Mount Marty College Reunion: Tea & Treats with the Sisters

Sr. Marielle (front, left) and Sr. Cynthia (back, left)
visit with students and their families.

Greetings,

Srs. Rosaleen (far left), Aurthur (second from right),
and Phyllis (far right) gathered with their MM class...

Sr. Angeline (center) enjoying a break in their
laughter and stories with her high school
 classmates from 1948.

The end of June heralded Mount Marty College's All-Schools reunion.  Alumni from our school in all its forms from Mount Marty Academy, to Sacred Heart School of Nursing, and Sacred Heart Hospital School of Anesthesia, from Mount Marty High School, to Mount Marty Junior College, through Mount Marty College gathered at 'The Mount' for a weekend of tradition, remembering, and celebration.

Sr. Ann (center) with former history students
and their families.

Srs. Kevin (front left) and Jeannette (front right)
with former students and friends

Saturday afternoon, the sisters hosted a "tea & treats" in the Monastic Chapter room.  We joyfully opened our doors to the alumni, for the Rule of Benedict says "Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, "I came as a guest, and you received Me" (Matt. 25:35). And to all let due honor be shown, especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims" (chapter 53).

Our sisters have been and continue to be students, teachers, and professors at the college throughout the years.  The tea was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with friends and students from the ages. We weren't sure how many alumni to expect, but soon the room was filling with alumni waiting to share stories with the sisters.  As our sisters began to arrive, alumni would call them over to a group so they could introduce 'their teacher' or 'their classmate'.  Other sisters were welcomed with hugs and the beginning of a tall tale, "I remember when...." So many memories and so much joy to share, the laughter and voices filled our Chapter Room and spilled out into the halls, bringing in more sisters and alumni.  

Srs. Patricia Ann (front left) and
Corrine (back right) reconnecting
with students.

Over the years our sisters have sought the value of supporting education through every possible work in our school on 'The Mount': teachers, professors, presidents, maintenance, cooks, dorm resident assistants...  This service can be seen in Saint Benedict's call to manual labor: "And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty should require that they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles. Let all things be done with moderation, however, for the sake of the faint-hearted" (chapter 48).

There were no 'faint-hearted' on that joy-filled Saturday.  Only a lightness of spirit that celebrated our ministry of education and love for our students and friends.

Blessings,

Sister Kathy Named Endowed Nursing Chair

Greetings,

Congratulations to our own Sr. Kathy who truly lives out Benedict's call to care for the sick and suffering and teaches all those in her classes to do the same.  "Care of the sick must rank above and before all else, so that they may truly be served as Christ, for he said: "I was sick and you visited me", and, "What you did for the least of brothers you did for me"" (Rule of Benedict 36: 1-3).

Mount Marty College nursing department is pleased to announce the 2014-17 Endowed Nursing Chair was recently awarded to Sr. Kathy Burt RN, MSN, Ph.D.  

Sr. Kathy Burt attended Mount Marty College and graduated in 1993 with her Bachelor of Science in nursing degree. She received her Masters of Science in Nursing from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 2003 and her Ph.D. in 2006. She has worked as an RN at both Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota and here at the Avera Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton. Sr. Kathy has been teaching at Mount Marty College for the past 7 years and is currently an Assistant Professor of Nursing and serving as the Interim Chief Nurse Administrator and Division Chair of the nursing department.

In 1992, Avera Sacred Heart Hospital established an Endowed Chair of Nursing with Sr. Corinne Lemmer being named the first recipient for 1994-1997.  The recipient must demonstrate their ability as a teacher as well as scholarly and professional attainment by their competence in field of nursing to a greater degree. They must also have leadership and institutional contributions and community service through involvement in regional and national nursing associations.

"Sr. Kathy Named Endowed Nursing Chair." News Release. Mount Marty College. 8 Dec. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

Our Sister Recycler in the News!

Greetings,

Our Sister Matthew was highlighted in the local newspaper last Tuesday! Her decades-long service to Mount Marty College through beautiful grounds and flowerbeds has long emphasized recycling and caring for all God's creation.  This selfless service reminds her sisters of chapter 31 in the Rule of Benedict, 

"She will regard all utensils and goods of the monastery as sacred vessels of the altar, aware that nothings is to be neglected. She should not be prone to greed, nor be wasteful and extravagant with the goods of the monastery, but should do everything with moderation and according to the prioress' orders.Above all, let her be humble...if the community is rather large, she should be given helpers, that  with their assistance she may calmly perform the duties of her office" (RB 31: 10-17).

"MMC's Recycling Champ Gets Some Help",
by Shauna Marlette, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan

Sister Matthew Wehri has always made sure Mount Marty College (MMC) has been ahead of the curve when it comes to recycling.

Now, thanks to a grant from Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and the Coca-Cola Foundation, she is going to get a little help from the students who returned to the Yankton campus on Monday.

This past year MMC applied for and received the national recycling bin grant, where the school was awarded 40 bins designed specifically for placement around campus.

“I think it was 1976 when I started collecting the cans on campus,” Wehri said. “A long-time nun in the Monastery was working in the kitchens and she told me that we could get $0.16 a pound recycling cans. So, I began going around campus, digging in the dumpsters and collecting cans.”

Wehri said that she decided to collect the cans to help fund maintenance of the campus’ flower beds. She added that a small amount has also gone to helping pay for the monastery’s past dog’s food, treats and care.

“Every morning, afternoon and evening - three times a day - I go out and separate the bags, collecting cans,” she said. “Maybe we don’t collect as much during the summer, but definitely when school is in session.”

Noting that in a typical month she will collect between 60-70 pounds of cans, Wehri said they collect enough to overflow the back of a pickup every month.

“Some of the kids-but not many - are good about separating out their cans and leaving them in bags next to the dumpsters, “she said. “Not a lot of them do it though. I would say 75 percent of the cans collected, I have separated out of the trash.”

The college hopes to help lower that number.

“We were looking for a way to be more environmentally friendly and at the same time we wanted to start a good recycling program at the college,” said Greg Heine, the chief operations officer for MMC. “Sister Wehri has been the watch-dog for recycling on campus, sorting garbage to get the cans out. Now we hope we can help her out.”

At Mount Marty College, a plan will be implemented that not only focuses on the daily act of recycling, but will also include education outreach by Keep Yankton Beautiful.

 “We will be working with work our work study program to help provide assistance to Sister Matthew with the collecting,” Heine said. “The education aspect will be all student-driven.”

In thanks for her years of service to the campus, Heine noted that the college had placed a label on each of the new bins that has a photo of Sister Matthew asking the students to help her recycle and keep the campus clean.

“It is just one way we can honor her for her years of service to the campus,” he said. “She enjoys the landscaping and working with the flowers but would never take money to do it. By recycling she is able to fund the projects and every penny she had made recycling has gone back to the campus.”

Wehri said she knows that the students sometimes look at her funny when she is digging in the garbage, but that she hopes they understand why she is doing it and, in the future, will help by recycling their cans into the appropriate bins.

“Almost all of the bins have been installed before the students returned this week,” Heine said. “With the education that is planned because of this award, and the ongoing awareness this will create we are optimistic our efforts to increase recycling campus-wide will be successful."