During his lifetime Hoene was first an advocate of providing for the poor in Appalachia. Later he concentrated on assisting people in Kentucky through an organization called Helping Hands Helping Others of Leslie County.
Hoene's enthusiasm was contagious, says Christy Repking, Hoene's sister and a member of St. Isidore Parish, Dieterich. Years ago Hoene enlisted the assistance of family members, who in turn asked others to join in.
This Christmas — as in many holiday seasons past — Repking and some of her family members delivered household items, toys and candy to Kentucky, prior to the Christmas giving season. The items aren't all new, but they are in good shape and are useful, she says.
Years ago Repking, a former PSR teacher and DRE at St. Isidore, began asking children to bring in candy for the low-income children in Kentucky. Although she is no longer involved with the week-to-week PSR sessions, Repking still coordinates the candy collection for the children who attend Wednesday PSR at St. Joseph Church in Island Grove and at St. Aloysius Church in Bishop Creek.
"We have them bring in candy over a three-week period. It can be any kind of individually wrapped candy," she says. "We have a contest. If you bring in candy you get your name put in a drawing. Then we draw names and the kids who get their names drawn win a prize." This year the PSR children collected over 300 pounds of sweets.
"We are mostly helping the people in Hyden (the county seat of Leslie County), which is a mining area, where people are losing their jobs right and left," Repking says. "A lot of the people live in trailers and if they have a fire they lose everything. These are proud people, who wouldn't necessarily ask for anything. This is a good organization that tries to give the items to the people who really need help."
Assisting the Kentuckians has become a family tradition, thanks to Hoene's initial interest in the project, Repking says, adding that other adults outside the family have also begun to help. "One of my nephews, Tony's son, has been good about kind of taking over for him. Now we go down there (to Kentucky) with family members and deliver all the items and the candy.
"It was Tony that started all this, but we've kept doing it," Repking says. "We've kept things going in his memory."