshippers in the church. Holy Saturday is extremely big in the Polish tradition with the blessing of food baskets. We realized that the need would be great and to accommodate all, we held the blessing on the parking lot for over three hours straight! The cars just kept coming. We were told that the streets in the neighborhood were grid-locked with traffic. Our estimate is that we had over 1,000 cars, plus probably over 2,000 people on foot who stopped by to have their baskets and families blessed. 

To accommodate the rising needs for live Mass streams, in spring of 2021, St. Thomas Becket installed a state-of-the-art projection system in our overflow hall space and at the same time a connection to our Facebook Mass transmission. Before then, Fr. Chris used his cell phone to transmit Masses. 

With complete opening on June 11, 2021, the church is once again full to the brim. 

As a parish, we continued to collect food and share it with the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in Des Plaines and the St. Alphonsus Liguori Food Pantry in Prospect Heights. We continued to teach religious education to our youngsters via Zoom sessions. 

As for the staff, all but a few worked from home. Only the office manager and Fr. Kulig were always in to follow the frequent updates from the state and the Archdiocese. We did our very best to keep parishioners updated and current on all events. Mass at our parish was said and streamed every day, be it only with Fr. Kulig present when the pandemic began. 

This has been a tremendous trial for us all, but we are very happy to see most parishioners return to church, with smiling faces not hidden under masks. 

We are looking forward to resuming our regular activities, fundraisers and just being together as a family — a community of faith.

St. Thomas Becket parish was founded in the fall of 1969, more than 50 years ago. The first Sunday Masses were said on September 28, 1969, in the gymnasium of Maryville Academy. During the following week, arrangements were made with the local public school district to use Indian Grove Elementary School, which is directly across from where the parish now stands, for services. 

So, starting on October 5, 1969, and for more than nine years thereafter, Indian Grove was the “church” for weekend and some Holy Day Masses. Folding chairs, a portable podium and a collapsible altar were stored in the garage of a parishioner who lived next to the school. Each week, the church would be set up on Saturday afternoon and taken down on Sunday afternoon. During the first month, 247 families registered as members of the parish. 

With time, the neighborhood’s demographics changed. The English-speaking families had grown children who have moved away from home, and more Polish immigrants were moving to Mount Prospect and the surrounding suburbs. There was no Mass offered in Polish close by, so a group of parishioners approached then-pastor Fr. John Roller to ask if they could start one at St. Thomas Becket. The first Polish-language Mass was celebrated on December 1, 1996, with a couple hundred in that first Polish congregation. The present number is pushing the 1,000 mark!

Since 2004, the assigned pastors to this parish have been required to be fluent in Polish to accommodate the needs of the parish community. 

In August of 2019, renovations to the church were completed to adapt to growing membership, especially the Polish-speaking community. The long-standing circular church model  was restored to St. Thomas Becker’s original all-facing the altar and a new tile floor and new pews were installed. This allows for 245 more seats. Two new projection screens were also added. This proved to be especially helpful during the pandemic when we could not have any worship aides in the pews. 

Presently, there are two Polish Masses held each Sunday. Many celebrations, sacraments and liturgies are also celebrated in Polish.