What would you like to know about St. Joan of Arc? Do you have a story about our parish or of general interest that you think others would like to hear? For story ideas, contact Jeff Rholl, jeff@stjoan.com.

SJA's Maintenance Staff ...taking care of business

Maintenance at St. Joan's! Who's who? How do you find someone when you need them?

There is one approved, official way to contact a maintenance person; you visit the parish office and ask to have the person on duty paged. After office hours, you are on your own. Some of us dream of a future when we can contact a maintenance person by pressing in a code from any parish

Joe O'Brien

phone...but for the present...after getting some help from Darlene or Nancy, these are the people you may encounter when you need a hand:

Joe O'Brien is probably the most familiar face on Maintenance for most of us. He is a slender, strong-looking man with curly brown hair. Joe works nights and weekends. He has been our resident caretaker since he started working here in 1991. In the course of the interview, Joe expressed a very clear, personal appreciation of the generosity of mind and spirit which attracts so many of us to St. Joan's. He says that working here provides a respectful social environment, stability, and emotional support, as well as good health insurance and benefits. He feels that, for himself and

Kevin Weiser

for others on the staff, St. Joan's has been a place of refuge in a complex world.

Kevin Weiser works weekdays seven to three. He is tall and slender, a sandy-haired youthful-looking man of few words. He has lived in the neighborhood most of his life. Four years ago, when he came to St. Joan's, he assumed primary responsibility for the care of the buildings. He has worked carefully and diligently to create order and safety. This is most noticeable in places where few parishioners dare to venture, that is to say, in the bowels of the school building. Kevin has worked steadily in his spare hours to create clean and inviting working spaces in the basement of the school. When he arrived, these areas were full of dusty, mysterious, and downright dangerous odds and ends and cast-off supplies. Kevin is also known to be very handy. He does quite a bit of plumbing and electrical work for the parish, and will call an outside person when necessary. Despite ongoing back problems he is a consistently dependable and pleasant presence at St. Joan's.

PJ Eichten

Just last October, P.J. Eichten came to work as our third maintenance person. You will find him around the grounds most often on evenings and weekends. PJ is twenty-four years old. He is tall, with fair, curly hair, blue eyes and rosy cheeks. He sounds like his father, Peter, when he speaks. PJ became a full-time member of the staff in December. A committed and enthusiastic member of the parish, he first started coming to church here when Peter became Parish Administrator eleven years ago. PJ and his wife, Jennifer (Jen), met while majoring in Journalism at St. Thomas and St. Kate's, respectively. For the first years after graduating in 1998, PJ worked in television video production, first at KSAX in Alexandria, Minnesota and later with WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin. After college, Jen had moved back to California, but when PJ and Jen reunited, they started living and working together.

PJ and Jen both love the outdoors, and have spent several months out of the last couple of years as ski staff in Colorado. They also worked seasonally as outfitters in the Boundary Waters area. They married in the summer of 2000. Now PJ is working here while Jen studies law at William Mitchell College in St. Paul. They live in southwest Minneapolis, just northwest of Lake Calhoun. Both PJ and Jen lead Youth Education groups of 11th and 12th grade students here each Sunday. PJ looks forward to doing graduate work

Tom Johns

(when it's his turn to go back to school) and emerging as a full-time educator. He also envisions staying home with the babies, when they arrive, and having his summers off when he goes on to teach professionally.

Three part-time employees clean our facilities: Chris Lee, a senior at Southwest High who has a two-year old son. Also working part-time is Tom Johns, who lives in the neighborhood, and Rose Bebault, a professional house cleaner.

The maintenance office is located in the school building just east of the music room, in the south hallway leading into the gym. Its chief ornament is an enormous machine, which is used to change light bulbs. You must see this machine in operation to appreciate it. To appreciate Kevin more fully, you may wish to contemplate his careful and efficient maneuvering of this machine into and out of an elevator barely large enough to house - twice - every time a bulb burns out in the church.

Anne Garvey grew up Catholic in Appleton, Wisconsin and spend most of her adult life in the wilds of western New York State. She is the mother of two mature and interesting teens and is a confirmed dilettante. Anne discovered St. Joan of Arc one year ago this August. It succeeds the Rochester Zen Center as her favorite real live religious community.

Last September, the parish initiated a search for a new Director of Maintenance, The position was meant to institute a new level of technical and supervisory responsibility within the maintenance staff. This person would be responsible for maintaining the physical condition of the buildings, and would schedule and supervise the maintenance staff. A candidate was

Rick Spaulding is a photographer specializing in digital photography for the theater and works for National Camera Exchange. He is also an antique dealer and eBay afficianado who enjoys collecting marbles but his true joys in life are his two boys and his beautiful wife, Tinia.

selected from the pool of applicants, but he did not accept the position. The parish Administrator expects to renew the search for a Director of Maintenance within the next six to nine months.