Community Comes Together to Add Motorized Chair to St. Isaac Jogues

When St. Isaac Jogues hosts the annual Lenten fish fry, volunteers would sometimes have to carry down wheelchairs down the 16 steps from the sanctuary to the parish hall.

Now wheelchair-bound parishioners, and those have difficulty navigating the steps, will have an easier time to attend events in the hall following the installation of a motorized chair to transport them down the stairwell.

"It is part of our community service and helping the community in many different ways," said Tim McGillen, manager of the Roseville Kaul Funeral Home, at a ribbon cutting for the new chair. "It is part of being a good neighbor.

The St. Isaac Jogues Men's Club and Kaul Funeral Home came together to raise the $7,000 for motorized chair and improve access to the the lower level of the parish.

"It allows us to do more with the funds we raise when places like Kaul Funeral Home come here and help make the big projects happen," said Tony Tiseo, of the Men's Club. "We are community driven and so are they."

The collaboration to install the new chair was appreciated by the pastor of St. Isaac Jogues.

"It is going to help the elderly and impaired to help participate in all of the parish functions," said the Rev. Darrell Roman, pastor of St. Isaac Jogues. "These gentlemen here, God bless them."