LITTLE FLOWER ASSISTANCE CENTER

Donna’s journey to becoming program director for the Catholic Charities Little Flower Assistance Center has been a lifelong passage.

Soon after her birth in Chicago, Illinois, Donna’s family moved to her forever home in Colorado. Here she was raised with her sister and two brothers in a modest brick house in Aurora.

The roots of her passion to help people began early in the 7th grade when Donna joined the Dominick Savio Club while attending St Therese School. One of the club’s activities was visiting a local nursing facility where the group sang and gave gifts to facility residents. Donna’s heart was deeply touched when a 90-year-old woman named Lola asked Donna to come closer and whispered, “Please do not forget me.” After only one more visit from Donna, Lola was called home to God.

As Donna entered her teen years, she joined the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) and became a member of the group’s local council. Among her many CYO activities was helping during the holidays at Ridge Home State Hospital, a residential institution for persons with severe disabilities.

High School graduation found the young humanitarian considering service in the Peace Corps. But God had another plan and introduced her to a young man in Navy blues. A year later, Jay Potter would become her husband and Donna would become the proud mother of three children. In keeping with family tradition, the couple’s son and two daughters also attended St Therese school.

In her first job working for Queen of Peace Transportation, Donna was keeping the books, doing billings and collections, and monitoring the buses that transported kids to the local Catholic elementary and high schools. She also joined a Catholic program called Renew, a spiritual movement within the Church with a primary emphasis on improving participants’ personal relationship with Jesus. During one life-altering training and outreach session, the group visited Sister Michael Mary Eagan (affectionately called “Sister M&M”) at her outreach center on Emporia Street in Aurora – later to be named The Little Flower in honor of St. Therese.

During the introductory meeting at Sister M&M’s, the phone rang. “Go ahead and answer the phone!” Sister ordered. Obediently, Donna picked up the phone. She still laughs when remembering the day she first “Answered the Call,” and she has never stopped since.

Sister Michael Mary soon became Donna’s mentor and encouraged her to volunteer at the Emporia facility. In a few short months, Sister prompted her young apprentice to become involved in the Northeast Denver Montbello community by contacting seven different church congregations and encouraging them to develop a collaborative ministry to provide food to the poor. Within 18 months, Montbello Cooperative Ministries became a full-fledged food bank, and Donna had helped create a host site for the former Share Colorado program.

By 1986, well-versed in needs-based community resource analysis, Donna was hired as the part-time Site Manager for the Catholic Charities Emergency Assistance Center located in a tiny store-front space on Iola Street in Aurora. In addition, she accepted a second part-time position at Aurora Housing as a Senior Service Coordinator at the Fletcher Gardens senior housing apartments. For 11 years, Donna held both part-time positions. Her tenure at Fletcher Gardens often evoked affectionate thoughts of Lola and the long-ago promise not to forget her.

From the Iola office, Catholic Charities Aurora Emergency Assistance Center moved to more accommodating space in 2009. This location housed many community-based programs serving more than 25,000 clients. Services included Victims’ Assistance, Our Lady of Loreto Life Closet, Regis nursing students, MCPN Health Clinic, Kinship Care, Immigration counseling, Employment guidance, Rent and Utility assistance, and Transportation aid.

Despite subsequent closure of the Potomac location in 2011, God intervened to assure that His people did not go hungry. Answering the call to fulfill God’s vision, Donna engaged a committed group of volunteers from the community to embrace that vision and create a new location to serve the less fortunate.

In a humble building on the corner of 14th and Lansing that was generously donated by the Knights of Columbus, the new site opened in September 2013. Named the Little Flower Assistance Center in honor of Sister M&M, the emerging charity developed with support from the City of Aurora, several local Catholic Churches, the Denver Foundation, and the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati (Sister M&M’s Motherhouse). By December 2013, the fledgling agency was back home under the sponsorship wing of Catholic Charities.

One of the most devoted volunteers at the Little Flower Assistance Center is Doris Lawrence.  Between volunteering with the former Aurora Catholic Charities Emergency Center and Little Flower, Doris has given her time and talents to Catholic Charities agencies for over 18 years. 

Little Flower benefits from many of Doris’ skills, not the least of which is her ability to understand and use confounding computer programs and systems as they have evolved through the years.  Who better to help volunteer trainees navigate through the requirements of data entry, spreadsheet accounting, and unfamiliar software programs than a St. Therese School computer science teacher? 

As financial donations come to the center, Doris also furnishes an accounting of these funds and notes specific project allotments as assigned by the Program Director.  She then prepares monies for delivery to the Catholic Charities Finance department for deposit and cost center allocation to Little Flower capital resources and budget distributions.

In addition to helping with the day-to-day paperwork, Doris spends four days a week managing the Food Pantry and Distribution Program.  She assumed this essential responsibility in 2015, and that function has never run more smoothly.  Wednesdays are especially busy at Little Flower when two massive trucks arrive from Food Bank of the Rockies packed with meats, produce, and other food supplies to be unloaded, organized, and put away.  As Doris carries in groceries, she directs the efforts of other food truck volunteers and creates order out of what could otherwise be chaos.  When private donations of food arrive throughout the week, she records the source and volume and organizes everything on labeled shelves.  Then she goes about the business of packing and labeling food parcels for distribution to the 2,000 clients served every month.

Doris’ heart has always been in food relief programs.  For 10 years, she volunteered with the former Colorado SHARE program that distributed discounted meals to needy families.  Another of her activities is the Interchurch CROP Walk, which helps alleviate global malnutrition and donates funds to local hunger fighting agencies such as food banks and community gardens.   

As a member of St. Therese Parish, Doris assists as a “money counter” for weekly donations and serves the church as a Eucharistic Minister for Holy Communion.

In her spare time, Doris enjoys spending time in the mountains, indulging her love of gardening, and taking care of her rescue kitties. 

God bless you, Doris, for everything you do for Little Flower and for all the good you do in the community at large.

Deacon Dick Miller, a self-described “cradle Catholic,” was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1965 with both a BS in General Engineering and an MBA in Finance and Accounting.  As a young man in college, he met and fell in love with Joanna, a fellow Catholic.  

After graduation and marriage, the couple relocated to Philadelphia where Dick had accepted a job offer from Air Products and Chemicals in Allentown.  Daughter Paula was born in 1967 and her brother Rick followed soon after in 1968.

By 1984, the Miller family had been transferred to Denver, where Dick served as assistant controller for Stearns Roger after its Purchase by Air Products.  A corporate relocation assignment in 1987 again found Dick and Joanna being transferred—this time to Southern California.  But the kids, young adults by this time, decided to remain in Denver.  After more transfers to Houston and back to Allentown, Dick retired from Air Products in 2000 with 31 years of steadfast employment.

November 2001 saw Dick and Joanna finally returning to Denver to be closer to their kids and grandchildren.  When he retired, Dick determined that, for at least 15 hours a week, he would volunteer in some capacity with the Catholic Church.  Responding to a February 2002 bulletin at Our Lady of Loreto Catholic Parish requesting volunteers at the former Aurora Catholic Charities Emergency Center, he became a client intake worker.  At the same time, Joanna began volunteering at the Our Lady of Loreto Life Closet. 

Dick entered formation to become a Catholic Deacon in September 2004 and was ordained in May 2009.  He continued to volunteer at the emergency center until its closure in August 2011.  When the Little Flower Assistance Center opened its doors in September 2013, Deacon Dick again responded to the need for volunteers.  In addition to performing intake services, he has served for 10 years as liaison between both the former emergency center/Little Flower and Our Lady of Loreto. He is also an active member of the Little Flower Community Liaison Committee.   

Among his many other contributions, Deacon Dick has lived his faith through involvement with the Catholic Charities Respect for Life office, participation with the Back to School Drive, and services as an ambassador between Our Lady of Loreto and Catholic Charities.

Deacon Dick’s doctrine is to “Trust in the Infinite Goodness of Almighty God.”  And we are grateful that His infinite goodness has brought Deacon Dick to Little Flower.