House of Mercy
Transcription
House of Mercy
HOUSE OF MERCY Spring 2016 News Providing a Home and 24-hour Care for Persons Living with AIDS o f Co m ars e Y pa C ar 91 2016 onate • ssi 25 19 e House of Mercy A Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy Providing a Home and Care for Persons Living with AIDS Celebrate Our 25th Anniversary at our 2016 Walk for AIDS On Saturday April 9th, we invite you to our 25th Anniversary Walk for AIDS. The Sisters of Mercy opened House of Mercy in 1991 in response to the growing HIV/AIDS crisis which had reached epidemic proportions. In 2016, we celebrate the love and compassionate care shared at House of Mercy for 25 years. Funds Raised at our Walk Will Help Our Low-income Residents Living with AIDS Rockwell AME Zion Church was one of many teams who participated in our 2015 Walk for AIDS Will you help us? Invite your friends, family and co-workers for the 3-mile walk through historic downtown Belmont that begins on the Sisters of Mercy campus. Raise funds in support of your walk. We challenge individuals to raise $50 or Step up on April 9th to Fight AIDS! Coming to our Walk for AIDS? Email: [email protected] We’ll post your team name, captain and goal at www.thehouseofmercy.org INSIDE: House of Mercy Sponsors........2 House of Mercy Notes..............4 Residence Wish List.................4 www.facebook.com/ HouseofMercyNC more towards our $39,000 goal. Walk for AIDS T-shirts will be given to the first 300 walkers meeting our $50 challenge! Afterwards, join the picnic reception on the House of Mercy grounds. Check-in begins at 9:30 am. Music will be provided Continued on page 2 Twenty-five Years of Mercy & Hope In 1988, a Sister of Mercy from Guam (an organized territory of the U.S. in the northwest Pacific) stood at a Sisters of Mercy chapter meeting and asked, “What are we going to do about the AIDS crisis!?” The Sisters decided to create a home to care for persons living with AIDS. It was named House of Mercy, after the home that Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, opened in House of Mercy President Mary Wright at our 1st Anniversary celebration in 1992. Charter board member John Owens (inset photo) circa 1991. Cont. on page 3 House of Mercy is a Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy Thanks to our 25th Anniversary Walk for AIDS Sponsors and Friends* In Memory of Doug Newton St. Gabriel Catholic Church ST. ANN CATHOLIC CHURCH Bank of North Carolina • Beam Electric Company • Toal Industries, Inc. • Toby Outdoor Celebrate Our 25th Anniversary... continued from page 1 by DJ Buddy Love. House of Mercy President Stan Patterson, Board Chair Maggie Baucom and Sister Jill Weber will welcome walkers at 10 am. A walk flier, donations form, team captain packet, fundraising tips and map can be printed from our website or call us at 704-825-4711 x3 for information. On April 9th, turn in your donations at 9:30 am at the stone shelter on Catherine McAuley Way on the Sisters of Mercy campus in Belmont, rain or shine. After Walk for AIDS participants enjoyed dancing to tunes by DJ Buddy Love the walk, at our 2011 reception. Buddy will be back this year! pick up Gaston HIV Outreach Program will offer free and confidential your picnic HIV and STD testing and House of Mercy tours will be offered lunch at the House of Mercy residence. during the reception. We’ll announce If you can’t join us, please send a tax-deductible donation in the total amount the enclosed envelope or online at www.thehouseofmercy.org. raised and prizes House of Mercy thanks you! will be awarded for Top Individual Directions: The Walk begins and ends on the Sisters of Mercy Fundraisers campus in Belmont, NC. From Interstate 85, take exit 27. From and Top Team Charlotte, turn left off the exit ramp onto Route 273, then turn Consumer C Fundraisers. SO W d an r right on Wilkinson Blvd. From Gastonia, turn right off the exit red In 2006, Sir Pur riffin were hono G on D r te ramp onto Route 273, then turn right onto Wilkinson. Enter the or a Rep r was k. Don’s brothe al W r ou at ts . campus on your left at the Sisters of Mercy sign on Catherine gues resident in 1992 House of Mercy McAuley Way. Follow the red balloons to parking. *Sponsors as of 3.2.16. See our website for updates. We appreciate our 2015 World AIDS Day / Giving Tuesday Sponsors and Friends 2 Belmont Flooring Center • Complete Eye Care • P.C. Godfrey, Inc. “We rejoice in the continued invitation to seek justice, to be compassionate and to reflect mercy in the world.” From the Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Twenty-five Years of Mercy... continued from page 1 Dublin, Ireland in 1827. The first House of Mercy was for unemployed and poor girls in need of shelter and education. The new House of Mercy would provide a safe haven and compassionate care for persons living with AIDS. Sisters Pauline Clifford and Rosalind Picôt met with Bishop John Donoghue to propose a partnership with the Charlotte Roman Catholic Diocese Pauline was a House of to create an AIDS ministry. Mercy resident from Although the legal partnership Oct. 1992 to Dec. 1995. was not pursued, the Charlotte Diocese contributed $100,000 and lent $100,000 for the Sisters to start the ministry. The Sisters provided the land for the home on their Belmont campus and created a board of directors. After much planning and fundraising, the new facility opened its doors on May 18, 1991. Since then, 320 residents have made House of Mercy their home. Before the advent of new medications around 1996, an AIDS diagnosis usually meant death within several years if not sooner. In the 1990s, many of our residents were gay men or persons who were infected through IV drug use. In the last five years, 64% of our residents have been African-American and 41% have been female. We have also had an increase in Latino residents (7%) which led the ministry to recruit Johaly Chavez, our bilingual Coordinator of Resident Recreation and Volunteers. Highly Active AntiRetroviral Therapy (HAART) can help persons with HIV Disease live longer, healthier lives if taken early with appropriate health care. Although treatments have improved, the epidemic of new infections continue, especially in the South. As of June 30, 2015 there were 7,625 reported persons living with HIV disease (including 3,108 living with AIDS) in our 10-county service area. Larry Hollcroft Stan Patterson, House of lived at House of Mercy from Mercy President since 1997, June 1991 to F ebruary 1992. says, “House of Mercy cares for some of our most vulnerable citizens. On behalf of our residents and staff, I thank our community partners for twenty-five years of generous support. We could not continue this AIDS ministry without you.” DICKENS and HOPE: Our Family Dogs Dickens was a white Samoyed who came to House of Mercy around Christmas 1992. Dickens was able to sense when a resident’s death was near and, if invited, he would spend more and more time close by, often lying in the resident’s bed. Director of Nursing Shirley Stowe said, “He knew before the staff knew.” Dickens lived at House of Mercy for over six years and died in Oct. 1999. A yellow Lab puppy named Hope joined House of Mercy in 2000. She was full of energy and a lot of fun but also a lot to handle! Hope, our last live-in dog, was adopted by volunteer Steve Keeble who brought her to back to the residence to visit. Hope lived a happy life with Steve until her passing in 2012. LaGena Lookabill Greene, model and HIV+ activist, shares a hug with a House of Mercy resident in 1996. In recent years residents have enjoyed visits with therapy dogs from Paws to People. 3 HOUSE OF MERCY PO Box 808, Belmont, NC 28012 www.thehouseofmercy.org NONPROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 16 A Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy Providing a Home for Persons Living with AIDS R AIDS K FO Mercy’s WAL page 1. Join House of pril 9th. Story A , ay rd tu Sa on n ptio and picnic rece HOUSE OF MERCY NOTES • Thank you to Sinead O’Doherty for her service on the House of Mercy Board as Secretary and Development Committee Chair. Congratulations on your new job in Greensboro! • House of Mercy appreciates grants from Broadway Cares/Equity Outgoing board memFights AIDS, Catholic Human Services ber Sinead O’Doherty (R) received a plaque Fdn., Community Fdn. of Gaston of appreciation from County, Dudley T. Dougherty Fdn., Maggie Baucom (L), Charles A. Frueauff Fdn., Stephen & Board Chair. Mary Birch Fdn., Barbara & Mike Gardner Charitable Fund, Kent Richard Hofmann Fdn., The Jerry R. Licari Fdn., The Lovett Fdn., The Merancas Fdn., the Raskob Fdn. for Catholic Activities and the Sisters of Mercy of NC Fdn. • The Pound Cake Lady never wanted Volunteer Yashica McDowell dances with House of Mercy resident Alberto after a Bingo game. to leave her name or receive thanks for her home baked pound cakes for House of Mercy residents. This elderly woman (now in her nineties who recently moved to receive assisted living) took great joy in bringing pleasure to our residents. We appreciate the love she shared with us! • Please consider a donation to House of Mercy via the reply envelope or credit card donation at www.thehouseofmercy.org Thank you! RESIDENCE WISH LIST These items are needed at House of Mercy and can be dropped off at 304 McAuley Circle in Belmont on the Sisters of Mercy campus (or call 704-825-4711). •Donated meals and drinks: bottled juice, soda, Kool Aid, Crystal Light, tea bags, Gatorade • XL garbage bags, liquid laundry & dish detergent, Clorox, Lysol, Mr. Clean • Movie tickets to Franklin Square (Gastonia) • Gift cards: WalMart, Golden Corral, Pizza Hut, Tony’s Ice Cream, KFC, local restaurants • Individually wrapped snacks • Gallon freezer Ziplock bags • Pantry staples • Canned foods • Dove soap: bar or liquid • Dove body wash, deodorant • Canned fruit cups • Flushable wipes • Shampoo, conditioner • Kleenex • Triple blade razors • Hand Sanitizer • Vaseline, chapstick • Paper towels • Toilet paper House of Mercy Board of Directors Maggie Baucom, Chair • Yates Dunaway IV • Dee Dee Ellis • Kathleen Finnigan • Mike Grace, Treasurer Tania Mariciano, Secretary • Ellen Palmer, Vice Chair • Stan Patterson, President/CEO • Sister Jill Katherine Weber