Sisters of Mercy Associates and friends from Michigan and Chicago joined Sisters Paulita Walters and Sharon Wedig at the Readiness Center in Benton Harbor, MI, for a day of service and fun. They came on July 21 to cut out everything from pumpkins to Christmas trees. They stapled Mexican sombreros and fish and flowers.
The seasonal projects provide Sister Paulita materials to offer lots of exciting “small-motor-skills fun” (pasting and coloring) for her 50 to 60 preschoolers throughout the school year. The Readiness Center, founded by Sister Paulita in 1980, is a pre-school program for children from the inner city of Benton Harbor. The center also provides an afterschool program called “City Kids” to give first through seventh graders a place to do their homework, use computers, and help each other out in a safe environment.
More about the Readiness Center here: http://www.readinesscenterinc.org/
More good news came in July.
The center received a $40,000 donation from the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, courtesy of supermodel and former center volunteer Kate Upton.
Sister Paulita Walters, director of the center, said Upton worked for the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund during its annual charity drive last Sept. 11. Upton named the Readiness Center as the recipient for her efforts, Walters said.
"It was a wonderful surprise," Walters said in a phone interview with The Herald-Palladium Thursday. "They distribute funds throughout the year, and we just received the funds. And it's very unusual. They usually do the New York area and national, but Kate named us, so they let us do it."
Staff at Mercy Medical Center and the Mercy Medical Center Foundation in Cedar Rapids held a reception on Sept. 18, for Sister James Marie Donahue in honor of her 80th birthday.