The Rev. Jim Sobus saw skeptical faces when he handed out $10,000 at random to parishioners.
He gave 134 people envelopes containing $5 to $1,000 in cash, with the challenge to use the same zeal and ingenuity they exercise in secular affairs to make the seed money grow."They thought he was nuts," said Cathy DeFruscio, a parishioner at St. Michael's Church, the largest Roman Catholic church in the state.
Sobus was vindicated Sunday - six months later - as parishioners craned their necks in the packed church to see the total revealed near the altar table: $51,490.62 returned, all to assist the needy in the Ohio Valley.
"If I told you I didn't sleep last night, would you believe me?" Sobus joked during the service. "I never dreamed that the excitement would reach this level in the community."
The money was raised a little at a time, by a teenager selling sodas at school, a doctor going door-to-door with brooms on his day off, an 82-year-old man selling 340 pounds of Italian sausage, a businessman soliciting $5,000 from his co-workers.
Sobus figured the best he could hope for was $30,000. He was pleasantly surprised as the figure exceeded expectations and then inspired other churchgoers to donate another $10,900.
A soup kitchen and homeless shelter will get money, as will a volunteer group that provides medical assistance to the working poor and jobless, Sobus said.
The seed money was donated by an anonymous businessman.