CTK teacher creates calendar for charity

Two years ago, Christ the King High School teacher Paul Franetti was supposed to take a trip to Jerusalem, but a last minute itinerary change led him to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands as well as a unique idea to help a noble cause.
Franetti has developed a 2009 calendar with his paintings from the Galapagos Islands and the money raised will benefit the Damien House - a residential hospital for more than 60 patients battling Hansen’s disease (more commonly known as leprosy) in Guayaquil, Ecuador - that he visited during the trip.
“The pilgrimage actually turned out not to be the one I wanted, but the one I needed,” said Franetti, who lives in Flushing and is an English professor at St. John’s University.
Before traveling to the Galapagos Islands, Franetti and his son Joe visited the Damien House facility where they met Sister Anne Credidio, who began helping these patients more than 25 years ago.
“I think she is a second Father Damien,” said Franetti, referring to the Catholic priest who helped lepers back in the 1890s. “When I was down there, people were talking about her and there was something different in their voice that was different from when they were talking about anyone else.”
Part of the year Credidio spends traveling around the world attempting to raise funds to continue to support the Damien House, which also helps care for more than 700 people on an outpatient basis.
“We can’t give people back their fingers and their toes, but we can give them their dignity and honor,” she said.
After he returned from his trip, Franetti originally planned to donate some of his Galapagos paintings to the Damien House so that patients who could never visit the island would have a chance to see some the beauty of its wildlife. However, soon afterwards, he and his son Joe took the idea to the next level.
“I said to my son, ‘why don’t you do drawings and I do paintings, and we’ll make a calendar,’” Franetti said.
During the next year, Franetti painted 13 images for the tops of the calendar, while his son submitted the drawings displayed at the bottom of the calendar.
Franetti plans to sell the calendar, which is available in English and Spanish, in both the United States and Ecuador with the collected revenue benefiting the Damien House. If the calendar is successful, Franetti already has plans in the works for a 2010 calendar.
“In all the years that I have been doing this work, I never had anyone step into my life and do something like this,” Credidio said.
Anyone interested in buying a calendar can contact Franetti at 718-939-8455. The calendar costs $14.99 and will be available on amazon.com shortly. Checks should be made out to the Damien House, and they are tax deductible.
For more information about the Damien House log onto www.thedamienhouse.org.