Chicago area churches create caravan of compassion for migrants
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two Catholic parishes may be miles apart, but they're connected by their motivation to help migrants in Chicago.
For the past few weeks, they've been collecting donations. On Wednesday, parishioners formed a caravan to make a big delivery.
CBS 2's Noel Brennan has the story from Chicago's West Side.
Half a dozen minivans make up a caravan of goodwill.
Larry Sorce is the source of the idea. The deacon at Our Lady of the Holy Family parish on Chicago's West Side wanted to help the city's newest neighbors.
"We are addressing the needs of folks that are officially classed by the U.S. government as asylum seekers," Sorce said. "They're arriving with basically with the clothes on their back."
One deacon reached out to another, and now two parishes are in this together. Over the course of a few weeks, St. Francis De Sales Parish in Lake Zurich collected a number of things. Enough to fill the trunks of six minivans.
"Items for what we call hygiene kits. It's overwhelming. This is quite a lot."
Half of the donations will go to police stations where asylum seekers have been living, and the other half will go to a temporary shelter in Pilsen.
Sorce understands the need will outlast one load of donations. But the deacon hopes the idea spreads.
"It's kind of a band aid approach, but we didn't want to not do anything," he said. "Make it a model so that other parishes can do the same thing."
All it takes is a minivan and motivation.
"You feed the hungry. You shelter the homeless. You clothe those that need clothes."