Many generous people across the nation have donated money to help Haiti recover from the earthquake in January. At St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children in Norfolk, employees recently took up a collection and raised $1,705 to send to the Daughters of Wisdom to use for their Haiti relief efforts.
St. Mary’s Home has had a special connection to the religious order for most of its 65-year-history. Nuns from the Daughters of Wisdom arrived at the Home in 1946 to take charge. Today, the sole nun still on the staff, Sister Mary June Morin, is starting her 51st year of working at St. Mary’s.
So, when news came that six Daughters had been killed in the earthquake, St. Mary’s staff was especially moved to help. The money raised by employees includes $450 from a Valentine’s goodie sale/baked goods raffle organized by the Nurses Environmental Committee, which focuses on building camaraderie among the staff. The photo shows committee members Janie Mines, left, and Susan Kok, right, among the carnations and boxes full of Hershey’s Kisses that were for sale. The committee also raffled off (mostly) homemade baked goods.
You can read more about the committee’s work here, in a column about charitable giving by Mike Gruss of The Virginian-Pilot. Susan Kok told Gruss that she never worried the chocolates, carnations and cakes wouldn’t sell: “Everybody likes to give. Everybody likes to get something.”