Barbara and Nick Campagna practice with the choir at St. Timothy in Norwood, Nov. 21, 2024. Pilot photo/Wes Cipolla
NORWOOD -- In their 60 years of volunteering, Nicholas and Barbara Campagna have gotten involved in many philanthropic organizations. At their longtime parish, St. Timothy in Norwood, Nicholas served on the parish council, and his wife, Barbara, was on the liturgy committee. Barbara keeps track of donations to the parish Christian Service Fund, and she and Nicholas collect donations to the Norwood Food Pantry every week. Nicholas has walked in the food pantry's annual Walk for Hunger for 40 years, fundraising with the parish and even asking the priest to bless his feet the night before. He and Barbara have taught confirmation classes, served as ministers of Communion, visited nursing homes, and have been involved in music ministry for over four decades.
Once, however, when their ministry resulted in them being asked to join a nudist colony, they had to politely decline.
The Campagnas volunteered for years at the now-defunct Pondville State Hospital in Norfolk, visiting cancer patients.
"They'd like to have somebody just to sit with them and talk to," Nicholas told The Pilot in a Nov. 22 interview. "Some of them don't get any visitors at all. And we felt like we were actually helping them and letting them talk to someone."
One of the patients was a nudist who tried to convince the Campagnas to join his colony. He was unsuccessful.
"Sometimes the staff had trouble keeping clothes on him," Barbara told The Pilot.
For their decades of service, the Campagnas, both 81, were two of the 151 people who received Cheverus Awards in 2023. From 2008 to 2023, the archdiocesan awards have honored those who dedicated their lives to serving the church in Boston.
"Both Nick and Barbara have contributed an enormous amount of time and energy to a couple of projects at St. Timothy's," Pastoral Associate Colleen Campion, who nominated them for the award, told The Pilot on Oct. 10.
"They just seemed like the natural people to nominate because of the longevity of their dedication to the ministries that they help with," Campion added. "Just their presence is wonderful, too."
Nicholas did not know what the Cheverus Awards were when he found out that he and Barbara had won. After researching it, he was surprised that they had been chosen.
"There were a lot of other people that had done a lot of things in the parish, and I didn't understand," he said.
The Campagnas were unable to make it to the awards ceremony at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, so the parish held its own celebration for them. Being at the center of attention made Nicholas feel "a little embarrassed" but also proud.
"They did something special for us," Barbara added.
Barbara was born in Roslindale to a devout mother who made sure she and her siblings attended Mass regularly. In her youth, she was a Girl Scout Brownie. She was not allowed to join the Camp Fire Girls Bluebirds troop because it was affiliated with a Protestant church, but the Girl Scouts, sponsored by the Catholic Church, were acceptable. She graduated from St. Clare High School in Roslindale and studied math at Boston College.
"At Boston College, it kind of solidified my faith," she said.
Nicholas grew up in Dedham and received all his sacraments at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish. He attended Northeastern University to study civil engineering. Both Nicholas and Barbara joined Chi Rho, an organization for Catholic college students that held dances and beach parties. It was at one of these social events that Nicholas and Barbara met. Both were 20 years old.
"He paid attention to me," Barbara said. "He was interested in what I had to say, and he wanted to be with me."
They married in 1965 at St. Mary's in Dedham. Nicholas said that their ability to listen to each other is what has kept them together for so long.
"We got along good together," he said. "We have similar interests. We talked to each other."
The Campagnas used to give witness talks at Marriage Encounter weekends. The experience inspired them to be more active in their parish.
"That got us very involved in our faith and with the church," Barbara said.
After two years of graduate school at MIT, Nicholas got a job at a construction company in San Francisco. He and Barbara lived there for six years until they returned to Massachusetts to be close to their families. They moved to Norwood and joined St. Timothy Parish in 1973.
"We really enjoyed the parish," Nicholas said. "The people were very friendly and open."
To this day, the Campagnas appreciate how welcoming and accepting St. Timothy is to new parishioners. It is a vibrant parish with many young families, and Nicholas and Barbara enjoy getting to know their fellow parishioners over coffee and pastries after Mass. When their youngest daughter, Jennifer, was born prematurely, their friends in the parish stepped up to care for their older children while they visited Jennifer in the NICU daily. After spending the first two months of her life in the hospital, Jennifer survived and is now 47 years old with three children of her own.
"It's a nice community," Nicholas said. "We really feel a part of that community, and we like being in that community."
The Campagnas started singing at "folk Mass," liturgies with music in a then-contemporary acoustic style. Barbara played the guitar during folk Masses, which were celebrated in the lower church. When St. Timothy's got rid of the lower church, the Campagnas joined the choir in the upper church.
"And now my hands don't work so good on the guitar anymore, so I just kept singing, just to be part of the group," Barbara said. "It's a nice group. We enjoy the friendships."
As a minister of Communion, Barbara and her daughter brought Communion to a homebound man for three years. She realized that they were not only giving him the sacrament, but alleviating his loneliness.
"That was a very meaningful experience," she said. "It was very rewarding. He was very grateful to see us all the time."
The Campagnas have four children and seven grandchildren. In their spare time, they enjoy kayaking, hiking, spending time with the grandkids, and, of course, volunteering.
"It's kept us busy," Barbara said. "It's rewarding. I think it gives us a sense of belonging, a sense that we can do something, that we can contribute to the good of the parish."