They have become an extended family for children whose families struggle with the challenge of making ends meet on limited resources.

Their members tutor students and donate Bibles for confirmation classes to enrich the lives of youth at Sacramento’s Immaculate Conception Church.

And they roll up their sleeves to prepare and serve lunch for participants in the Handicapable program by providing a way for the handicapped and elderly to attend Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Sacramento.

For the past 25 years, the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, Pope John Paul I, Court 203 has been putting into action their organization’s mission to serve God by serving others.

Octavia Simien, grand lady of Court 203, joined the ladies auxiliary at the age of 18, following in the footsteps of her mother and generations of family members before her.

“Our family was the church and the church was our family,” said Simien, who was raised Catholic in Beaumont, Texas. “Becoming a member of the Knights of Peter Claver was a way to live out your faith.”

Since joining the service organization, Simien has worked as a leader in the ladies auxiliary in each church community where she has been a parishioner in Texas and California.

“It’s part of being in a community that serves God and helps you live out the precepts of your religion,” she said.

Authorized as a division of the Knights of Peter Claver in 1926, the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary, like its male counterpart, is a fraternal organization modeled after the Knights of Columbus. Both draw inspiration from the life of St. Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who ministered to Negro slaves in South America and the West Indies.

Locally, Court 203’s history began in 1978 as a ministry at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Sacramento. Members immediately began to make their presence felt in the church and community by organizing a food kitchen where they cooked hot meals for the needy.

“No one was turned away,” said Mabel Kidd, a member of Our Lady of Lourdes and longtime member of the ladies auxiliary.

Kidd, a native of Mobile, Ala., is related to one of the founders of the Knights of St. Peter Claver and became a member herself when she was in her early 20s. She remembers going with her mother and other auxiliary members making visits to the sick and elderly in homes, convalescent facilities and hospitals.

“I remember sitting up all night with people who place their trust in you, trying to make them more comfortable,” she said.

In recent years as a member of Court 203, one of the programs which Kidd participates in most enthusiastically is purchasing, preparing and serving the annual Handicapable luncheon to more than 100 people following Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes.

A primary focus of the organization in recent years has been promoting a variety of programs supporting youth. Through its participation in Soaring High, a national scholarship-based reading program, members of Court 203 who tutor have helped improve the reading skills of many students attending the former Immaculate Conception School which closed in June.

The organization has also funded annual scholarships to Immaculate Conception School, purchased and donated Bibles for confirmation classes and collected pennies to support Immaculate Conception Church, which has served as the ladies auxiliary’s headquarters since 1999.

Deacon Gerald Pauly, parish steward at Immaculate Conception, said Court 203 has made a valuable contribution to the parish’s students over the years. He welcomed their continued support at the Aspire charter school which opened Sept. 8, using the buildings of the former Immaculate Conception School.

Janet Dumonchelle said she joined Court 203 two years ago to become more involved in the community, including through the “Adopt a Child” program. The ladies auxiliary’s current adoptive family includes a single parent father who is raising two daughters, ages eight and 10.

“The dad is really great and the girls are the center of his universe, but they need a little assistance,” Dumonchelle said. “The girls have become an extended family with the ladies.”

Other Court 203 programs include support of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit, ecumenical Christian organization. A community service project involves members in preparing and serving lunches to workers on site at building projects in north Sacramento.

Archie Milligan, executive director of Sacramento Habitat for Humanity, said that providing lunches for workers “generates enthusiasm among volunteers” trying to “help people realize their dream of home ownership.”

Dumonchelle, who is historian of the women’s organization, sees preserving the history of service of the Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary as a kind of sacred trust.

“With so much knowledge of the church and the work they’ve done, it’s important to keep their history so we can pass it on,” she said.

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