Young man testifies to Covenant House help
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 12, 2006
Detroit – A young man's testimony about how Covenant House Michigan helped him at a low point in his life drew a standing ovation from the nearly 100 people who gathered May 4 for the dedication of a building named for Cardinal Adam Maida.
Brandon Remson, 20, was cold and hungry this past winter when he contacted Covenant House for help.
After expressing the pain of his life on the streets in a poem, he switched to prose to praise the help he had received through Covenant House.
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Cardinal Adam Maida (left) shakes hands with Brandon Remson, a young man who has turned his life around with help from Covenant House Michigan. With them is Sr. Patricia Cruise, SC, national president and chief executive officer of Covenant House. | "I was too prideful, and ashamed to let my family, who I had turned away from, see me in this state. God had been trying to get my attention for so long, but it only took an open ear, and heart, for him to change my life," Remson said as he recounted his experience.
Crediting God for leading him to Covenant House, he said he found food, warmth and peace at the shelter for children and young adults who have been living on the streets.
"Covenant House is more than a shelter, or three hots and a cot. It's a family. This family helped me reconnect with my immediate one. This family helped me reconnect with myself, but most of all this family helped me reconnect with God," Remson said.
He told how he will be entering Marygrove College in the fall to study psychology and marketing, and how he is looking for a job to help with expenses.
Remson's testimony underscored some of the points about Covenant House that Cardinal Maida made in his remarks about the dedication of the Adam Cardinal Maida Administration Building on Covenant House Michigan's main Detroit campus, on Martin Luther King Drive at the Jeffries Freeway.
 Covenant House
• Serves homeless and at-risk youths and young adults, through age 22.
• In Michigan since 1997.
• About 24,000 youths and young adults helped at CH community service centers since coming to Michigan.
• Primarily funded through individual and corporate donations, supplemented by some government grants.
• To find out more, call (313) 463-2000 or visit www.covenanthousemi.org/ |
"We celebrate here at Covenant House on a daily basis the mystery of resurrection and new life. The dedicated staff calls forth from their clients new reservoirs of energy and hope, even as they challenge and call them to responsibility," Cardinal Maida said.
"Here at Covenant House, lives are literally transformed and renewed, and then, in turn, the graduates are able to make a difference in their families and in the society as they bring healing and hope to others," he said.
Sam Joseph, executive director of Covenant House Michigan, said the organization came to Michigan nine years ago at Cardinal Maida's invitation, and the cardinal gave the the organization the former Kundig Center property on Detroit's near west side.
"He made a covenant with us, and a covenant requires love and support and faithfulness to one another," Joseph said, adding that the cardinal has continued to be interested in and supportive of Covenant House.
"Thanks to his prayers and support, Covenant House now has three charter schools in our name," he continued.
"The cardinal has helped us to live God's covenant with the most vulnerable among us," Joseph added.
Sr. Patricia Cruise, SC, national president and chief executive officer of Covenant House, praised Covenant House Michigan for building partnerships with other social service agencies to better provide services for the young people it strives to help.
Peter and Connie Cracchiolo, of St. Clair Shores, who sponsored the naming of the new administrative building after Cardinal Maida, were honored for their support for Covenant House when Peter Cracchiolo was presented with the organization's Lizzie Award. Also honored with the award were Louise Degroot of Coloma and Martin and Olivia Lagina of Traverse City.
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