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December 18, 2024, Winter Park, Florida – When members of the St. Margaret Mary Catholic School community built their Outdoor Learning Center to give children a natural setting in which to learn, they decided to dedicate the new center to two women who made a difference in the lives of many students and parents: Sister Rosemary Finnegan, OP, and her teaching partner, Mrs. Ana Boudet Forman. Lead donors were Ana’s two nephews and their wives – Missy and Kevin de la Roza and Jamie and Patrick de la Roza, whose children attended St. Margaret Mary School.
“I knew they were going to dedicate it to Ana and me,” Sister Rosemary said. “What I didn’t expect was that they had a plaque on the wall ... I was touched and so humbled. What a surprise!”
Ana explained that her nephews made the donation from money they had received from selling their business. “They have always felt blessed by their success and wanted to give back to their faith community,” she said. Asked what the school could use, Ana suggested an outdoor garden.
The November 21, 2024, dedication ceremony was organized by Principal Kathleen “Katie” Walsh, who invited parents and donors, organized hostesses, and provided food and beverages for the evening. Father Richard Walsh, Pastor, presided over the formal blessing of the new area, Sister Rosemary said.
“The space itself was an unused space behind the school,” Sister Rosemary explained. “When Ana and I taught, we used to take the kids out there and brought some cushions, just to get out of the classrooms and have a nature experience.”
Now, along the outside wall and the half-wall are round bistro tables and metal benches where children can sit or work in groups, Sister Rosemary said.
Along with the Outdoor Learning Center, the school dedicated a Rosary Path. The builders placed rosaries in the ground under glass-covered pavers, encouraging people to walk around and recite the rosary. Ten benches represent the 10 beads in each decade. The Rosary Path leads to the Reflection Garden.
Ana is especially gratified that the outdoor area includes a statue of St. Ann with her daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Someone had found the statue, and it was beaten up,” she said. The art teacher fixed it up, and it now enhances the outdoor area, she said.
Sister Rosemary, Director of Adult Faith Formation for St. Margaret Mary Parish, began teaching seventh-grade religion every day to offer some relief to Ana, the junior high school teacher. Ana was struggling to take care of her daughter who at the time suffered from frequent ear infections. “I was able to come in a little later,” Ana recalled, explaining that it gave her time to take care of her daughter.
The arrangement “was supposed to be temporary, but it ended up to be 23 years,” Sister Rosemary said. “One of the highlights of working at the school was being able to go over every day, leave my office at the parish, and go over to the school and just join in the energy of the children over there and get to know them personally, work with them, develop their faith, teach them about different traditions, help them learn and enrich their own Catholic faith, and hear their stories.” She delights in seeing her former students, now parents, send their children to St. Margaret Mary School.
Ana recalled the many projects that she and Sister Rosemary worked on together, including taking their students to a center for migrants so that they could help the migrants with their homework and giving the migrant children treats for Christmas. “We also created art projects that had to do with the themes we were teaching,” Ana said, noting that Sister Rosemary was “always on board” with her ideas. “I think we were a great team,” Ana said. “We complemented each other.”
Even years before the Outdoor Learning Center was built, Ana and Sister Rosemary frequently took their students outside – often to read from a religious magazine that featured articles on the Sunday Gospel and on the saints, Ana said. The students frequently recited the rosary outside, often asking if they could dedicate a decade for a challenge that their families were facing.
While she and Sister Rosemary frequently taught their students outside, Ana sees an advantage in the new Outdoor Learning Center. “I think it’s going to be a wonderful place for the whole school,” she said. “We have so many nice days [in Florida] that we can take advantage of the nice weather.”
Ana retired in 2018 and worked as a tutor for a few years. “Now I’m a full-time grandmother and giving my energy to my family.”
Sister Rosemary was on the staff of St. Margaret Mary Parish for 35 years and taught seventh-grade religion for 23 years. She retired from teaching in 2017 and from her formal ministry in the parish in 2022, but she remains active and committed to the parish.
Sister Rosemary’s parish ministry involved overseeing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, now the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, the process in which adults are brought into the Catholic Church, as well as Bible studies, various classes for adults, and anything involving faith formation for adults.
She also chaired the Peace Committee for the parish’s Haiti Ministry, in which St. Margaret Mary Parish journeys with a parish in Haiti, working with them on projects that “provide a self-sustaining impact.” Sister Rosemary estimates that she has visited Haiti 12 to 15 times to meet the people, experience liturgies, and see how they live. “It’s a humbling experience to see how humble they are and how committed they are,” she said. “They want the same things we do, and it’s painful now to see how they live under the circumstances of the gangs and the government.”
Sister Rosemary has been appreciative of her experience at St. Margaret Mary, both with the parish and the school. “We have very good leadership in our parish,” she said. “The principal is dynamic and always looking to better the school in any way. Our pastor, the priests, and the staff are all committed to making the parish what it should be, reaching out to others.”
Caption for above feature photo: Ana Boudet Forman, left, and Sister Rosemary Finnegan, OP, stand on either side of a plaque indicating that St. Margaret Mary School’s Outdoor Learning Center has been dedicated to them.
July 12, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Adrian Resilient Community Initiative – approved in 2022 by the 2016-2022 General Council – is making a difference in the lives of youth who live in Adrian’s Historic East Side.
The initiative, Growing up Resilient: The East Adrian Youth Resilience Collaborative, focuses on connecting participating youth and their families in East Adrian and the two Hispanic neighborhoods on the outskirts of Adrian with available community resources to expand literacy and family education and to connect the families with the resources they need.
The plan includes developing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs housed at the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee and creating an Adrian Dominican Sisters Youth Learning Center and computer lab, to be housed in Ebeid Learning Center of ProMedica. This healthcare system encompasses southeastern Michigan and northern Ohio.
Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and the general public heard more about the initiative and its progress during a Lunch and Learn program offered June 12, 2024, at Weber Retreat and Conference Center.
“Our intent was not to duplicate efforts but to work collaboratively with other groups” to meet the needs of youth in the marginalized Historic East Side of Adrian, said Jennifer Hunter, Chief Operating Officer for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, and Co-chair of the Adrian Resilient Community Initiative Committee with Sister Sharon Weber, OP.
The committee compared the population of the East Side with those of the rest of Lenawee County to determine the needs of the youth and families in that area and discovered several disparities. For example, 30% of East Adrian households are below the poverty line, compared to 11% in the rest of the community.
Their discovery “formed our committee’s vision: a collaborative initiative among community members to provide youth in East Adrian with an opportunity for age-appropriate education and assistance in overcoming barriers,” Jennifer said.
Cody Waters, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee, spoke of the various programs offered by the club. Programs offer children the opportunity to develop in the areas of character and leadership, health and sports, academics, art, and career development.
In particular, Cody spoke of the organization’s summer camps to offer children a safe place while they experience art and enrichment in reading and mathematics. In the club’s peer-to-peer program, he said, older students help younger students improve their reading skills.
Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee also relies on volunteers to help the children. “We want kids to enjoy what they’re doing and we want volunteers to enjoy it,” Cody said. “Relationship building is the key thing. Our team is trying to come up with different ways to get more mentors into the building.”
Frank Nagel, Director of Community Impact for ProMedica, spoke of the healthcare system’s practice of screening patients for social factors that put them at a high risk. “When we have a patient at high risk for food insecurity, we can see at a ZIP Code level how these factors are taking place,” he said. People in Adrian’s ZIP Code, 49221, were in the “top five” of geographic areas with the need for greater resources, he said.
ProMedica first established an Ebeid Neighborhood Promise in Toledo “to address the gaps people have in attaining the resources they need,” Frank said. With the power of collaboration in Adrian, he said, “we can make sure that people are empowered to make lifestyle changes” that would improve their lives.
Lynne Punnett, Manager of Community Resilience for the resilience initiative in Adrian, said the Ebeid Center in Adrian has, since September 2023, been offering programs in areas such as financial literacy, home ownership, and parenting.
This summer, the Ebeid Neighborhood Promise of Adrian is offering a six-week Literacy Pop-Up program in Adrian. For six mornings in June and July, children will be mentored as they focus on reading, writing, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Lynn said. Volunteer mentors include godparents, community members, and six Adrian Dominican Sisters.
Partnership with the Adrian Dominican Sisters has “catalyzed this work … and brought us to a whole new level,” Frank said. “The power of this collaboration and partnership has been a humbling experience. I look forward to seeing the progress that is made because of our partnerships.”
In late Spring, Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee publicly recognized the initiative by bestowing its Blue Door Award on the Adrian Dominican Sisters. “Through their generosity and steadfast support, the ‘Blue Door’ to our Club has been opened to so many local youth, and with the establishment of this new mentorship initiative, their impact on our Club and youth throughout the county will remain for decades and decades to come,” said Sara Herriman, Director of Development and Community Relations.
“It was wonderful to be honored by and to partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee, an organization that has served the youth of our community so well for many years now,” Sister Sharon said.
“We were honored to be notified that the Adrian Dominican Sisters were being awarded the Blue Door Award by Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee,” Jennifer said.
• Growing up Resilient is one of six initiatives developed by various regional groups of Adrian Dominican Sisters in response to the Congregation’s 2016 Resilient Communities Enactment. The other initiatives are:
• Developing Resiliency in the Community of San José, Preravia Province, Dominican Republic. This initiative supports the construction of a technical school to offer training to local residents in fields needed by the local community.
• Creating a More Resilient Immigration Community in McKinley Park (Illinois). The proposal is to establish a Comprehensive Adult Education Hub at Aquinas Literacy Center in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood to offer GED instruction and literacy programs in the areas of computers, finances, the environment, and civics.
• An investment to construct a second building at the Dominican School of Angeles City in the Mining barangay, Province of Pampanga, Philippines.
• Affordable Housing as a Platform for Education Equity and Community Resilience. In partnership with Mercy Housing Northwest (MHNW), the initiative calls for extra in-house academic programs and social opportunities for children and their families in affordable MHNW housing projects to help them succeed academically.
• The Empowering Resilient Women Initiative provides women in Flint, Michigan, who suffer from abuse with the resources they need to gain control of their lives, support for their families, and develop stronger communities.