Lorraine Wroblesky is a familiar face to all of you! She knows this place inside and out, literally, having cleaned almost every crevice of the church and rectory. Moving to Lake Geneva in 1982, Lorraine and her husband Ray first got involved counting contributions after all of the Masses on Sundays. Later she became a sacristan. Back in those days, people were paid a nickel for each garment that was cleaned and pressed. Lorraine saved up all of her change in a jar, and at the end of the year used her coins to buy a raffle ticket for a SFDS fund raiser. She was very surprised when the pastor called her later that day to tell her she had won the car! It was a van that they logged for 165,000 miles, and took them on adventures to 28 states!
A few years later Fr. Dave Braun came on the scene. A job position opened up to help Fr. Dave (and later Fr. Scott, Fr. Dave Meinel, Fr. Julio, and Fr. Terry) by cleaning the rectory, doing laundry, running errands,and cooking meals. Lorraine was hired. Not only did she cook special meals for Fr. Dave’s honored guests (he loved lobster!), but she was a sounding board for his many ideas and projects. He was committed to building the Parish Center and was met with a lot of opposition and building headaches along the way. She also helped out with Hospitality Sunday, which was started by Fr. Dave. Lorraine and the “2 M’s”, Mary Minehan and Mary Hogan, were instrumental in getting that going under Fr. Dave’s direction. Fr. Dave struggled with finding a good music director, and after a few failed attempts was so happy when he “discovered” and hired Teresa Kiefer. Lorraine remembers the day that Teresa came to the rectory office for her interview “like it was yesterday”. She and Teresa (now an SFDS teacher) became good friends, and to this day Lorraine and her husband Ray have attended every single one of Teresa’s swing choir concerts.
Lorraine loves music and sang in the church choir as well as the community group Sweet Adelines for many years. She recently retired from being an usher at 10:30 Mass. As a sacristan she cleaned the church, altar cloths, and garments. She can always be counted on to bring a dish for a funeral or hospitality Sunday. She is a member of the Hilltoppers group, and can often be seen at many of the SFDS social events…usually helping out in some way! She has stuffed bulletins, stamped for mailings,helped in the office, and watered the flowers. Her humbleness, love for St. Francis de Sales, and love for God have been her trademarks.
The most recent volunteer job that Lorraine had taken on is one that you might not even realize exists as it’s one of those things that we all take for granted. She refreshed and refilled the holy water fonts at all of the church entrances every week, making sure that they were ready for the weekend.
On looking back, Lorraine says that she is most grateful for the friendships she has made over the years at St. Francis de Sales. When asked what drives her need to serve, she said, “When you see something that needs to be done, you just do it.” Thank you, Lorraine, for your many years of sharing your time and talent, and for getting it done!