Coppell group helping parish cope with flood of Olympic visitors
02/16/2002
PARK CITY, Utah – If an Italian Olympic skier wanted to observe Ash
Wednesday this week, chances are he did it with a little help from some
folks from the Dallas area.
Eighteen North Texas Catholics have traveled to Park City to help the
town's one small parish deal with the onslaught of Catholic visitors.
"We knew they'd need some help and wanted to do what we could," said
Paul LeBon of Highland Village, one of the group's leaders.
Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long
been dominant, is home to only 100,000 Catholics. But many of the
countries that sent athletes to the Park City Olympic skiing venues,
such as France and Italy, are heavily Catholic.
"We want to let people know that we're available if they need us," said
Father Rick Sherman, associate pastor at St. Mary of the Assumption in
Park City. "We're a very visible church on a main road, so we have
people just wandering in, too."
In anticipation of added demand, the parish altered its usual Ash
Wednesday schedule to allow for services every half-hour through much of
the day.
The North Texans, all members of St. Ann Catholic Parish in Coppell,
helped with the distribution. They also have publicized the church's
existence among visitors by wearing vests advertising it in highly
populated areas. "We're not proselytizing; we just want people to know
it's available for them," Mr. LeBon said.
He thought of the idea last summer while visiting Park City on vacation.
"I realized they'd need some volunteers to help out, and I thought we
could do it," he said Wednesday. "There's been a steady stream of people
coming in."
About half the volunteers are teenagers. Father Sherman said he hopes
the Coppell teens can meet with Park City teens to discuss St. Ann's
mission work in Mexico.
"The Dallas kids have been a really significant presence here," Father
Sherman said.
He estimated that a third of the people they served on Ash Wednesday
were Olympic-related visitors.
St. Mary's is a small but growing parish with about 1,000 families. St.
Ann in Coppell, in contrast, has about 6,000 families.
When they're not helping out, the Coppell volunteers have been the
beneficiaries of a few people looking to get rid of event tickets.
"We're wearing T-shirts with our home church's name on it, and people
have been surprised to see us," Mr. LeBon said. "People ask, 'You came
here for the Olympics?' We say, 'No, we came here to serve this church.'
"