MENDHAM About three years ago, St. Joseph Parish here started its own socially minded tradition: “Good Deed Friday” — posting on Facebook blurbs that thank some of the kind, thoughtful and compassionate deeds that parishioners have performed for other people.
These posts — which consist of a short paragraph about the charitable person or group and a eye-catching photo of the person, people or activity — get dropped every Friday on the Facebook page of St. Joseph’s Parish by Diane Quaglia, a staff member at the Morris County parish. She fields suggestions from parishioners, who nominate other parishioners anonymously; takes 30 to 45 minutes to create a striking blurb that describes the deed and thanks them; and then posts it on social media. If St. Joseph’s does not receive a nomination for a particular week, Quaglia looks around the parish and chooses a compassionate person or a group herself — either based on charitable efforts in the parish or community or acts of kindness in their personal lives.
“ ‘Good Deed Friday’ is based on a simple idea that every person can do a good deed for the benefit of others. Even a smile that brightens someone else’s day is a good deed. Send us a good deed that you have experienced or have seen — no matter how small,” Quaglia writes periodically in St. Joseph’s bulletin to remind parishioners of “Good Deed Friday” and alerts them to the sample nomination form on the parish’s web site, www.stjoesmendham.org. “Our parishioners of all ages do great things and don’t get recognized. Good Deed Friday gives them the credit that they deserve,” Quaglia said.
Recent posts included one on Nov. 3, thanking trick or treating students of St. Joseph School for participating in a Halloween Parade at Holly Manor health-care facility in Mendham. Quaglia published a photo of the children dressed up in their costumes and proclaimed, “These students paraded around the hallways and outside the building spreading Halloween cheer to the residents. It certainly brightened everyone’s day to be a part of this activity.”
Another post from Oct. 30 thanked the parish’s Spiritual Life Committee for helping Father Stephen Prisk, St. Joseph’s parochial vicar, with the Oct. 24 Lourdes Virtual Pilgrimage experience in the church. That night, Marlene Watkins, president of the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospitality North American Volunteers, presented a “virtual pilgrimage” to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France. Quaglia published a photo of the event and wrote, “It was a spiritual journey in which those who attended will not soon forget. Thank you volunteers for making this experience even more special.”
“It’s very satisfying to be recognized,” said Beverly Ryan, who co-coordinates the Spiritual Life Committee with her husband, Joe, and was listed in the Good Deed Friday post with the other committee members. She added that Father Prisk asked the committee for volunteers with the “well received” pilgrimage, which included help from the Knights of Columbus. “But for me, helping without wanting anything in return — for the greater glory of God — is the greatest satisfaction. I want to pass on the unconditional love that God has given me in anything good that I ever do for anyone,” she said.
On Sept. 30, St. Joseph’s posted a “big thank you” to its Human Concerns Ministry and to parishioners, who donated 94 trays of frozen meals for its frozen meal collection to feed the poor served by Catholic Family & Community Services in Paterson, an agency of diocesan Catholic Charities. Quaglia published a photo of many of the volunteers with the trays. Also, she recognized parishioners Mary Creamer, Peter Wilson and Barbara Nutt as well as Joaquin Roldan from the Father English Community Center, Paterson, which received the donations to help “nourish” their clients.
Often, social media users will comment on these posts. Quaglia dovetails them with many other posts on the Facebook page over a typical week, including announcements of parish events; stories about the parish from newspapers, such as The Beacon; and old photos for Throwback Tuesday, just like Throwback Thursday. Good Deed Friday started about three years ago, when St. Joseph’s joined Facebook, she said.
“Good Deed Friday counteracts the negative news that we hear today. We said, ‘Let’s publicize the good things that people are doing’ — even something like a kid, who shovels someone else’s driveway. It’s part of our calling as Christians,” said Msgr. Joseph Anginoli, St. Joseph’s pastor and an adjutant judicial vicar of the diocesan Tribunal, who credited Quaglia with proposing the idea. “Good Deed Friday is a simple thing and an upbeat thing.”
Faithful of St. Joseph Parish also can email Diane Quaglia with nominations for Good Deed Friday at [email protected].