{"id":66557,"date":"2025-12-21T05:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/66557\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T05:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T05:17:21","slug":"the-legacy-of-st-anna-gives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/66557\/","title":{"rendered":"The legacy of ‘St. Anna’ gives on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born the youngest of 13 siblings in War, West Virginia, Anna Young devoted her adult life to promoting peace and redemption for prisoners of painful pasts.<\/p>\n

Young\u2019s personal struggles and empathetic, open-minded approach earned her acceptance and authority with inmates over more than 30 years as a volunteer at Lackawanna County Prison. Wardens and corrections officers hailed her as \u201cSt. Anna,\u201d a nickname she tolerated but never embraced.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll glory to God,\u201d she often said in a warm Southern drawl that softened the hardest hearts and soothed the saddest souls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing the Lord\u2019s work,\u201d she said. \u201cIf God has work for you, guess what? You\u2019re gonna do it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Young\u2019s work included Christmas gift bags, cookies and cards for those behind bars and guidance and support for parolees reentering society and reinventing themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Anna\u201d died in 2022. She was 92 and changed countless lives, freeing legions of prisoners from the personal shame and public stigma stamped on their souls and futures at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Determined to honor her ministry and keep her legacy alive, the Scranton Area Ministerium organized the \u201cAnna Young Project.\u201d The ministerium is a multifaith association of faith leaders and social service agencies devoted to promoting dignity and providing opportunities for vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a religious thing,\u201d said the Rev. Tyler Parry, priest-in-charge at St. Luke\u2019s Episcopal Church in Scranton and St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church in Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a human-to-human gift to the community, just a gift out of human love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Parry is also president and CEO of Cypress House, a post-prison reentry program to teach former inmates life skills like managing their finances while also paying a living wage. A Cleveland native, Parry, 43, took on his multiple roles in March. He resembles a young Santa Claus, sporting wire-rimmed glasses, a bushy red beard and a mustache with coiffed curls on the tips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got that when I was in prison,\u201d Parry said with a grin. He was never an inmate, but served as a prison chaplain at SCI Waymart and other facilities. An inmate barber styled Parry\u2019s mustache. He stuck with it as a reminder of the importance of seeding hope in the hopeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the hardest things as a chaplain in the state prison system is that the moment (inmates) leave, they\u2019re gone,\u201d Parry said. \u201cYou can\u2019t have any communication. No contact. It\u2019s a very strictly enforced regulation, for lots of good reasons, but you\u2019re like, \u2018Man, I hope they found the people who can help them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the talk you give them. \u2018Find the people who are good for you and connect with them.\u2019 And you just hope they do. What we\u2019re doing is shifting perspectives. We\u2019re asking, \u2018Can we start to build connections even while they\u2019re (inmates), even if it\u2019s just to say, \u2018We\u2019re here if you need us.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Parry never met Anna Young, but said he knows her through her life\u2019s work. Phil Yevics and JoAnne Mayer worked with Young and said they are blessed to help keep her legacy alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had an unwavering optimism about everything,\u201d said Yevics, a retired University of Scranton professor and a member of many charitable boards, including Cypress House.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had just this unshakable belief that everyone deserved a genuine second chance. And her dedication was just so extraordinary. \u2026 On numerous occasions, she opened her home to women struggling to find stable housing after release, providing a safe place to transition and rebuild their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayer, a certified recovery specialist, said Young\u2019s openness about her own hard times was the key to earning the trust and affection of inmates. Young\u2019s first marriage brought her to Scranton. Another divorce and years of pain and struggle as a single mother of three led her to earn a degree in human services from the University of Scranton. A lifelong Southern Baptist, \u201cSt. Anna\u2019s\u201d path to prison ministry wound through a Jesuit school.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe offered herself so selflessly,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cShe gave endlessly, without a trace of judgment, and kindled an unquenchable fire of hope within the women. \u2026 She drove them to overcome their adversity, to believe in the impossible and embrace a transformative journey of redemption and personal growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Anna Young Project will deliver 1,000 gift bags to inmates at the county prison in January, due to security processes and out of respect for the multiple faiths represented in the population. Father Parry explained that non-Christians might not readily accept a gift specific to Christmas. The delay also leaves more time for donations.<\/p>\n

The bags will include the standards Young established: shampoo, deodorant, soap, pens, pencils, writing paper, envelopes, toothpaste and socks. The simple gifts will be delivered by Scranton Area Ministerium volunteers, but Mayer said they are from Anna.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a living legend in her community,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cHer legacy of love and relentless kindness will endure for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to donate<\/p>\n

Scranton Area Community Foundation<\/p>\n

612 Jefferson Ave.<\/p>\n

Scranton, PA 18510<\/p>\n

Add \u201cThe Anna Young Project\u201d to the memo line.<\/p>\n

\"AnnaAnna Young (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
\n\"AnnaAnna Young leads a prayer service for women inmates at Lackawanna County Prison in 2020. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)
\n\"AnnaAnna Young leads a prayer service for women inmates at Lackawanna County Prison in 2020. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born the youngest of 13 siblings in War, West Virginia, Anna Young devoted her adult life to promoting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,1559,1560,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-66557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-opinion","12":"tag-opinion-columnists","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}