people in the pew/st.mary vols

Work passes quickly when friends share the labor. That's exactly what the four women who gather each week to assemble the bulletins used in weekend Masses at St. Mary's Cathedral think.

The quartet -- Virginia Poston, Hermina Westrich, Iva Fee and Kathleen Kluesner -- has been meeting in the parish office center each Friday for years to assemble the pages and inserts for the 850 bulletins used at St. Mary's and Old St. Vincent churches.

Most of the time the group heads directly to the parish office center after Mass on Friday mornings. Sometimes they arrive by 9 a.m.; other weeks, when they have breakfast after Mass, they come a little later.

The women work about 30 minutes, folding the pages and inserting sheets of announcements. "Sometimes we have two or three inserts," said Virginia Poston. "One time we have five. That was a job to put that many in."

Many of the volunteers also come once each month to assemble the parish's newsletter.

Ruth Evans helps with the newsletter assembly. "It's a good chance for us to visit," she said of the volunteer group.

St. Mary's office center uses volunteers on a rotating schedule to answer the phones, do filing and serve at the reception area. Without their help it would mean that staff members would have to take time out to complete those tasks, said Sister Lucille Zerr.