Success Story: Mary Beckman

Mary Beckman, SSND founded St. Augustine Wellston Center, which provides food and clothing to low-income families. The Center is located in an aging, troubled section of St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Augustine Wellston Center is an outreach of concerned persons committed to providing food and clothing to low-income families. It is also a gathering place devoted to fostering communication and education between staff and neighborhood residents. Through our programs, we are dedicated to finding ways of ensuring success in the lives of the clients we serve.

This area of St. Louis, MO is a challenge a well as an opportunity to work toward a better tomorrow for all who live here. When I began 14 years ago, St. Augustine's parish had just been formed from five dwindling inner city parishes. The new parish embraced an aging, troubled section of the city. It was and still is a high poverty; high crime area, characterized by disinvestment and blight. The housing is modest and almost universally suffers from some degree of deferred maintenance. There are a number of vacant properties, most of which need to be torn down. My task at that time was to develop a food and clothing program for the new parish. This task was to be accomplished with no significant parish funding. My only source of income was to be from a very small thrift store operated by one of the former parishes.

Needless to say, the first few years were lean and mean. I couldn't afford any paid staff and had to rely on volunteers for the first four or five years. But through it all I felt this was God's work and He would provide a way and He always did. I remember one time when we were literally out of money and I didn't know where to turn. I was out on the parking lot and Father came by with a check for $500.00 which was designated by a donor for us. It was like a miracle. I'll never forget it. And since that day we have never had another serious money problem.

I started with myself as the only staff person and a few volunteers and have grown to 6 staff members and 40 to 50 weekly volunteers. We serve 350 to 400 families each month with a food basket, see hundreds more through the thrift store. We have a GED and Reading program, a job counselor, nurse and are always open to new ways to help the community to move forward to a more productive way of living.

Contact Mary:

Mary Beckman, SSND
9524 Montbrook Drive
St. Louis, MO 63123
Home: 314-638-2493
Work: 314-382-7158
mbssnd@aol.com