SOAR! is pleased to announce that Sister Joan Donovan has been named as honoree for our 2013 Washington, D.C. Award Dinner benefiting the aged and infirm religious to be held on Friday, November 1, 2013.

SOAR! is pleased to announce that Sister Patricia Codey, SC, the President of Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey, has been named as honoree for our 2013 New York Award Dinner benefiting the aged and infirm religious to be held Wednesday, October 2, 2013.

In 1876 she arrived in San Francisco with four teaching sisters and two novices and asked the archbishop for permission to start her own order.  The archbishop refused, so, in the wee hours of July 14, 1877, Mother Dolores slipped out of the convent, leaving a note for the other nuns that she was taking an early train, the Lightening Express back to Kentucky.

The other sisters found the note, raced to the station and boarded the train with Mother Dolores.  They made it as far as Reno, Nevada, where they all left the train because one sister had become ill.  Mother Dolores sought out the local bishop.  Would he support her new order of sisters?  He was interested, but first he wrote the archbishop of San Francisco, for Canon Law required his permission.  “I shall give her to you as a present,” was the most gracious response from the archbishop.

Mother Dolores was nobody’s present.  According to a manuscript in the Dominican archives, she was “continually in trouble with the priests and the bishop.”  The winner was Reno, which gained a new school, Mount Saint Mary’s Academy, and a hospital, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, which is still operating today.

excerpt from
Sisters:  Catholic Nuns and the Making of America—John J. Fialka.
St. Martin’s Press. New York, NY. 2003

Those who wish to read more about these incredible women and their gift of service to the church and the world can do so in John’s book, which you can order from Amazon.com or receive directly from SOAR! for a donation of $50. This donation will support retired religious sisters and brothers through the work of SOAR! To receive the book for your donation, please contact Danielle Bell directly by email or by phone at 202.529.7627.

May 2013

In 1883 after a funnel-shaped cloud touched down and devastated Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. W. W. Mayo took charge of the thirty-four injured victims, arranging them in makeshift cubicles on the polished floor of Rommel’s Dance Hall. He rounded up some volunteers to help nurse them, but they tended to come and go. That was a problem until Dr. Mayo hit on the idea of a more stable source of free help: Nuns!

So he went to the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis and said in his characteristically shy Minnesota way: “There ought to be a sister down there to look after those fellows.” Mother Alfred took over the nursing functions. When the crisis had passed, she took the good doctor aside and confided something to him. She had this dream about how the two of them might build a hospital in Rochester.

As Dr. Mayo recalled the discussion, he was flabbergasted. How in the world could he, an elderly doctor, do that? Mother Alfred pointed out that he had two sons. They could become surgeons. Dr. Mayo fell back to another defensive position. How could they hope to build a great hospital in Rochester, questioned the doctor. Even if her dream were accomplished, he argued, “How would the world know if we did?” “With faith and hope and energy it will succeed,” said the nun.

excerpt from
Sisters:  Catholic Nuns and the Making of America—John J. Fialka.
St. Martin’s Press. New York, NY. 2003

Those who wish to read more about these incredible women and their gift of service to the church and the world can do so in John’s book, which you can order from Amazon.com or receive directly from SOAR! for a donation of $50. This donation will support retired religious sisters and brothers through the work of SOAR! To receive the book for your donation, please contact Danielle Bell directly by email or by phone at 202.529.7627.

March 2013

We at SOAR! honor Father Victor Yanitelli, SJ, a dedicated member of the New York Committee from 1989 until his death in 1993. The award that bears Father Vic’s name is presented annually at our New York Award Dinner to a senior religious in acknowledgement of his/her creative service in addressing the needs of others.

This year, we once again ask for your advice and recommendation for potential candidates. The honoree will be selected on the basis of length of service in religious life, financial need of his/her religious congregation (a $2,000 award is granted to the honoree’s order) and most significantly, a reflection of those qualities which made Father Vic so outstanding:

“He would never let us forget that our salvation is linked with our meeting the needs of others. He made God’s presence and love for each of us very real and believable. He brought out the best in us.  At the center of his warmth and generous heart was his manifest care and concern for each individual person.”

If you would wish to nominate a religious sister, brother or order priest for consideration for the Yanitelli Award, please complete the nomination form and return no later than March 22, 2013.

Thank you in advance for your assistance. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Sister Kate Clancy by phone at 202-529-7627 or  by email.

Our 2013 honoree will be Sister Patricia Codey, S.C., the President of Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey. More details forthcoming.

Download our “Save the Date” invitation.

Download the Sponsorship Form for our New York Award Dinner.

Our 2013 honoree will be Sister Joan Donovan, O.P. More details forthcoming.

For further information, please contact Sr. Kate Clancy by e-mail or phone at 202.529.7627.

Download our “Save the Date” invitation.

If you have questions about SOAR!’s grant program please contact Deborah Hudson Vornbrock at 202.529.7627 or by email at dvornbrock@soar-usa.org.

Thank you!

Grant FAQs

Please click here for a grant application.

Sister Peg spent three days and four nights stuck in a broken elevator in her convent.

For four nights and three days, 85 year-old Sister Margaret (Peg) Geary was trapped inside a broken-down elevator.

It happened on a Friday night, after Sister Peg’s fellow sisters and the office staff had left for a long weekend. Sister Peg had gone downstairs to the kitchen looking for a snack before bed. She usually took the stairs, but with a glass of water and a few celery sticks occupying her hands, she decided to take the 66-year-old elevator instead. When she felt the awful thud, Sister Peg immediately thought: “This can’t happen!” But the truth is, it can – and it did. Like many of our aging religious, Sister Peg was living in an old building in need of improvements just to keep it safe, if not comfortable.

Each month, SOAR! receives stacks of requests from religious communities who desperately need help making their old convents safe and accessible for our elderly by retrofitting staircases and bathrooms or installing ramps and wander management systems. Many of our older sisters are frail, infirm or have extensive medical needs. Still, their congregations want to keep them home, together with their fellow sisters and out of public nursing homes.

Of course, don’t let Sister Peg hear you call her ordeal anything other than a gift – because this good sister was never alone in that tiny cramped space. And even though her cell phone didn’t work, a phone wasn’t necessary for this “call.” Instead, Sister Peg pulled out her rosary beads and began to pray. And prayer is what sustained Sister Peg until she was finally rescued. “God’s presence was my strength and my joy – really,” she says.

Here are some favorite prayers contributed by the very sisters whose lifelong service and sacrifices you honor when you donate to SOAR!. You will find our elderly sisters’ favorite prayers, the same ones they’ve lovingly recited throughout their years. It makes them so happy to share these devotions with you – they hope that you, too, will enjoy prayer’s divine healing power, just as Sister Peg did during her ordeal.

After being rescued, Sister Peg was taken to the hospital, where she only needed to be treated for slight dehydration. Soon, she was back to work, ministering to the young teenage women she continues to serve.

The Sisters moved out of the convent with the old and broken elevator. Not long after the move Sister Peg had knee surgery. Though her new home has only one floor, the bathroom was not handicap accessible.

Yet, because the generosity of SOAR! donors Sister Peg has her bathroom! And so many others like her are kept protected and safe from harm in their twilight years.

Please consider a donation to SOAR! so that we can continue this important work.

Click here to read about Sister Peg’s story in the Catholic Review.

Here is a video of CNN’s coverage of Sister Peg’s story: