The prairie grasses along Ottawa Avenue hadn’t yet given way to asphalt roads, subdivisions, and local businesses when Dousman and neighboring Ottawa’s first Catholic Church, St. Bruno, held its first Mass in 1852.

The nearest church was what is now known as St. Lawrence Parish in Jefferson. In those days, St. Lawrence was called “The St. Bruno Mission.” In 1852, the St. Bruno Mission Church was enlarged and officially named St. Lawrence.

“The first Mass was held in a private home, by visiting priest Fr. Michael Haider, pastor of St. Lawrence in Jefferson,” said Debra Hendrick, St. Bruno Parish historian. “The altar was constructed out of boxes, and built by the priest. The tiny parish became a mission of St. Lawrence Church.”

However, don’t get Hendrick started on today’s priest shortage! She explained that in the 1840s and early 1850s only about seven priests provided for the needs of 2,000 Catholics in the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories. Missionary priests rode on horseback over dirt roads doing missionary work, which consisted of baptizing, converting, hearing confessions, performing marriages and celebrating Mass.

“Now that was a shortage,” she said. “I like to ponder this sometimes, because it is not a new problem.”

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He receives $5 a week as an allowance, but $1 goes into the church collection basket. The remaining $4 he deposits into his college fund, which doubles as an “emergency backdrop” just in case he doesn’t come up with enough donations to pay for college for Kelvin, the 17-year-old boy he met in Kenya, Africa, during a month-long mission trip he took with his grandparents in fall 2008.

Few 11-year-olds think about saving for college, and while Robert Liners wasn’t worried about paying for college for himself, he was worried about Kelvin.

One day, Dan DeMatthew was a lively 52-year-old man who mowed lawns and washed cars for his neighbors, shoveled walks in front of the Racine Police Department, volunteered with the St. Catherine High School sports teams, served at the annual Holy Name Society fish fry, and befriended a cognitively disabled man – often taking him to lunch and for a haircut.

Although he worked full time as an administrative manager for the city of Racine, his desire to help others had him volunteering where needed, brown eyes shining at the personal satisfaction received by serving quietly and without fanfare, in the background.

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She’s Amazing Grace to her friends and the people of rural Kentucky. Grace Czarnecki, however, sees herself as “just a middleperson with two groups of people on either side who are extremely important to me.”

Yet it’s difficult to describe Czarnecki’s efforts to help the poverty stricken community of Booneville in the Appalachian region over the last 27 years as anything short of amazing.

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If Vue Yang of Sheboygan could convey one message, it would be to let the Hmong residents know that they are not alone.

While helping refugees adjust to life in Wisconsin takes the work of many groups, Yang has devoted much of his life to keeping the Hmong connected through their cultural background and through his love of the Catholic faith.

In November, Yang, a member of St. Peter Claver Parish in Sheboygan, received the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s Vatican II Service in Communication Award for his work in helping to bridge the cultural gap through his work in the parish, the community and through the Hmong radio program on 91.1 FM, that he has run since 1983.

“I was very surprised to receive it,” he said. “I did not expect to receive any award because I just do the normal things I am supposed to do – helping people through running the radio show.”