Your Catholic Neighbor
Big heart manifested in service
Rader finds that helping others is rewarding
By Tony Staley
Compass Correspondent
FLINTVILLE -- If it's Thursday afternoon, LaVon Rader is volunteering at Wellspring, a downtown Green Bay ministry of the Bay Settlement Franciscan Sisters.
Rader said she helps at the drop-in center, which 200 at-risk women visit monthly, because she needs to learn from them.
"As a woman of privilege, having a wonderful family, education, opportunities for everything, travel, learning, spiritual development, I want to learn how they get up every morning and not run out in front of a truck going 100 mph," Rader said. Ten years later she's still learning.
Other days might find Rader serving meals at the New Community Shelter, teaching a class in simple living or helping someone in need.
That's how Rader said she met one of her role models, Jim, a cognitively disabled man who has joined her family at Thanksgiving for 32 years and whom they check in with throughout the year.
"I don't have much to give," Rader said, "maybe a sense of humor and a pretty decent smile when I'm feeling good."
Fr. Dave Kasperek, pastor of Ss. Edward and Isidore Parish, Flintville, gives Rader far more credit than that. "She's got a big heart and does marvelous things, like reading for a blind person. She has a way of being there for others. She is very generous and is there for the underdog and the person in need," he said.
Rader said she has always been drawn to volunteering, which has both made her happy and helped her grow deeper as a person.
She looks back to the summer of 1965 when she went to Canton, Miss., to start a Head Start program during the civil rights movement. She had graduated a year earlier from Viterbo College in La Crosse with a degree in elementary education.
For someone who grew up on a Wisconsin farm never seeing a black person, it was quite a change to be working with 400 black 4-year-olds alongside three black student aides from Jackson.
"That's where I grew," Rader said of the Mississippi experience. "I learned more about myself."
The Canton white community considered her and the other northern whites, who were there working on civil rights, voter registrations and sit-ins, to be blacks, Rader said.
"It was very dangerous and I could have been shot at any time. I loved it. I was so mad. I was so angry about what prejudice and segregation had done. That's where I got all buzzed up for social justice," Rader said.
"That experience that summer with the Klan calling us and saying 'If you gals don't get the hell out of Canton, we'll burn you out,' it's had a big impact," she said.
It's why she and her husband, Dennis, raised their two sons, Mark and Andy, not to be prejudiced and to learn from those of other races, cultures and religions, Rader said. It led LaVon and Dennis to start ecumenical Bible and spiritual journey groups.
All that may seem far removed from her childhood in Jackson County, south of Eau Claire. But Rader said her parents, Leona (a Catholic) and Millard (a Methodist who converted to Catholicism) Squires were the major influences in her life.
She remembers praying the family rosary in May and October while her paternal grandmother, who lived with them, engaged in spontaneous prayer in her room.
Besides teaching her to be open to "the other," Rader said her parents modeled simple living in the midst of an abundance of love, good food and relationships.
Rader has been offering workshops on simple living at their home in rural Suamico since 1995. She said the simplicity workshops grew out of several changes and challenges in her life, including fibromyalgia.
In the workshops she teaches women how to replace clutter with what's essential and significant. That means:
- getting rid of stuff;
- not over-scheduling oneself socially or as a volunteer;
- concentrating on doing one spiritual practice well, rather than trying to do everything every day out of a sense of guilt;
- letting go of old hurts by forgiving others;
- dealing with emotional issues;
- having relationships with a few close friends who support your values.
It also means living in the moment and not thinking about what has happened or what is going to happen, Rader said. That's why she begins each day with meditation, sometimes using the mantra, "Here I am Lord. I come to do your will." When she doesn't meditate, Rader said, she's more fragmented.
"Simplicity has made me more mellow. It has made me more centered and not as judgmental, even though I still judge - I am human," she said. "I know I'm more of an example to my boys now that I'm less hyper" and they have noticed the difference, she said.
Simplicity, she said, means being grateful for what they have, including being financially well off, even though neither she nor Dennis set out to make a lot of money.
"We can't be guilty because these are the gifts we have," Rader said. "We have been very good stewards and very generous in our charity, as we should be. That all comes back. I know that it comes back to us to give again and again."
"My husband is on the same page with me on this," Rader said. "That makes it so easy."
"LaVon is a real gift to the parish," Fr. Kasperek said. "She is committed to promoting a simple lifestyle. She has the ability to ask the tough questions, making sure that justice issues, women's issues and life issues are at the forefront of this parish."
This year, Rader plans to celebrate her 70th birthday in various ways, including going on a retreat, having friends write about how she is a blessing to them, seeing "The Lion King" musical and going on a weekend getaway with her two sisters. She also plans to write about what she's learned in each decade of her life.
Over the last 70 years, Rader said, she's learned that she can't save the world. Instead, she needs to do a little bit each day locally while financially supporting those who can bring about change in the larger world.
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