BUCKHANNON – The local Parish Council Board honored an integral volunteer at the board’s first in-person meeting since February 2020.

Brother Roy Madigan is moving to Wheeling, but he has spent more than a decade helping the Upshur County Parish House and Crosslines cook and serve meals. Jalna Jones, a Crosslines volunteer, said Madigan began his work in Buckhannon about 15 years ago. 

“Right away, he had a connection and he said, ‘What can I do for this community? What does this community need?’” Jones recalled. “Well, we have the Parish House and we have Crosslines, so the Brother and I wrote a grant for the health committee of the diocese to start the Food for Life program, with the outlook of serving healthy food.”

Madigan wanted to offer more to the community, so he also started the Diaper Bag program, Jones said.

“The diaper bag was pretty well-received by our Parish, and people gave to it, so we decided that it’s better served over at Crosslines, because all of our neighbors go there,” Jones said. “Then that wasn’t enough, he was cooking on Monday, and he said, ‘No I want to do something else; I want to cook on Wednesday, I want to invite people from our parish to come in and help cook.’”

Then the pandemic hit, and Jones said Madigan was key to offering carryout lunches as families struggled to adapt to a new way of life.

“COVID hit, and he said, ‘I’m only going to be here a short time, so why don’t I see if I can do a meal on Thursdays at Crosslines with the assistance of [director] Kristi [Wilkerson] and a bunch of other people?’” Jones recounted. “He pulled off that Thursday, the carryout luncheon.”

Jones told Madigan, a Catholic brother, his service has not gone unnoticed.

“We are going to really miss you in our Parish and in our community,” she said. “You have been a welcome face in our community.”

The board also honored maintenance assistant Randol George. Kenneth Harvey, maintenance coordinator for the Upshur County Parish House, said George was always prepared to help.

“Randol joined us in December of 2017 to replace me while I was in the hospital, and then they hired him full time to assist me,” Harvey said. “He helped me work around the Parish House and the Clothes Closet. You never plan what you’re going to do the next day, because as soon as you get there, it’s going to change.”

Barry Moll, a Parish Council board member, read a prayer and thanked the two for their service.

“God, we cannot thank you enough for Randol and Roy and for their service and fellowship,” Moll said. “The love is yours that we’ve seen expressed through them. We thank you for the fruit that their ministry here has brought forth in our community, and the countless people who’ve been in touch with your love because they were here, as they served you.

“As you send them to new places, and as Kristi says, new adventures, Lord we know they go still being your people, and we pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to fill them, that you would continue to quicken their hearts as they see need in others, and that you would grant them all that they need to respond to that need.”