Charity Guild of Catholic Women concludes year of celebrating centennial anniversary

Pictured are (front row, left to right) Peter Greene, Carolyn Greene, Natalie Fleming, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Charity Guild President Elizabeth Jordan, Michael Madrid and Mollie Delouche. Back row are Sam Falcona, Kathleen Falcona, Aileen Reilly, Kathy Archer and Bill Archer. (Photo by Jeff Grass)

HOUSTON — Daniel Cardinal DiNardo celebrated with President Elizabeth Jordan and other members of the Charity Guild of Catholic Women at their 100th anniversary centennial ball last month at the Ballroom at Bayou Place in Houston. Founded in 1922, the guild now has nearly 600 members from 64 parishes in the Archdiocese.

Kate Carroll first answered the call of Monsignor George T. Walsh of Annunciation Church a century ago. He noticed the alarmingly high infant mortality rate among his immigrant parishioners and was determined to provide health care for these babies and their mothers. Thus, what is now known as the San José Clinic was born.

The women provided seed money to establish the clinic and volunteered there. They held fundraisers and sewed layettes for the babies. In 1952, they opened their consignment store to generate a more reliable income to subsidize the clinic.

The Charity Guild continues its support of the clinic, but the impact has expanded in the Houston community as its resale shop has grown in size and reputation. Since 1996, the Charity Guild of Catholic Women has granted more than $6.4 million to over 160 non-profit organizations in the greater Houston area with proceeds from the volunteer-run Charity Guild Shop.

The organization’s volunteerism is dedicated to benefit children in the greater Houston area who might otherwise lack access to enough food, safe and acceptable housing, affordable healthcare, adequate clothing, satisfactory education, supportive recreation and enrichment services, and restorative and psychological assistance.

This past year the Charity Guild awarded $547,599 to 48 Houston-area non-profit organizations to fund programs that help children in need. In the current year, the guild is on track to increase grants to a total of $657,500 to 54 agencies.

The Charity Guild concluded a year of celebrating this anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving on Oct. 30 at The Church of the Annunciation, the parish where their mission began. Guild Chaplain Father James Murphy, CSB, presided at the Mass attended by over 300 members, family and friends.

President Elizabeth Jordan said of all the guild members: “This has been an incredible season of celebration as we wrapped up our centennial year. Our hearts are full of love and gratitude for our past and for each other. As we begin our second century, we will continue to strive for excellence honoring our mission of sanctification our members and rendering assistance to children in need in the Greater Houston Area. As we like to say, ‘It’s all for the children!’”