Discovering the Hidden Jewels of St. Ann Center

   We are so thankful for the many volunteers that we have here at St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care. Without their hard work and dedication, we would not be able to reach those in need of our love and care. Many of our volunteers travel out into the community to raise awareness and spread the reach of our programs and services. Others, like Sister Jeanne d'Arc Omilan, come into the Center to help with the myriad of activities and programs that we offer in-house.

   Sister Jeanne d’Arc has been volunteering for St. Ann for ­­­­14 years, and at 97 years of age, that is no small feat.  After retiring in 1991, she began her second career as a volunteer. She has been putting her time and effort towards helping organizations in the Milwaukee community extend the outreach of their missions and services.  Our center is one of the many recipients blessed by her touch. In addition to helping out with the Jewelry department here at St. Ann Center, she also volunteers with several other Sisters in a local jail outreach.

   In the Jewelry Department here at St. Ann Center, it is the careful eye and the keen attention to detail that she provides as donation intake specialist that allows valuable pieces of jewelry to not go unnoticed. And 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these donations go towards providing the much needed services to our clients who otherwise would not be able to afford them.  This includes baths, therapy, rehabilitation, and integrative counseling services.

   Without Sister Jeanne d’Arc’s faith and commitment to the mission of St. Ann Center, some of these hidden gems would go unnoticed. As she kindly says about St. Ann’s founder and President Sister Edna Lonergan, “She has the vision and we do the work.”

Recycling Ventures at St. Ann Center

I’m sure we all heard the terms “greening” or “go-green.” At St. Ann Center we are very conscious of what we as individuals can do to adopt and promote a healthy living and working environment. Since the beginning of our 25th anniversary year we have taken the initiative to promote a “greener” environment in our workplace. We started using environmentally safe cleaners, changed our light bulbs, removed Styrofoam from our café, and are trying diligently to recycle paper, cans and plastic. We’ve even started a wellness program for employees. We are a long way from being a truly “green” workplace, but we are headed in the right direction.

We belong to an organization called Green Nonprofits. As an organization we have dedicated ourselves to become more aware and to practice and promote a healthy environment. We have begun to adopt environmentally-friendly practices within our organization. Our next step now is to advocate environmentally-friendly practices to our community. We want to learn and take responsibility for the impact we individually make on the environment.

I love the story of the little girl who is walking on the beach with her father and she keeps bending down and throwing starfish back into the ocean. After watching her for quite some time her father finally says, “you know you can’t save all the starfish, it really doesn’t matter if you throw them back into the ocean or not.” And the little girl wisely responds, “well, it matters to this one!” and she throws the starfish back into the waves.

Recycling, in particular, may seem like a waste of our time, especially when we see so many people who do not recycle. Change can happen, even if its one person at a time.