“To see and hear the gratitude of the people who receive our prayer shawls and to witness the prayerful generosity of the women who have made them, is one of the greatest blessings in my life.” This is how Paula Dunne describes her involvement in the Prayer Shawl Ministry in St. David the King Parish, Princeton Junction.
Having founded the ministry some six years ago, Dunne enjoys telling how she and a “wonderful group of about 20 women” crochet and/or knit shawls and blankets for parishioners and others who need the spiritual, emotional, and physical comfort. Perhaps they are dealing with a severe illness or mourning the death of a loved one. To date, the ministry has donated more than 1,500 shawls/blankets to those in need.
Born in Scranton, Pa., and raised in Edgewater Park, Dunne received a nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently became a nurse anesthetist. She worked the past 20 years at Princeton Anesthesia, while raising her family and being actively involved in the community and parish.
Dunne has been married 34 years to her husband, Bob, a former managing director at the Wall Street firm of Salomon Brothers Inc., and author of “909 Days that Changed the World,” a chronological rendering of the public life of Jesus Christ. The Dunnes have three children: Christina, 27, who is engaged to be married to Ryan Perry in May, 2019. Christina lives in Portland, Oregon and works for Nike. Son Robb, 26, lives in New York City and works for the Wall Street firm, Morgan Stanley. Daughter Nicole, 19, is a sophomore at The Catholic University of America, Washington, majoring in aero-space engineering.
The Dunne family has been members of St. David the King Parish since they moved to New Jersey from New York City in 1993. Over the years, Paula has volunteered at RISE Food Bank with her daughter, Nicole, served as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, helped to run the parish’s Christmas Giving Tree program and has also taken charge of organizing the very popular Christmas Carol Festival, and the parish’s providing small bags of jelly beans with a “Jelly Bean” prayer for all the children at Easter Sunday Masses.