St. Maria Goretti parishioner singled out

Photo | COURTESY ROBERT Claverie
Robert Claverie, an usher at St. Maria Goretti and a Vietnam War veteran, was honored as a “Peoples Health Champion” during halftime of the Dec. 4 Saints game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Claverie, pictured above with his wife Ann, was recognized for his ongoing volunteer pursuits, which include taking soup, sandwiches and fruit to various homeless gathering spots in New Orleans and cleaning storm drains and vacant lots throughout the city. The Claveries, whose own Gentilly home flooded in Hurricane Katrina, fed first responders and others after the 2005 storm, gutted homes and made their home available as a job-coordination site for more than 3,000 post-Katrina volunteers. The energetic Claverie also established a fund to help struggling seniors pay their utility bills and planted a sprawling garden at his home in memory of Katrina’s victims.