Ozanam News 4th Quarter 2013 Ozanam News | Page 16

SVdP’s store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has been blessed with a beautiful mural, thanks to artist David Clemens and the St. Thomas Knights of Columbus 1363. (Left to right): Robert Valencia of the Knights of Columbus; Ev Burns of SVdP; David Clemens; Mike Anderson of the Knights of Columbus; and Gary Damiano of SVdP. The Tom Kobayashi Center: In Honor of an Extraordinary Vincentian in the Seattle-King County Area The building that houses the Georgetown Food Bank, Help Line Center, and Case Management Program at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Council of Seattle|King County (SVdP) was named the Tom Kobayashi Center earlier this year. Kobayashi has been volunteering with SVdP for more than seven decades. He is the longest-serving SVdP volunteer in the United States. “Mr. Kobayashi’s service to Seattle and King Communities is extraordinary. He is a role model for all of us, said Jim Gauntt,” President of the SVdP Council and its Board of Directors. joined as a Vincentian in 1936 when he was 20 years old. During World War II when Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps in the West, Kobayashi even started a SVdP group at his internment camp in Minidoka County in Idaho. In 2008, Kobayashi finally had to slow down and is now less active at the St. Matthew Parish SVdP Conference. He attends Seattle|King County Council quarterly meetings and has only missed one in the past four years. Tom is an extraordinary Vincentian indeed! Kobayashi was born on Sept. 4, 1916, into a poor family, the oldest of six children. “I knew what it was like to be poor,” Kobayashi said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter. “I was taught at an early age by Maryknoll sisters who instilled the idea of doing what is right to help the poor,” he said. In 1934, while attending the University of Washington, Kobayashi joined the St. Vincent de Paul conference associated with Our Lady of Martyrs, a Japanese parish. The pastor was Maryknoll Fr. Leopold Tibesar, who was fluent in Japanese and also served as the spiritual advisor to the St. Vincent de Paul conference. 16 Father Kevin Moran , Tom Kobayashi and St. Vincent de Paul Council President Jim Gauntt at the Tom Kobayashi Center. Kobayashi has served SVdP for 77 years, having End Poverty Through Systemic Change