Mom makes serving others easier

By Rebecca Bostic, The Catholic Sun
August 2, 2007

Finding time to volunteer is difficult, especially for parents busy cooking dinner, cleaning up toys and playing with the children.

Vanessa Shaw is trying to fix that with Fulfill-A-List, a service program that works with Catholic Charities Community Services and other organizations throughout Arizona.

Fulfill-A-List works with charitable organizations to develop a list of the materials needed. The list is then passed on to “list leaders,” who collect every item on the list by posting it in their office, by calling friends or by working with a small group at a parish.

After the list is fulfilled, the list leader drops off items at a charitable organization. 

“I was trying to create something to help busy people to get involved,” said Shaw, a stay-at-home mother of four.

Shaw’s hope is that the charitable groups will work to find list leaders without her assistance.

Thus far the Casa Linda Lodge and the refugee resettlement program, two services connected to Catholic Charities, have implemented the list. Shaw is planning on working with the foster care program and DIGNITY, a service for women leaving prostitution.

Shaw drew her inspiration for Fulfill-A-List from Tricia Hoyt, the director of the Office for Peace and Justice in Phoenix. Once she developed the concept, Shaw approached Hoyt about implementing the idea.

“People get a great deal of pleasure from helping others, but conflicting priorities make it difficult for families to carve out time for extensive service,” Hoyt said.

“Whereas there is never a substitute for taking time to build relationships of solidarity with those who are in difficulties,” she said, “Fulfill-A-List sends a message year round that Catholics care.”

Shaw hoped the program would help mothers of busy families.

“Mothers want to give and that’s who we are,” she said. “You want to be showing your kids what it is to give. You can’t just do that in words; you have to do something kind of big, an action.”

Shaw recommended parents take their children to buy Fulfill-A-List items and hoped the basic nature of the program would encourage a variety of participation.

Keith Galbut, a local attorney and friend to Shaw, developed and completed a Fulfill-A-List for Esperanza, an international health care organization for children.

“We just kind of went out to our family and friends and asked people to contribute,” Galbut said.

Galbut fulfilled his list by calling friends, families and coworkers, but Shaw believes parishes, smaller groups inside a parish or high school service groups could all participate.

“Somebody could just buy a bus pass and that’s their contribution, or somebody could just say, ‘my baby just grew out of her crib, here’s my crib,’” Shaw said. “It doesn’t have to be a huge thing. It’s the kind of thing where you’re already going to the grocery store and maybe you can pick up another roll of paper towels.”

Susan Slayer quickly fulfilled a list for the Casa Linda Lodge, a ministry for expectant single mothers, by taking her list to work.

“It was so easy to do and I felt great dropping those items off knowing it would make a difference in the girls’ and babies’ lives,” Slayer said. “I am so bad about finding time to volunteer. This was an easy way to help out.”