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Fog/Mist She’s a community lifeline
Mary Von Stein named Baldwin Herald's Person of the Year
For the past 30 or so years, a familiar face at St. Christopher’s Parish has dedicated much of her time and energy to making sure Baldwin’s people in need have had food to eat, furniture to sit on and heat to keep them warm in the winter.
Mary Von Stein began volunteering for the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society, which provides food and other resources to needy people, in the 1980s after moving to Baldwin in 1968 with her husband at the time, Donald Von Stein. The two had four daughters, all of
whom attended St. Christopher School until eighth grade and then spent four years at Baldwin High School.
When Monsignor Steven Camp came to the
parish in 2005, he created a full-time position to oversee St. Christopher’s Social Ministry-Outreach program, which includes the parish’s food pantry. It was one of a few jobs that Von Stein, a parishioner since 1968, had been doing for years, but now she had the title to make it official. “She was the perfect person to tap for the role,” Camp said.
The food pantry now provides groceries — meat, produce, canned goods, cereal and paper products — to about 125 local families a month. People in need can come in once a month for food and supplies that should last a week, Von Stein told the Herald in November. A family’s religious affiliation doesn’t matter, as long as they live within the parish boundaries, which encompass Baldwin and a small section of Oceanside.
Von Stein is tasked with overseeing the food pantry and the roughly 45 volunteers who make sure it runs smoothly. Lynda Stevenson, a volunteer for 10 years, said that Von Stein is not only great at the work, but loves it. “She puts her whole heart and soul into what she’s doing, and it’s not just a job,” Stevenson said. “She’s compassionate. She feels for these people.”
Von Stein is also secretary of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society. In that role, she helps assist families who are short on their rent, need help heating their home or have lost everything in a fire or are otherwise in need.
