OCEAN CITY, Md. – A home-cooked meal was just what Monika
Burzynska needed after her first two weeks in the United
States.
“I’ve been working since I got here,” said Burzynska, 22, who
arrived in Ocean City June 15 from Poland, where she just
finished her second year of college. “I have to pay for where
I’m staying first and then comes food.
“So I eat a lot of frozen (food). It’s the first time in my
life I have to manage food, accommodations. For the first
time, it’s just me,” she said.
Burzynska was one of about 500 students who came to Holy
Savior Church on a recent summer evening for a free dinner
provided by the International Student Outreach Program, an
ecumenical ministry that began at Holy Savior in 2002 and has
since spread to include other churches.
Church volunteers work throughout the summer to help
thousands of international students who travel to Delaware
and Maryland’s Eastern Shore each summer to work at
restaurants, boardwalk shops, hotels, recreation facilities
and elsewhere.
Before the dinner, Anne Marie Conestabile, who heads the
program, joined international student volunteers and more
than 20 parishioners from 12 participating churches to put
the finishing touches on the hall’s decorations.
Flags representing China, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Poland,
Ireland and other countries adorned the walls, and balloons
and smaller flags served as centerpieces.
Conestabile said hundreds of pounds of food had been prepared
for the first of 25 dinners scheduled at different churches
throughout the summer.
“It’s a blessing to meet so many people,” she added.
The program has helped more than 75,000 students since it
began, she said.
It started at Holy Savior in 2002 when Conestabile and Father
John Klevence, then the pastor, responded to seven students
from Poland who came to the parish looking for help.
Wilmington’s bishop at the time, the late Bishop Michael A.
Saltarelli, wanted to meet these students, said Conestabile,
60, then the parish’s youth minister.
After the bishop invited them to dinner and heard their
stories, “he encouraged me to continue the ministry,” she
said. “And so the ball started rolling from there.”
In addition to dinner, the ministry had donated items to give
the students, including shampoo and other toiletries, books,
clothes, shoes and kitchen items.
“Most students are earning minimum wage ($7.25) to $9 an
hour, so we try to help in every way possible,” Conestabile
told The Dialog, newspaper of the Wilmington Diocese, which
includes several Maryland counties.
Among those enjoying their first visits to the United States
was Egle Marcinkeviciute, 21, who came to the dinner straight
from her job at a takeout grill on the boardwalk.
Marcinkeviciute, a Catholic from Lithuania who came to Ocean
City with several friends three weeks earlier, said she
wouldn’t miss the dinner.
“I can meet more people there, more friends. I love it here,”
she said. “It’s great being near the ocean. I saw dolphins
for the very first time when I got here.”
Marcinkeviciute participates in Catholic youth ministry in
her home diocese in Lithuania, a ministry that began in 2004
after a Lithuanian priest who was visiting Holy Savior from
the Diocese of Vilkaviskis invited Father Klevence and
Conestabile to a conference in his country to teach
catechists how to become effective youth ministers.
About 30 miles north of Ocean City, at St. Edmond Parish in
Rehoboth Beach, religious education director Jim Walsh has
helped organize the extension of Conestabile’s outreach
program for the past four years.
The Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches, an ecumenical
group that includes St. Edmond, St. Jude Parish in Lewes and
18 other churches, hosts a dinner for international students
every Wednesday.
“The volunteers and I understand that it’s a while before
these kids can get their first paycheck. We give them a great
meal so it’s one night they won’t have to worry about it,”
said Walsh.
“Coming to the U.S. is such a once-in-a-lifetime experience
for the students,” he said. “Our volunteers put in hundreds
of service hours throughout the summer to show students
fellowship. It’s what our church is all about. We want to do
everything we can to make them welcome. We want them to feel
at home.”
Conestabile said many of the students are pleasantly
surprised by the camaraderie that exists among Ocean City
residents and the church.
“One young gentleman asked me, ‘Anne Marie, why is there a
building attached to your church when you just go right home
after Mass?'” she said.
He said Massgoers at his home parish in Lithuania didn’t talk
to one another much, and the concept of a social hall was
completely unfamiliar.
Conestabile said her explanation was simple. “It’s where a
parish becomes a family.”
