Joan Pirtel: A Helping Hand under Abraham's Tent

As winter's grip closes in, St. Mary's Church prepares to open Abraham's Tent, providing homeless men with seven nights of warm shelter, home-cooked meals and a bit of socializing in the Parish Hall.

Now entering their second year as a host site for the New Haven-based Columbus House initiative, St. Mary's Abraham's Tent Committee is once again chaired by Joan Pirtel. Joan says it's the contributions of many at St. Mary's that makes this program a success.

"The response from the parish was phenomenal last year. We had over 180 volunteers. It was mind-boggling!" she reports. "They cooked, donated food, socialized, played games and entertained."

In 2011, St. Mary's was the only satellite location this side of the Quinnipiac Bridge of the then-two-year-old Columbus House program, which trains outside group leaders as hosts. Each year, 12 homeless applicants, screened by Columbus House, are shuttled to a collection of churches that host the men overnight for seven days, November through March. This year, St. Mary's hosts the men from Jan. 9 to 16, providing dinner, lodgings, and breakfast.

"They arrive by 6 p.m.; we give them dinner, some social time, and it's lights out by 10:30," explains Joan. "They get up at 5:30; we make them breakfast and lunches if they want. Their bus comes by 6 or 6:30 and takes them back to Columbus House. They're back on the street, all day long."

Columbus House provides the men with showers and storage and provides cots, linens, and blankets to satellite shelters. St. Mary's Abraham's Tent Committee, under the church Outreach Committee, organizes volunteers for its hosting needs.

Word of Abraham's Tent first reached St. Mary's in 2010, thanks to parishioner Janice Gilman, says Joan.

"Janice brought the idea to the Parish Council and Father Ford readily agreed to it. In 2010, Janice, Alice Hines, and I began going to meetings at Columbus House to find out what it was about, and then we took it on," says Joan, a Branford resident since 1990.

The Pirtels started off at St. Mary's while living in Branford in the 1960s, then moved to homes in North Branford and Northford while raising their three kids. There, Joan was very active, including volunteering with St. Augustine's Church, the Democratic Town Committee, and the North Branford Women's Club, of which she's still a member. As mother to a deaf child, Joan founded North Branford Parents of Deaf Children for Education and was instrumental in the town's decision to hire a teacher to work with seven deaf students at North Branford High School.

Last year, just as Abraham's Tent was set to open at St. Mary's, Gilman took ill for a while and Joan took on chairing the effort. Joan's recently stepped down as Outreach Committee chair to become Parish Council chair, while remaining chair of Abraham's Tent, a program she loves.

"From Abraham's Tent, Janice and Alice and I got so excited, we went with Father [Ford] to [the Branford Clergy Association] and, through that, this year First Congregational Church and the Baptist Church will host their first Abraham's Tent from March 12 to 19. Our Outreach Committee also wanted to go further and so in May, we started cooking at Columbus House on the third Wednesday of every month."

In 2011, Columbus House bestowed its John S. Martinez Community Service Award upon St. Mary's.

Joan recently retired after 20 years as a realtor with Branford's Century 21 and says she's delighted to be able to invest more time her church and in helping others share the rewards of community outreach, such as helping the men of Abraham's Tent.

"You just feel so good when you see smiles on their faces, to know you've given them a hand up."