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February 8, 2016, Chicago – As a tribute to their long-time heritage of education, the Adrian Dominican Sisters have been named Educators of the Year by the McKinley Park Civic Association. The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 13, 2016, at Polonia Banquets, 4604 S. Archer, Chicago. Doors will open at noon, and the dinner will begin at 1:00 p.m.

Tickets for the banquet sell for $23 per person, with checks made payable to McKinley Park Civic Association. For information or to reserve your place, contact Alison Altmeyer at 773-927-0512 or [email protected].

Ms. Altmeyer, Executive Director of Aquinas Literacy Center in Chicago, nominated the Adrian Dominican Sisters for the award in recognition of their role as founder of the literacy center 20 years ago. Sister Claudia Hinds and Sister Rosemary Brennan began Aquinas in 1996 in the basement of Our Lady of Good Counsel Convent. 

The center was “a response to the need for English-language literacy instruction in the McKinley Park community,” she wrote in her nomination. “By recognizing the Adrian Dominican Sisters with the MPCA Outstanding Educator Award, we hope to celebrate our founders and sponsors, and to express our gratitude for twenty years of service to our community here in McKinley Park.”

“We would like to recognize all of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, from the Sisters who founded the Aquinas Literacy Center to the Sisters who pray for the continued success of the Center to the Sisters who serve as volunteers,” Ms. Altmeyer wrote. Some 11 Sisters serve as greeters and hospitality volunteers, office assistants, ESL tutors, members of the Board of Directors, and mentors to the staff members.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters sponsor six other literacy centers in addition to Aquinas: DePorres Place in West Palm Beach, Florida; Adrian Rea in Adrian, Michigan; N.E.W. Life Center in Flint, Michigan; and Dominican, Siena, and All Saints Literacy Centers in Detroit.