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June 25, 2021, Chicago – The Adrian Dominican Congregation received two awards from the Catholic Media Association for a video and for its 2020-2021 Annual Report. 

The Catholic Media Association announced the awards on June 10, 2021, at the end of its virtual annual conference. Normally, during in-person conferences, the awards are announced at a closing awards banquet.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters received the following awards:

• “Hope for Haina,” a video produced as part of a series of Christmas fundraising videos, took Honorable Mention in the category of Best Freestanding Presentation of an Online Video: Social Justice Issues. The video explores the work and the benefits of a medical clinic, supported by the Adrian Dominican Sisters, that has offered healthcare and hope to roughly 15,000 children and adults living in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic. Recognized for this project were Ashley (LaVigne) Concord, Project Coordinator and Interviewer, and Scott Miller, Videographer and Editor. 

• “The Greatest of These Is Love,” the 2020-2021 Annual Report for the Adrian Dominican Congregation, took third place in the category of Best Annual Report for a Catholic Nonprofit Organization. “This report excels in its attention to specific, tangible outcomes from donor donations, as well as contextualizing profiles in terms of their financial need and reliance on donations,” the judges wrote. Among those recognized for the project were Angela Kessler, Editor; Amy Palmer, Director of Development; Barbara Kelley, OP, Writer; and Ashley Duke, Graphic Designer.

The video and annual report involved the team efforts of the Adrian Dominican Congregation’s Development and Communications Departments. Along with the staff members already mentioned, they include Sheila Wathen, Communications, and Laura Brosamer, Sister Kathleen Schanz, OP, Catherine Witt, and Jolene Witt, Development.

Feature photo: A video on Hope for Haina, a medical clinic that has served 15,000 adults and children in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic, received Honorable Mention from the Catholic Media Association. 

June 24, 2021, San Antonio, Texas – In what might seem a place of desperation – a coliseum filled with cots for teen-age boys who fled their native countries, unaccompanied, to begin a new life in the United States – Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, OP, found hope. In response to an invitation by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and Catholic Charities USA, Sister Mary Jane was one of several Sisters who traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to minister to immigrants newly released from detention and ready to be reunited with their families or sponsors in the United States. She reflects on her volunteer ministry to some of the 2,000 boys who were temporarily housed in the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio. Read the Global Sisters Report article, compiled by Dan Stockman. Scroll half-way down to read Sister Mary Jane’s reflection.