By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald

Laid-off paper mill workers, families treated to brunch

PARK FALLS -- St. Anthony of Padua in Park Falls invited laid-off mill workers and their families to Sunday brunch on June 11. Parishioners and townspeople, children and grandparents came. In fact, there were really no names left off the guest list. They called it the "meal of hope."

The meal celebrated the determination of the small town to survive a real crisis: the loss of the area's largest employer, a paper mill, the industrial backbone of the area for more than 100 years.

The mill's last owners, SMART Papers LLC of Ohio, announced bankruptcy and closure of the Park Falls plant in March. More than 300 employees were suddenly without jobs and medical insurance for themselves and their families.

The trickle-down effect was immediately felt throughout the tight-knit area. Some mill workers scrambled to find jobs in other parts of Wisconsin or in other states, packed up their families and moved. Others are toughing it out, hoping new buyers will be found for the mill on the Flambeau River.

The community meal was funded by donations from a small anonymous group of people who heard about the mill closure and wanted to help.

"We didn't do this for any publicity," said one of the donors in a telephone interview with the Catholic Herald from her home in Florida. "A few of us thought we could do something on a small scale. We wanted to bring a little bit of joy to (the people affected by the mill closure). It's a way of reaching out."

The donors are not strangers to Price County.

"We have spent a lot of time in the area," she said. "It's a wonderful place. A wonderful community. We are so touched by the situation there. The magnitude of what has happened to the community is incredible. Everyone is affected."

It has been a tense time for the unemployed. In March, Governor Jim Doyle immediately sent the Department of Workforce Development to the scene to expedite unemployment claims. Doyle's office also announced that the DWD would ask the United States Department of Labor for Trade Adjustment Assistance to fund extended unemployment benefits for two years and money for education and retraining. But according to laid-off mill worker, 57-year-old Mike Mader, the TAA petition has been denied. A telephone call to the DWD confirmed this.

"Everybody's collecting some unemployment," Mader said. "Some have left for different communities. Some are driving truck over-the-road. The rest of us are looking for work in the area which is difficult. Park Falls is not exactly a booming metropolis."

Its population is less than 2,700 and Price County has only 15,000 residents.

"Some are just hoping that the mill will be purchased and reopened," he said.

But for a few hours on Sunday, people put aside their worries and came together at St. Anthony for some of Fr. Jim Jackson's egg bake and all kinds of breakfast eats. Church secretary Mary Zoesch figures more than 200 came. She had the plates counted out, but as more people came, more plates were added to the stack and no one bothered to count. They just talked and visited and sent a "big thank you" to the thoughtful folks who picked up the tab.

The Florida donors know a thing or two about crises. They were right in the thick of the hurricane recovery efforts last fall after Katrina tore apart the south.

"Everybody helped in whatever way they could," she said. "There are so many fabulous people in this world who come together when times are tough. During a tragedy, when people come together something beautiful always comes of it. God finds his way to come in the middle of it all."

One last note: The "meal of hope" coincided with the parish's celebration of its patron saint's feast day. Fittingly, St. Anthony of Padua has long been known as the saint to turn to when something has been lost.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006