THE MORNING CALL

Friday December 25, 1998

A VOW TO CHARITY

NEWLYWEDS, `BLESSED TO HAVE EACH OTHER,' ASK GUESTS TO BRING GIFTS FOR NEEDY CHILDREN, NOT THEM.

by KATHLEEN PARRISH, The Morning Call

Barbara Jeneva knows what it's like to be a single mom. She knows what it's like to wake up Christmas morning and not have a tree or presents beneath it.

That's why, when she said, "I do," to Chuck Augello on Sunday in a simple ceremony before about 70 guests at First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, she wanted to remember her past as much as celebrate her future.

In lieu of wedding gifts, the couple asked their guests to bring a wrapped Christmas present for a needy child. Many will go to the children of single mothers the couple found through the church and the Allentown School District.

The gifts -- the guests at the ceremony brought more than 50 -- were distributed Wednesday so their parents could put them beneath the tree today.

"We're just really blessed to have each other," said Jeneva, 34, who cleans homes for a living. "We don't need anything."

The lights in the candelabra flickered softly in the small chapel as Augello stood in anticipation at the altar, his 14-year-old son, William, by his side.

A sudden rustling from the back signaled the approach of Jeneva, adorned in a white silk gown, her auburn hair crowned in baby's breath. Jeneva's daughters, 8 and 11, were bridesmaids, dressed in black velveteen gowns.

"This is a new day for both of you," the Rev. Gareth Icenogle said as the couple joined hands at the altar. In his homily, he alluded to their past troubles, but encouraged them to celebrate the dawn of a new day. "This is a new relationship, a new family."

Jeneva's walk down the aisle Sunday was the final stretch of a journey that began several years ago.

In 1992, Jeneva, a 1984 graduate of Whitehall High School, left an unhappy marriage, taking her two small daughters with her to the Albany, N.Y., area, where she joined her mother. It was a painful time, and Jeneva struggled to make ends meet.

One day, she walked into the vestibule of Canajoharie Methodist Church in Canajoharie, N.Y. The choir was practicing "Amazing Grace" and the soaring voices filled her heart. The pastor encouraged her to go on public assistance and get a college degree.

"It was the first time in my life someone told me I could do something," she said. "So I did."

After about two years of study at Fulton Montgomery Community College in Johnstown, N.Y., Jeneva attended the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she had won a scholarship. She studied printing. But she found it difficult to provide for her two daughters with the limited child support she was receiving while going to school.

"I felt I couldn't give them what they needed, which was a roof over their heads," she said. "I gave them (back to their father) because I loved them. I did what I thought was best."

Times got tougher, and Jeneva, faced with financial pressures and other problems related to the divorce, dropped out of college. She said she lived for awhile at the local YWCA, then out of her car for two months, relying on a local truck stop for use of its facilities.

Then one day, she decided she had had enough.

Jeneva returned to the Allentown area and moved in with a girlfriend. She got a job at Ebenezer's Old World Coffee House in Allentown, which has since closed.

Things were looking up. Then the coffeehouse got a new manager.

"Everyone was saying ... he's going to turn things around," she said. "I thought, `Well, he's not turning me around!'"

It was Augello.

But it wasn't love at first sight.

Jeneva recalls being displaced at the cash register by Augello because he didn't believe she was operating it correctly. Soon afterward, she quit and wrote a long letter to Augello's boss, complaining about his management style.

Two months later, their paths crossed again at Ebenezer's, when she went to visit friends. Augello was walking out the door, and for some reason, they greeted each other with a hug.

"It just felt so good," Jeneva said.

Augello, who was divorced, asked her to dinner, and the rest is history.

It was Augello who came up with the idea of asking guests to forgo wedding gifts and bring a wrapped Christmas present for a child instead.

The couple contacted Russell "Rooster" Valentini, the liaison for the homeless in the Allentown School District, for help in finding needy parents and children. Augello had heard him speak at a Rotary Club meeting about families in need at holiday time. A single mother also had contacted First Presbyterian Church for help in providing for her children at Christmas.

"We didn't want gifts to be the focus of our wedding, we just wanted to share it with everyone," said Augello, 40, a loan originator at ComNet Mortgage Services in Allentown. "We thought it would be a good opportunity to give back some of the blessings we've received."

Said Jeneva, "I thought it was the greatest idea I'd ever heard of in my life. I started to cry."

Wedding guest Joan Fredericks of Schnecksville was flabbergasted when she first got the couple's invitation.

"We're not talking about a couple who has a lot of money," said Fredericks, who followed their wishes, but also brought them a gift. "We're talking about a couple who could use the money themselves, but that's not what they're asking for. They're just so happy in their love for each other, that that's all that matters.

"God's going to bless them. He has to, that's all there is to it."

Jeneva said he already has.

"I've conquered every obstacle I could conquer to get to this point. God's really been there for me," she said. "I know there's a lot of people, especially children, who won't get a gift this year. It's important we share with them the joy of the season."

On Sunday, the back pew of the chapel was piled high with brightly wrapped gifts festooned with bows. "This is awesome," said the bride.

To make distribution easier, the guests marked the gifts, indicating the agelevel and gender most appropriate to receive them. Combined with other donations, Valentini made deliveries to 40-50 families Wednesday.

He had "giant goose bumps" when the Fountain Hill couple, who couldn't afford a honeymoon, first contacted him and told him of their planned request of their wedding guests.

Said Valentini, "This is the biggest unselfish act that there could be."

Foot Notes:

Date: Friday, December 25, 1998

Page: A01

Edition: FIRST

Section: NATIONAL

Column:

Corrections:

Memo:Only one edition was published on Friday, December 25, 1998 due to the Christmas holiday.

PHOTO by FRAN KITTEK, The Morning Call

CAPTION: Chuck Augello and Barbara Jeneva show some of the presents bought for children.