Holly Yzquierdo

Sophia called the Catholic Charities pregnancy hotline at midnight from the hospital after her son was born. She was distressed about whether to keep her child or not. Catholic Charities staff came to the hospital first thing in the morning to counsel her.

TI Fitness, located in Gilbert, Ariz., has been a supporter of My Sisters’ Place for years. “We wanted to do something repeatable, that we could do year after year and not worry about interference from weather conditions,” said Terrance Johnson, co-owner of TI Fitness. Their solution was Own the Trainer Week.

During Own the Trainer Week, anyone can challenge their trainer to do difficult workouts, for a price. A sign-up sheet in the lobby records specific workouts and the trainers assigned to them with the pledge amounts.

When most people think about retirement they think about traveling, spending time on the golf course or with their grandkids but Carol Gastelum had other things in mind. She has been volunteering at Catholic Charities since 2009.

To say that Carol volunteers is really an understatement. Carol works a full 40 hour work week splitting her time between volunteer services and parish and community engagement.

When she was 16 years old she was forced into prostitution by a dangerous man - and he ruled by violence and fear.

“Bob” lost his job in 2012, soon after his house was foreclosed. The tremendous stress took its toll on Bob and his wife, and they got divorced. Bob was now raising a baby and moving from place to place. He would stay with friends and family as long as they allowed, but eventually he was left with nowhere to go.