Category: News

On a Saturday night last month, they got ready like anyone else would for their prom. Tuxedos were buttoned, hair was styled, nails were painted. For some in attendance, it wasn’t their first prom – but it was just as special.

St James United Methodist Church hosted its seventh annual “Red Carpet Affair” under balloons, lights and the sounds of laughter. Nearly 280 special needs adults, ranging from age 16 to 52, attended the Red Carpet Affair with their caregivers for a night of fun, food and dancing. For some, it was also a night of hope.

“Many of us graduate high school and move on to new social structures,” said Carlene Barbeau, who started volunteering with the Red Carpet Affair in 2012 because of the joy it gave her brother Matt. “But, in the special needs community, graduating high school often leads to a lack of a social world.”

Carlene says St. James hosts the Red Carpet Affair to remind our friends that they are special, beautiful in their own unique ways, and can still have a whole lot of fun in life. “Plus, the volunteers have a blast, too,” she says.

Since January, a team of ten volunteers met multiple times to make the plans to make the Red Carpet Affair a night to remember. Their goal: to make their special needs friends feel like the celebrities they know them to be.

That evening, a “Diva Room” gave women a place to have their hair styled by professional stylists, and makeup done by makeup artists. They were offered shrimp and chocolate-covered strawberries while they were given a manicure. The church’s sanctuary was transformed with light walls, balloon sculptures and floral arrangements. Live Fusion Entertainment blasted some of the most popular songs on the radio and lights spun and flashed.

As the guests arrived, they were greeted by cheers as each walked into the event on the red carpet. Two professional photographers captured smiles in portraits the guests took home as souvenirs of their evening. But, that was all only part of the magic.

Liz McCafferty, director of communications at St. James, says, “The true beauty of the night was in the spirit of community.”

She explains that a community of 120 volunteers, ages 12 to 91, gathered together to cut carrots, dance, hug and create a community for those who are sometimes forgotten. “That community is rooted in love,” Liz says. “Love for our differences and love that we all enjoy a great conga line. And a great conga line it was!”

If you would like to be part of next year’s Red Carpet Affair, or are interested in events tailored for those with special needs, please contact Sally DePalma at specialconnections@stjamestampa.org.

—Submitted to the Neighborhood News by St. James UMC

Mary Seaman is a believer.

When she was in the throes of a disastrous divorce in the mid-1980s, she says a brief interaction with Pope John Paul II helped pull her through it.

So when she read the 2014 book Six Months to Live: Three Guys on the Ultimate Quest for a Miracle, about Artie Boyle’s pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Herzegovina, and how it cured him of cancer, it didn’t defy Mary’s logic. It actually made perfect sense to her.

Seaman, an Arbor Greene resident the past 14 years, was so moved by Artie Boyle’s book that she is organizing her own pilgrimage to Medjugorje in August. The 15-day trip, which costs $4,490 and is scheduled for Oct. 9-24, also will include time in Italy at other holy sites.

“It’s been pulling at me,’’ Seaman says. “I think the stars are aligned.”

Boyle, who is the father of Tampa Bay Lightning (see pg. 1) center Brian Boyle, helped connect Seaman with the right people for her trip.

Seaman, 65, said she needs to sign up 40 people for the trip, and is roughly halfway there. Father Ed Lamp of St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd., where Seaman is a member, is accompanying the group on the trip as the spiritual advisor. Seaman met Father Ed at Tampa’s James A. Haley Veteran’s Hospital, where she was once a nurse and he was a chaplain.

She also is a member of the Monsignor Kevin S. Mullen Columbiettes at St. Mark’s, a group which does charity work through the church.

Seaman herself doesn’t have cancer. In fact, she says, her life is pretty good. She says, however, that she is always eager to grow spiritually, and wants others to experience the same joy she has.

“I’m so awe-inspired by the opportunity to go and lead a group and bring other people to that holy place, Seaman says. “I think it’s just exciting and profound.”

Medjugorje is in eastern Europe, in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia & Herzegovina, near the border of Croatia.

In June of 1981, six local children claimed they had seen an apparition, or vision, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ever since, the town of roughly 2,500 residents has become a popular spot for Catholic pilgrimages, with millions of believers estimated to have visited.

Of the six children from 1981, Seaman says, three no longer receive apparitions as adults. One of those that still does, Ivan Dragicevic, will be accompanying Seaman’s group on the pilgrimage.

Although the apparitions and their authenticity are a point of contention among Catholics and other scholars, for many it’s matter of faith.

Artie Boyle was suffering from stage 4 metastatic renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) and was not expected to survive. He was diagnosed in 1999 and had his kidney removed, but eight months later, doctors found three tumors in his right lung. He was given a 5-percent chance of survival.

Boyle had all but surrendered to the disease when his neighbor and best friend Rob Griffin, a former youth league coach of Brian Boyle’s, and his brother-in-law Kevin Gill, bought him a ticket to Medjugorje for Labor Day weekend in 2000.

Boyle, who was 44, admits in his book to not being an overly spiritual person at the time, but he writes that something happened to him on Cross Mountain as he and his friends prayed and confessed their sins together.

He came back convinced he had been cured. He was scheduled to have his right lung removed four days after his return to the U.S., but new CAT scans, and numerous doctors, revealed that the cancer had all but disappeared.

The story made headlines, and Boyle appeared on a host of talk shows while writing his book. On the back cover blurb, his urologist, Dr. Francis McGovern, wrote: “With the severity and progression of Artie’s disease, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, it is difficult for medical science to explain why he is alive today. But, every time I see him, I am sure there is a God.”

Boyle has been back 14 times since. He says he has seen “extreme atheists” converted on the spot as well as hardliners who hate God and don’t worship Mary. He said the feeling of peace there is “palpable, and you don’t get that everywhere else. I’m sorry, you just don’t.”

The Power Of Faith

While Boyle’s story evokes skepticism in many, it called to Seaman. She was given Boyle’s book by her sister-in-law while visiting in Boston, and it turned out that Boyle was from Hingham, just outside of Boston, where Seaman once lived.

That compelled Seaman to call Boyle, hoping to speak with him. She left a message, and was surprised when he did finally return her phone call about two months later. She has recently talked with Boyle again, this time about possibly speaking in New Tampa about his experiences.

Seaman’s desire to embark on a pilgrimage may seem frivolous to some, but she has a strong faith and some of her desire is derived from personal experiences.

In 1985, she and her husband had purchased tickets through her church to visit Rome to see Pope John Paul II speak during Lent. But, when her marriage fell apart abruptly, she told the priest at her church she had to give up her seat; that he should give it to someone who couldn’t afford to go.

Seaman reverted to making rosary beads, something she did in her spare time. She decided, after some reflection, that she wanted to go on the trip after all, but was told her seat had already been taken. Desperate, she offered to pay her own way and follow the group on her own. She received permission, but before she bought the ticket, another person backed out.

In Rome, she was among the thousands jockeying for position to see the Pontiff.

“As we were standing there, someone came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘If you want to see the Pope, get to the rail,” Seaman said. “I didn’t know what that meant. But then, the doors opened, and I saw the rail.”

Seaman got to the rail. And sure enough, after the Pope finished speaking, he exited right past where Seaman was standing. She handed him a set of her rosary beads, and he put his hands on her head and blessed her.

“I can’t tell you how powerful that was,’’ Seaman said. “It was as if Jesus wrapped his arms around me. I was so high. I had experienced the birth of my children, I ran the Boston Marathon, but when John Paul touched me, it was like heaven opened up.”

That feeling is what Seaman hopes others can experience at Medjugorje, where some have claimed to have witnessed rosary beads changing colors and the sun appearing to pulsate like a heart.

“I’m so excited,’’ Seaman said. “I just can’t tell you how excited I am.”

For more information about the pilgrimage, please contact Mary at (707) 799-5163, or email her at nursingsuccess@icloud.com.