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Hearts for Community
“When we were building the pavilion at Sacred Heart about 10 years ago, Reggie drove by and saw, and he loved it. He told us he’d sure enjoy one of those,” Associate Michelle Barrie said.
In an underserved, high-poverty rural area where the population is sparse and spread out, how do you start to help people develop and improve their community? Here, as in many cases, communities of faith are the hubs. “We’ve been coming for 27 years, and we have seen over time that there is a new vitality and spirit. The churches are a big part of that,” Associate Ken Barrie said.
Hearts of Hope is the summer mission week led by Ken and Michelle. Young people from St. Patrick Church, a Viatorian parish in Kankakee, IL, and other youth from the area come together with adult volunteers to help neighbors around Pembroke Township, IL. One of their key partnerships is with Reggie and Brenda Stewart and Run-A-Way Buckers. On a camp-style property in Pembroke, it is “a community-rooted agricultural initiative built on stewardship, discipline, and generational knowledge” focused on “growing communities that are resilient, self-sufficient, and rooted in purpose.”
That connection started when Reggie encountered them at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. “We matched with him and helped build tons of things at the camp here,” Michelle added.
In rural Pembroke Township, IL, not too far from the small town center of Hopkins Park, Sacred Heart Church is a simple, white-sided building, tucked away behind the treelines off a main road. The Viatorians took pastoral leadership of the parish for the Diocese of Joliet in March 2025. The Barries’ connections and service with young people goes back to almost 30 years earlier.
Over the last ten years, Hearts of Hope’s work there includes building enclosures for live animals, disassembling and refurbishing a playground, and building a pavilion – not unlike the one Reggie saw years ago. In addition to construction projects, Hearts of Hope alumni have served as summer interns at the camp, and Run-A-Way Buckers has become a strong source of ever-growing community connections, building on those found through Sacred Heart and the other Christian churches nearby.
“The Sacred Heart parishioners know about us. We’re at four different parishioners’ homes this week and also helping out the retired pastor,” Michelle explained. “Then, helping out around Reggie and Brenda’s camp is a given each year. From there, word of mouth and the members of the parish community continue to connect us to folks so that we can identify projects that need to be done.”
Reggie exuded deep joy as he chatted with Ken, Michelle, and the teens, and his son, Reggie Jr., takes charge of the daily operations with staff, covering many live animals, plants and gardens, a playground, a pavilion, and more for this big operation that he and Brenda founded.
Collaboration Across
Generations and Communities
On the second day of this year’s five-day effort, adult volunteer Mike Kuntz is up at the top a ladder, leaning against the bell tower at Sacred Heart. He has a crew of teens sanding old paint off the bell tower wood, handing off paint cans to spread on a new coat, and spotting his ladder while he paints the top section.
Mike’s kids were once some of the teens on these trips. Though his own kids are now grown up, Mike still pitches in with the effort – and in a Viatorian full-circle moment, Michelle remembers Fr. John Eustice, CSV, putting a few coats of paint on this very bell tower many years ago.
Mike and his crew gave the bell and tower a fresh look – here’s a look at their work partway through before they paused for a lunch break.
Later that day, the project groups returned from their sites to reconvene in the Sacred Heart parish hall for lunch. The group that Ken supervised at the Run-A-Way Buckers property included a first-time participant: Max Barrie, Ken and Michelle’s grandson.
The daily lunches for these hard-working volunteers are donated. On that day, the amazing hot lunch was set up by a pair of St. Patrick’s Knights of Columbus. One of those generous volunteers was Matt Boyd. As a teen, Matt served on Hearts of Hope, and now, as an adult parishioner, he’s pitching in to support today’s teens.
When the week kicked off on Sunday, the Barries led a cookout after Sunday Mass for the parishioners and the Hearts of Hope teens. The knights and St. Patrick’s Council of Catholic Women each covered a lunch, and St. John Paul II Parish in Kankakee provided a lunch as well, as a few teens from that parish served with the group. And on the final day, retired pastor of Sacred Heart Fr. Ray Lescher – whose picnic table got a fresh coat of wood stain – treated the group to pizza from his favorite local spot.
Going Wherever They Are Needed
All these hearty meals and great support propelled the group to serve in a wide range of ways.
At the homes of four different neighbors, the groups installed a new clothesline, repaired and painted a fence and picnic table, repaired a front door and added a handrail to an entryway, and stained a pair of decks.
That deck staining was for a neighbor who has been living on her property for 60 years and counting, in a house that her father built on a deep, tree-lined lot. Associate Terry Granger volunteered to manage one of the teen groups, and his team tackled this job. Terry was out back taking care of the ramp with a few kids while the others restored the front steps – and he was glad that he could hear everyone having fun. “The young folks out front were doing plenty of giggling,” Terry said.
(Right) Terry led a group of teens in some repair projects at a home. (Top left) When there were a few minutes to spare in the morning, (middle left) he was happy to pitch in with a wood repurposing project (bottom left) before breaking for lunch and pausing to pray the grace that Ken led for the group.
Terry, an associate since 2024, is now retired from a career as a Catholic school teacher and administrator, including his last several years as principal and president for Bishop McNamara Catholic School. He stays involved a bit consulting for schools.
One of his hobbies is restoring and rebuilding furniture, and he has more time for those fun projects as well as to volunteer. “I’m pretty happy when I end up with a paintbrush in my hands,” Terry said. “God love these two [Ken and Michelle], and it’s nice to help them out on this. I just like to give back. As an associate, I also want to contribute more and more on behalf of our community.”
Over at Run-A-Way Buckers, the team tackled another wave of campus improvements. This year, they repaired the goat enclosure, repaired the picnic tables, repaired the playground climbing wall, and converted a fire-damaged ramp system into movable planters. Ken’s group disassembled the ramps to salvage as much wood as possible. Then Terry’s group joined Ken’s group on some teamwork to cut down boards, rearrange them, and assemble them into raised garden beds.
“The stilts allow the staff to move them around from sun to shade or out into the rain,” Michelle said. “And then during the kids’ camps, they can bring them around to different age groups’ tents for different activities.”
Earlier in the day, a group had disassembled the ramp and identifed reusable planks. Then, (left) some of the group helped line up and stage the newly cut planks while (right) Ken and others in the group staged, measured, and cut down more sections to then assemble.
The Heart of the Mission Now Fully in Our Care
The week also included significant work around the Sacred Heart Church campus. In addition to restoring the bell tower, groups undertook a cleanout and reorganization of a storage room, painting handrails and pavilion signs, landscaping the grounds, swapping out rotted drop ceiling titles in the parish hall, and cleaning out the church’s old convent.
Sacred Heart has always been a hub of the Hearts of Hope ministry. Last year, the Diocese of Joliet sought a successor so that Fr. Ray could more fully retire, and then-Bishop Hicks worked with Viatorian leadership to bring us on formally, with Bishop Chris Glancy, CSV, as parish administrator.
So, the convent cleanup was done in part for our Viatorian religious. Director of Novices Fr. Dan Lydon, CSV, who will base the novitiate at St. Patrick, will partner with Bishop Chris and brother priests in the Bourbonnais-Kankakee region to celebrate Sunday Masses at Sacred Heart. He also would like to bring the novices out to Pembroke from time to time, perhaps for some ministry but also for retreat and study time.
Ken and Michelle have spent nearly 30 years building relationships and connecting personally with this community and its people. Now, the parish’s becoming formally part of our Viatorian Community brings an added, deepened layer of joy and home – and plenty of smiles to everyone’s faces.
For Ken and Michelle, it was a dream come true to take on full leadership for a community that means so much to them, both to serve the Viatorian mission and continue serving friends and neighbors in this community. For the Viatorians, it was providential that we would take on a rural, underserved parish – not unlike the Venerable Louis Querbes’ parish, St. Bonnet in Vourles, France – and commit to modeling the faith and serving the altar with and for this community.
Ken’s prayer before a group meal captured the spirit that is so alive in this ministry and service. “For all our efforts today, we thank our Lord and Heavenly Father, and for our friends who provide us meals after our hard work, we thank you,” Ken prayed. “We thank you, Lord, for your presence in this community, the people we helped, and the people who are revitalizing this community together.”
Amen.
The Hearts of Hope summer service also includes Junior High Service Camp, which includes several service projects around Kankakee and a big day in Pembroke. Junior high students volunteer with high school students supporting them as leaders. This year’s trip took place June 22-25, 2026. Here are some photos:
Day 1: St. Patrick Church
Day 2: Bishop McNamara – Bradley Site
Day 3: Run-A-Way Buckers Camp in Pembroke
Day 4: Lisieux Center at St. John Paul II Parish
