PRESS RELEASE
Release date: November 25, 2024
By Mary Ann Horstmann and Donald Winston
The HOSPITALITY HOUSE in Chester, IL, providing trustworthy overnight lodging for families traveling to visit their incarcerated loved ones at Menard prison and Chester Mental Health facilities since 1986 is tying up loose ends after officially closing its doors on November 1, 2024. “This brings an end to what was once a widely needed hospitality ministry to prisoner families and friends,” said the HH Board Secretary/Treasurer, Mary Ann Horstmann.
Since its founding in July 1986, Hospitality House has offered overnight lodging and a welcoming environment for those visiting their loved ones in the area’s correctional facilities. Throughout its years of operation, the facility has been a temporary sanctuary for 31,344 guests, offering respite during often difficult and emotional visits to loved ones in prison or mental health care.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of the Hospitality House, but we take comfort in knowing we’ve provided a vital service to thousands of individuals and families over the years,” said Mark Horstmann, President of the Board of Directors of the Hospitality House. “While the physical doors may be closing, the legacy of care and community we’ve built here will be felt for many years to come.”
Located on a hillside overlooking the Mississippi river, not far from what will now be the old Chester bridge, the Hospitality House used to be just an old, large Victorian house, until it wasn’t. “People were sleeping in their cars,” said Gene Funk, a former Catholic deacon, whose personal efforts to convert that old, large house into something resembling a bed and breakfast were unequaled, except by the sheer number of other volunteers, too lengthy a list to name them, who poured unnumbered hours of sweat and prayer. In all, it took all of them eighteen months to complete the conversion.
The people sleeping in their cars were single women, with and without children or other family members, who were doing their best to love everyone in their families, by spending as little as possible on themselves. The volunteers too were visiting prisoners at Menard too, but inside its chapel, conducting the Residents Encounter Christ ministry, which is an adaptation of the Teens Encounter Christ program that has been a long-running successful youth ministry in the Catholic Church.
Father Leo Hayes, the Catholic pastor at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Ava, St. Ann’s in Raddle, and St. Joseph’s in Willisville, IL, was driving to Menard Correctional Center three times a week in 1983 serving as the Catholic Chaplain. He served in that role for 25 years, and was the willing conduit between the prison and REC volunteers. Along with Colette Kennett, CYO Director for the Belleville diocese, Deacons Tom Wagnitz of Murphysboro, IL., and Gene Funk of Elkville, IL., Fr. Hayes recognized the power of the Holy Spirit in the REC retreats and fellowship programs and successfully maintained the Menard REC program for 15 years.
Father Hayes and Mary Ann Horstmann, still serving on the Hospitality House Board, carried on their efforts as servants in a 38-year hospitality ministry until times had progressed to the point where there was practically no further need. They gathered with the other Hospitality House board members in Campbell Hill, IL., on November 24, 2024, saying their bittersweet farewells and finding closure for the REC volunteers as they say goodbye to two successful Christian ministries.