ML - Michigan Avenue

2013 - Issue 7 - November

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

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SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY continued from page 68 so almost by accident I asked if we could have five of the 31 acres of land, and they agreed. It was very generous because they could have sold it for millions of dollars. We moved in gradually to all 31 acres, and it's a beautiful campus now. We came up here with 39 children and 35 staff 33 years ago. Now we have 600 residents, with an outreach program for 160 people living at home, and today we have 1,000 staff, 700 full-time and the rest parttime—it's demanding work, and people with severe disabilities in particular demand a lot of staff and a lot of attention. At Misericordia, every day you can walk through the campus, and you'll find volunteers all over, plus a competent, compassionate, loving staff. The residents are genuinely happy people. If you sit down and pick out any one of our residents, if they can express themselves they will tell you that. Some are so severely disabled that they can't, but even they can light up —SISTER ROSEMARY when you talk to them or CONNELLY touch them; you can tell through their eyes or their smile that they really do believe that they're loved. And they are loved. We're one of the few agencies that has a full continuum of care, from skilled nursing to nine houses out in the neighborhood, "We could never do what we do without our volunteers." 70 and everything in between. Even in our nine houses, where the residents are higher-functioning, they would be isolated if they didn't have this campus, which provides so many opportunities. They have a wonderful life, and we're so blessed that we can provide it. One of our goals at Misericordia is to become more independent from government funding. Our deficit each year has reached $12 million, so that's a pressure. Without the help of donors we could never have the beautiful environment or the number of staff or all the life-giving programs that we do have, and that's what makes Misericordia very special. Our other major challenge right now is that our population is aging; that's a new phenomenon as in the past most people with Down syndrome died very young. Today they're living a lifetime; we have 16 residents who are in their 60s, and we have 68 who are in their 50s. Because of their physical and mental challenges some of them are aging quickly. We had been talking about our concern for the aging and—I think that God has always taken care of us—a friend of one of our women's board members passed away, Marie Quinlan, and she left us several million dollars. So we have started a Quinlan Terrace campaign for a facility for our aging residents. We're going to build four houses with the provision for hospice care so we can keep the residents longer and, for many of them, walk the final journey with them. We're trying to raise $30 million because this will cost us more to operate. TOP: Maureen and Gerald Corcoran, 2013 Heart of Mercy Award honorees; Sister Rosemary Connelly; Holly Jennings, Misericordia Women's Board president; Patsy Caruso Sheridan, ball chair; Bill Choslovsky and Scott Mendel, 2013 Sister Rosemary Connelly Service Medallion honorees. ABOVE: Eric F. paints in the Creative Expressions work opportunity program. We could never do what we do without our volunteers. Residents work in different roles at our restaurant, the Greenhouse Inn, and we couldn't run it without volunteers. During Christmas, 3,500 boxes of baked goods are mailed out. There are probably 5,000 volunteers around during that time, and it's funny because you'll see corporate heads with their executive teams and they have continued on page 72 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 068-073_MA_SP_Spirit_Nov13.indd 70 10/21/13 10:54 AM

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