One day, after receiving enough abuse at the hands of angry dollar store customers to last a lifetime, Michael Houy realized he wanted to do something different with his life.
He had recently graduated with a telecommunications degree from Youngstown State University and was producing commercials for the university through The Jambar, YSU’s student newspaper. Then COVID hit, and the commercials dried up. Houy was trying to find work while warding off the pandemic, picking up freelance jobs here and there and working on his art. But it wasn’t enough, and he took the dollar store job to make ends meet.
“[It] was a very humbling experience,” Houy said with a chuckle. “After graduating I think everyone expects to get into part of their major, but that just wasn’t it.”
He was there for less than a year before he started looking for other employment. He’d been volunteering at his church, Holy Family Parish in Poland, where he heard about an internship with Catholic Charities.
Houy got the internship and hit the ground running with Catholic Charities’ Voice of Hope fundraising dinner last year, helping to call parishioners and collect donations and assisting with the event on the day. He even built a balloon arch—for which Catholic Charities is enlisting him again this year.
Houy’s work with Catholic Charities was so beneficial that, before it was even over, Father John-Michael Lavelle, vicar of missionary discipleship, approached him with an offer to work on the Annual Diocesan Appeal as a fund development specialist.
Houy’s goal with the Appeal is to show parishioners the impact of their donations. He’ll be interviewing priests from across the diocese, so they can tell parishioners exactly how their generosity will benefit their Church communities.
But the Appeal isn’t his only project—Houy is now in charge of diocesan social media as well.
Houy’s true passion is for art and design, and he’s excited to bring his creativity to the diocese’s social media presence. His main objective is to use social media to convey compelling narratives and drive engagement, by creating interactive posts and producing more video content.
Too often, he says, Church organizations only use social media to communicate with their current followers, when they could be using it to reach new people.
“I want to focus more on the people here, and the people within the parishes as well … being informative as well as giving the diocese a face,” he said.
Visit www.doy.org for more information on the Annual Diocesan Appeal: One In Hope, One In Mission. Click here to follow diocesan social media.
