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Catholic parishioner selected as Minnesota Twins 'All-Star Among Us' |
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By Melissa Hackenmueller - For The Catholic Spirit
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Monday, 13 July 2009 |
Marylou Krest to be honored July 14 at Major League All-Star Game in St. Louis
Marylou Krest distributes school supplies to children in the Dominican Republic. - Photo courtesy of Marylou Krest
Imagine that the only thing your child wanted on his beginning-of-the-year school supply shopping trip was a single pencil.
That was all one young boy from the Dominican Republic asked of Marylou
Krest when she was handing out lollipops to poor children in the
northern province of Puerto Plata. He wanted a pencil so he could go to
school.
The people are so poor there that the children don’t have school
supplies, so “we gave out crayons and pencils,” said Krest, who has
donated school supplies and children’s baseball uniforms to children in
the Dominican Republic for 12 years.
Krest, a native of Lima, N.Y., is being honored for her charitable work
with an “All-Stars Among Us” award from Major League Baseball and
People magazine. She will represent the Minnesota Twins at the All-Star
game July 14 in St. Louis.
Always willing to help
The Krest family has a long connection to baseball and the Twins.
Marylou, 60, and her husband Arch, 61, have been season-ticket holders
for the Rochester Red Wings, the Twins minor league AAA affiliate in
New York, since 1997. Their children — Shawn, Wendy and Courtney —
nominated Marylou for the award.
“When my son told me he put my name in for the contest, I just laughed
and said, ‘OK,’” Krest said. “I was shocked when I won. It seems
unreal. . . . A lot of people don’t realize that anybody can help
people. You don’t have to be rich to do it.”
The Krests, parishioners at St. Rose Catholic Church in Lima, have
always helped out, whether at church or by adopting a family through
Catholic Charities, Krest said.
It was while vacationing at a resort in the Dominican Republic that they first discovered the tremendous need there.
“The resort is beautiful, but if you go into the countryside, it’s so
poor,” Krest said. “My husband likes to wear baseball hats, and every
place we went they would beg us for baseball hats.”
The people love to play baseball, but have little equipment. So when
Krest and her husband returned home they asked for uniform donations
from Little League teams.
“In the U.S. we’re so wasteful. When the Little League gets new uniforms they’d throw the old ones away,” Krest said.
On a subsequent vacation to the Dominican Republic, the Krests brought
baseball uniforms as well as school supplies and candy. This time they
traveled with a group and divided the goods among the members for
easier transportation.
“They [the Dominicans] are very happy people,” Krest said. “They’re
very happy with everything you give them, [but] they just assume that
when you’re from the U.S. you’re very rich.”
And that isn’t far from the truth when one of the better jobs on the
island pays $3 a day. Or when it’s common to see four to five people
piled onto a motor scooter. Or when Krest was allowed to give each
school child only three crayons because of the shortage.
“When you go down there, you know how blessed you are to be an
American,” Krest said. “I’m retired from the Post Office and my husband
is retired from General Motors. We have three kids and seven grandkids.
We’re not rich. . . . We’re just very thankful to God that we have what
we have.”
Faith plays a role
Krest said the couple’s Catholic faith has motivated their work.
“I’ve been Catholic my whole life, and my faith is very important to
me, knowing God wants us to give back and help other people. God’s been
good to us and given us jobs and healthy families, and we’re just glad
to give back to others.”
Although Krest would like to continue donating to the poor in the
Dominican Republic, she said her husband’s health may make it difficult
to travel there in the future, and the cost of shipping is expensive.
That’s why she and her husband are looking for ways to help the poor at
home. They plan to continue adopting a family for Christmas through
Catholic Charities.
“Right now you can buy kids’ boots for $3 a pair and donate them to
Catholic Charities for Christmas presents. That’s something anyone can
do,” Krest said. “You’ve just got to look for the little things.”
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