By Antonina Zielinska

High winds and curious passers by made it difficult for volunteers to keep their materials well stocked at their tables in front of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, Sunset Park.

Pamphlets about legal help for immigrants, high blood pressure risks and many different types of prayer cards flew off tables as a volunteer walked around with a clipboard offering help for pregnant women and people with babies.

The resource and ministry fair was in full swing, at noon, Sunday, June 12.

“The point of the fair is to help the community, by making different organizations available that can help different individuals,” said Tony Cappola, president of the pastoral council and organizer of the fair.

Liz Rendon, who works with a new organization affiliated with NYU Lutheran Medical, Healthy Families Sunset Park, did not have any material to give out because her organization is so new. But she was looking to sign up any new or expectant moms or dads who needed help transitioning into their new roles.

Her organization offers at-home assistance once a month or once a week if necessary, to give them information and to direct them to any other agencies that could help in their specific situations. Although not Catholic herself, Rendon was excited to work with Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to bring aid to the Sunset Park community.

The Juan Neumann Center was also at the fair. Staffers had a table and a volunteer was providing information about legal help for immigrants, regardless of documentation status.

Gerardo Perez stopped by their table with his 4-year-old daughter. His two daughters, the older one is 17, have lived in Sunset Park their entire lives, he explained. However, he and his wife live in constant uncertainty because they do not have legal status here in the U.S.

Their daughters are U.S. citizens and do not know life in Mexico, but Perez and his wife could be deported at any time. They are most afraid for their daughters, he said. Their lives in Brooklyn are much better than what they would be in Mexico.

So Perez made an appointment to see Father Ruskin Piedra, C.Ss.R., who can give him legal advice and help with any appropriate paperwork. The next available appointment is in September, said Cathy Tochihuitl, who works in the Juan Neumann Center.

Perez said that it would be very expensive for him to go to a law firm to seek legal advice. He hopes the church will provide him a more affordable option. He also is inclined to trust the center more because it is affiliated with the church where he has been a parishioner nearly the entire time he has lived in the U.S.

Perez said he is also unsettled by the recent national political climate.

“We are afraid,” he said. “But we have faith in God, that He will touch the heart of the next president so that he or she will at least not kick us out.”

Gabina Rodriguez from the parish’s Ayuda a la Comunidad (Help for the Community) said it is part of her organization’s mission to help combat fear and to promote the welfare of immigrants, especially those whose stay has not been normalized.

“Because they are undocumented we have to be their voice,” she said. “We work with the community so that they are not in the shadows.”

Ayuda a la Comunidad works to inform the community and connect individuals with the resources and help they need. They helped organize the fair and have lately been concentrating their efforts on promoting NYC-ID.

“It lets everyone, especially those undocumented, enter public places, open bank accounts and to pick up their children from school, which they have previously been unable to do,” she said.

New York City Medical Reserve Corps was also on site to give free blood pressure tests. At about 12:30, an hour-and-a-half into the fair and with two-and-a-half hours left to go, the volunteers had already screened 90 people and had advised eight people to go immediately to the hospital because their blood pressure was in the critical zone.

Betty Duggan, a volunteer director with the program, said the main goal of the screenings is to put people at ease.

“We want people to feel safe to go to the doctor, even if they are not documented,” she said.

Since the fair was a church event, there was no shortage of prayer groups with tables to invite new members. An Ecuadorian group with a special devotion to El Niño Inmigrante was among the tables giving out prayer cards. The group meets once a month to pray the rosary.

Fabian Otavalo, the leader of the group, said the devotion is important to the member families because the faith has been passed down to them through the generations and this is a way to honor that gift.

“Because we believe in the one King, this is why this is important,” he said. “We show our community what our faith is.”

Sitting close by was the Spanish R.C.I.A. group for the parish. Delfino Silverstre, director, said the fair afforded the program an opportunity to encourage more people to complete their sacraments of initiation.

The task is one of patience, hard work and prayer. Silverstre said last year the program brought 20 new members to the Church.

Father James Gilmour, C.Ss.R., pastor, said he was very happy with the number of people who came out. It was the third fair for the parish and the first with Father Gilmour as pastor. He’s already looking forward to the next one.

“We’ll build on the experience and we’ll do it again,” he said.