What's Happening

October 4, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – The Permaculture site on the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse Campus includes numerous wonders – sunflowers, an edible food forest, rain gardens to prevent storm run-off and erosion, and even bins of worms involved in composting. But a new addition – an outdoor sink – could lead onlookers to wonder, “What is this doing here?”

Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, Director of the Office of Sustainability, and Jared Aslakson, Permaculture Specialist, explained the practical use of the sink: to provide water to clean produce from the Permaculture site before it’s used in the Motherhouse kitchens. 

“It was a way to streamline the process,” Jared explained. “We would deliver huge amounts of potatoes to the kitchen,” leaving it up to the kitchen staff to wash them. But that was too much for the kitchen staff to handle on top of their other duties, he said. Permaculture harvests typically include more than 200 pounds of potatoes, 250 pounds of apples, and a variety of other crops.

Sister Corinne Sanders, OP, Director of the Office of Sustainability, washes potatoes from the Permaculture site the old way – in a bucket.

Jared, Sister Corinne, and other Permaculture Co-workers began to wash the produce in a bucket of water. “It worked but it was cold and got dirty – and you had to crouch at a weird angle,” Jared explained. Afterward, they washed the produce in the Madden Hall kitchen. 

Providentially, Joel Henricks, Director of Facilities and Grounds, was replacing the water main of the Motherhouse and had considered adding a spigot to the Permaculture site. “They were doing this once-in-a-lifetime work,” Jared said. “It was now or never to put the spigot in Permaculture.” 

The sink – designed and built by Jeff Mackey, of the Facilities and Grounds Department – incorporates the water spigot and includes protection from the elements, storage space for rags, and shelves for the produce. The water comes from the City of Adrian and is potable – safe to drink and to wash produce. 

By contrast, the plants in the Permaculture site are irrigated by rainwater catchment – allowing the Motherhouse to re-use water that comes to Earth naturally, Sister Corinne said. 

Jared said it took Jeff about a month to complete the sink – in between the many other projects in which Facilities and Grounds Co-workers are involved. But his work drew attention from many other Co-workers who saw the project and even tried to place orders for their own outdoor sinks. 

The sink will come in handy this semester as honor students from neighboring Siena Heights University come on Friday mornings to learn about Permaculture and the environment and to provide hands-on service. At the end of September, the students were involved in a potato harvest – requiring extensive use of the new sink. 

Sister Corinne said another positive aspect of the sink is that it could involve some creative gatherings – perhaps tea-tasting or soup making. “How it ends up getting used will unfold as it does,” Jared added.

If you have any creative ideas of how the kitchen sink could be used for gatherings, please include them in the comment section below. 

 

Feature photo: Jared Aslakson, Permaculture Specialist, washes potatoes in a new sink created by Jeff Mackey, of the Facilities and Grounds team, to provide a convenient place to wash produce from the Permaculture site with potable water.

September 20, 2022, Washington, D.C. – Adrian Dominican Sister Donna Markham, OP, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, was one of the nation’s faith leaders invited to attend President Joe Biden’s United We Stand Summit, held at the White House on September 15, 2022.

The United We Stand Summit: Taking Action to Prevent and Address Hate-Motivated Violence and Foster Unity drew bipartisan and non-partisan federal, state, local, and tribal officials; civil rights groups; faith leaders; business leaders; and law enforcement officials. Also among the 200 people invited to the summit were Sister Mary Haddad, RSM, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA).  

“This was a full-day summit with the President, Vice President, and several members of the cabinet,” as well as survivors of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the Tree of Life Synagogue Assault, and domestic terrorist attacks in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Florida, Texas, and Virginia, Sister Donna said. The survivors shared their stories of loss and healing.

The Summit “put forward a shared vision for a more united America, demonstrating that the vast majority of Americans agree that there is no place for hate-fueled violence in our country,” according to a White House fact sheet. The White House also recognized 16 “uniters,” including Valarie Kaur, a civil rights and faith leader who served as keynote speaker for the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2022 General Chapter.

Sister Donna noted her special role in the summit as a faith leader. “At the opening, as a faith leader, I was invited to be part of a kind of ‘prayer circle’ around the victims who were speakers and to hold all of those who have been killed in prayer,” she said. 

“The day was packed – and intense,” Sister Donna recalled. She especially noted a bipartisan panel of mayors who discussed their efforts to promote unity in their city and the invitation to attend lunch in the State Dining Room. “It was a powerful day,” she said. “I was honored to be invited.” 

Catholic Charities USA is the national office for diocesan agencies throughout the United States. Its mission is “to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire church and other people of good will to do the same.” 

Catholic Charities agencies serve all people in need in such areas as food and nutrition, affordable housing, social enterprise initiatives, advocacy and social policy initiatives, immigration and refugee services, disaster relief, and leadership development and Catholic identity. Sister Donna is the first female President and CEO in CCUSA’s more than 110 years of history.