UPDATED: Seven women honored for faith, service to community at Mount Carmel Guild gala
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
By Mary Stadnyk | Associate Editor
Seven women who answered God’s call to charity through service to the local community were honored during the Mount Carmel Guild’s 19th annual gala held Oct. 17 in the Trenton Country Club.
Observing the throng of nearly 200 people in attendance including guild staff members, volunteers, board of trustee members and family members and friends of the honorees, Marie Gladney, executive director of the inner city Trenton diocesan outreach agency, spoke of how the evening was about recognizing the contributions the seven honorees have made as leaders in their respective fields while still making it a priority to volunteer to help others in need.
The honorees were: Dorothy Conway, business manager in St. John the Baptist Parish, Allentown; Filippini Sister Lillian Harrington, president of Villa Victoria Academy, Ewing; Kelly Keifer of St. James Parish, Pennington; Teresa Knipper of St. Paul Parish, Princeton; Mary Lincoln of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Ewing; Betty Poland of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square, and Susan Prusan of St. James Parish, Pennington.
To view photo gallery on this story, click here.
Other dignitaries who addressed the gathering included Msgr. Walter Nolan, pastor emeritus of St. Paul Parish, Princeton, who offered the invocation; Benedict J. Gioe, the guild’s board of trustees’ president; Brian J. Duff, a board of trustees’ member who served as master of ceremonies, and Carol Moore, who was among the 2013 honorees, offered comments on how much more she has learned about the work of the guild during the past year.
Dominican Sister Loretta Maggio, director of the guild’s emergency assistance program, gave a compelling address in which she recounted the experience of a client who received compassionate assistance from the guild. Students from Villa Victoria Academy, Ewing, and Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville, were on hand to greet and serve as hosts to the guests.
Gladney noted that the annual gala which includes a dinner and silent auction, is the guild’s major fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the agency’s Emergency Assistance Program which has been open since 1921, and Home Health Nursing Program, available since 1941.
In 2013, the guild assisted an average of 670 households per month with a two-to-three day supply of groceries. This marked an increase of 59 households over those served in 2012. Clients are eligible to come for food once per calendar month. Also, the summer of 2014marked the guild’s third year to offer the Feeding Families Program in which much needed groceries were given to some 200 families with children who are home from school during the summer months.
In addition, the guild helped 43 families with funds to prevent utility shut-off and 30 people with needed prescription medications. At Thanksgiving, the guild distributed to 750 families provisions for a holiday meal which included a turkey with the trimmings.
The nursing staff of two full-time registered nurses visited about 50 patients on a weekly or biweekly basis to provide care that includes helping with managing medications, administering injections and monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar levels, allowing elderly patients to remain in their homes.
After receiving an award from Gioe and Duff, each honoree was invited to the dais to offer remarks about the mission of the guild and why it is important for them to support their community through works of service.
Sister Lillian regarded the gala as a time to celebrate the mission of both the Mount Carmel Guild and her community, the Religious Teachers Filippini.
She noted that the guild was founded by Bishop Walsh in 1920, the same year that the bishop also obtained the Fisk Estate in West Trenton for the Religious Teachers Filippini to use as their first motherhouse for their mission in the United States of educating women and children.
“For more than 90 years, our missions have grown up together, continuing to this day to provide both education and basic needs to individuals and families in a spirit of Christian faith, hope and love,” said Sister Lillian. “Like the Mount Carmel Guild, the foundation of our teaching and outreach is prayer and solidarity.”
Lincoln shared how the social services committee in Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish supports the guild, one of the ways in which she and members deliver the day-old unsold bread from a nearby bakery to both the guild and Catholic Charities for distribution.
“The devotion of the people in Mount Carmel Guild, with reliable support of neighboring parishes, is a strong reminder of how we are to live out that powerful message of social responsibility in the Gospels,” she said.
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By Mary Stadnyk | Associate Editor
Seven women who answered God’s call to charity through service to the local community were honored during the Mount Carmel Guild’s 19th annual gala held Oct. 17 in the Trenton Country Club.
Observing the throng of nearly 200 people in attendance including guild staff members, volunteers, board of trustee members and family members and friends of the honorees, Marie Gladney, executive director of the inner city Trenton diocesan outreach agency, spoke of how the evening was about recognizing the contributions the seven honorees have made as leaders in their respective fields while still making it a priority to volunteer to help others in need.
The honorees were: Dorothy Conway, business manager in St. John the Baptist Parish, Allentown; Filippini Sister Lillian Harrington, president of Villa Victoria Academy, Ewing; Kelly Keifer of St. James Parish, Pennington; Teresa Knipper of St. Paul Parish, Princeton; Mary Lincoln of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Ewing; Betty Poland of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square, and Susan Prusan of St. James Parish, Pennington.
To view photo gallery on this story, click here.
Other dignitaries who addressed the gathering included Msgr. Walter Nolan, pastor emeritus of St. Paul Parish, Princeton, who offered the invocation; Benedict J. Gioe, the guild’s board of trustees’ president; Brian J. Duff, a board of trustees’ member who served as master of ceremonies, and Carol Moore, who was among the 2013 honorees, offered comments on how much more she has learned about the work of the guild during the past year.
Dominican Sister Loretta Maggio, director of the guild’s emergency assistance program, gave a compelling address in which she recounted the experience of a client who received compassionate assistance from the guild. Students from Villa Victoria Academy, Ewing, and Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville, were on hand to greet and serve as hosts to the guests.
Gladney noted that the annual gala which includes a dinner and silent auction, is the guild’s major fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the agency’s Emergency Assistance Program which has been open since 1921, and Home Health Nursing Program, available since 1941.
In 2013, the guild assisted an average of 670 households per month with a two-to-three day supply of groceries. This marked an increase of 59 households over those served in 2012. Clients are eligible to come for food once per calendar month. Also, the summer of 2014marked the guild’s third year to offer the Feeding Families Program in which much needed groceries were given to some 200 families with children who are home from school during the summer months.
In addition, the guild helped 43 families with funds to prevent utility shut-off and 30 people with needed prescription medications. At Thanksgiving, the guild distributed to 750 families provisions for a holiday meal which included a turkey with the trimmings.
The nursing staff of two full-time registered nurses visited about 50 patients on a weekly or biweekly basis to provide care that includes helping with managing medications, administering injections and monitoring blood pressure and blood sugar levels, allowing elderly patients to remain in their homes.
After receiving an award from Gioe and Duff, each honoree was invited to the dais to offer remarks about the mission of the guild and why it is important for them to support their community through works of service.
Sister Lillian regarded the gala as a time to celebrate the mission of both the Mount Carmel Guild and her community, the Religious Teachers Filippini.
She noted that the guild was founded by Bishop Walsh in 1920, the same year that the bishop also obtained the Fisk Estate in West Trenton for the Religious Teachers Filippini to use as their first motherhouse for their mission in the United States of educating women and children.
“For more than 90 years, our missions have grown up together, continuing to this day to provide both education and basic needs to individuals and families in a spirit of Christian faith, hope and love,” said Sister Lillian. “Like the Mount Carmel Guild, the foundation of our teaching and outreach is prayer and solidarity.”
Lincoln shared how the social services committee in Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish supports the guild, one of the ways in which she and members deliver the day-old unsold bread from a nearby bakery to both the guild and Catholic Charities for distribution.
“The devotion of the people in Mount Carmel Guild, with reliable support of neighboring parishes, is a strong reminder of how we are to live out that powerful message of social responsibility in the Gospels,” she said.
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