House of Mercy

HOUSE OF MERCY
Spring 2016 News
Providing a Home and 24-hour Care for Persons Living with AIDS
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House of Mercy
A Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy
Providing a Home and Care
for Persons Living with AIDS
 Celebrate Our 25th Anniversary
at our 2016 Walk for AIDS
On Saturday April 9th,
we invite you to our 25th
Anniversary Walk for AIDS. The
Sisters of Mercy opened House of
Mercy in 1991 in response to the
growing HIV/AIDS crisis which
had reached epidemic proportions.
In 2016, we celebrate the love
and compassionate care shared at
House of Mercy for 25 years.
Funds Raised at our Walk
Will Help Our Low-income
Residents Living with AIDS
Rockwell AME Zion Church was one of many teams
who participated in our 2015 Walk for AIDS
Will you help us? Invite your friends,
family and co-workers for the 3-mile walk
through historic downtown Belmont that
begins on the Sisters of Mercy campus.
Raise funds in support of your walk.
We challenge individuals to raise $50 or
Step up on April 9th
to Fight AIDS!
Coming to our Walk for AIDS?
Email: houseofmercync@gmail.com
We’ll post your team name,
captain and goal at
www.thehouseofmercy.org
INSIDE:
House of Mercy Sponsors........2
House of Mercy Notes..............4
Residence Wish List.................4
www.facebook.com/
HouseofMercyNC
more towards our $39,000 goal. Walk for
AIDS T-shirts will be given to the first 300
walkers meeting our $50 challenge!
Afterwards, join the picnic reception
on the House of Mercy grounds. Check-in
begins at 9:30 am. Music will be provided
Continued on page 2
Twenty-five Years of Mercy & Hope
In 1988, a Sister of
Mercy from Guam (an
organized territory of
the U.S. in the northwest
Pacific) stood at a Sisters
of Mercy chapter meeting
and asked, “What are we
going to do about the AIDS
crisis!?”
The Sisters decided to
create a home to care for
persons living with AIDS. It
was named House of Mercy,
after the home that Catherine
McAuley, foundress of the
Sisters of Mercy, opened in
House of Mercy President Mary Wright at our
1st Anniversary celebration in 1992. Charter board
member John Owens (inset photo) circa 1991.
Cont. on page 3
House of Mercy is a Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy
Thanks to our 25th Anniversary Walk for AIDS Sponsors and Friends*
In Memory of
Doug Newton
St. Gabriel Catholic Church
ST. ANN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Bank of North Carolina • Beam Electric Company • Toal Industries, Inc. • Toby Outdoor
Celebrate Our 25th Anniversary...
continued from page 1
by DJ Buddy Love. House of Mercy President Stan Patterson,
Board Chair Maggie Baucom and Sister Jill Weber will
welcome walkers at 10 am.
A walk flier, donations form, team captain packet,
fundraising tips and map can be printed from our website or
call us at 704-825-4711 x3 for information.
On April 9th, turn in your donations at 9:30 am at the
stone shelter on Catherine McAuley Way on the Sisters of
Mercy campus in Belmont, rain or shine.
After
Walk for AIDS participants enjoyed dancing to tunes by DJ Buddy Love
the walk,
at our 2011 reception. Buddy will be back this year!
pick up
Gaston HIV Outreach Program will offer free and confidential
your picnic
HIV and STD testing and House of Mercy tours will be offered
lunch at the House
of Mercy residence. during the reception.
We’ll announce
If you can’t join us, please send a tax-deductible donation in
the total amount
the enclosed envelope or online at www.thehouseofmercy.org.
raised and prizes
House of Mercy thanks you!
will be awarded
for Top Individual Directions: The Walk begins and ends on the Sisters of Mercy
Fundraisers
campus in Belmont, NC. From Interstate 85, take exit 27. From
and Top Team
Charlotte, turn left off the exit ramp onto Route 273, then turn
Consumer
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Fundraisers.
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right on Wilkinson Blvd. From Gastonia, turn right off the exit
red
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ramp onto Route 273, then turn right onto Wilkinson. Enter the
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campus on your left at the Sisters of Mercy sign on Catherine
gues
resident in 1992
House of Mercy
McAuley Way. Follow the red balloons to parking.
*Sponsors as of 3.2.16. See our website for updates.
We appreciate our 2015 World AIDS Day / Giving Tuesday Sponsors and Friends
2
Belmont Flooring Center • Complete Eye Care • P.C. Godfrey, Inc.
“We rejoice in the continued invitation to
seek justice, to be compassionate and to reflect mercy in the world.”
From the Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Twenty-five Years of Mercy...
continued from page 1
Dublin, Ireland in 1827. The
first House of Mercy was for
unemployed and poor girls in
need of shelter and education.
The new House of Mercy
would provide a safe haven and
compassionate care for persons
living with AIDS.
Sisters Pauline Clifford and
Rosalind Picôt met with Bishop
John Donoghue to propose a
partnership with the Charlotte
Roman Catholic Diocese
Pauline was a House of
to create an AIDS ministry.
Mercy resident from
Although the legal partnership
Oct. 1992 to Dec. 1995.
was not pursued, the Charlotte
Diocese contributed $100,000 and lent $100,000 for the Sisters to
start the ministry.
The Sisters provided the land for the home on their Belmont
campus and created a board of directors. After much planning and
fundraising, the new facility opened its doors on May 18, 1991.
Since then, 320 residents have made House of Mercy their home.
Before the advent of new medications around 1996, an AIDS
diagnosis usually meant death within several years if not sooner.
In the 1990s, many of our residents were gay men or persons who
were infected through IV drug use. In the last five years, 64% of
our residents have been African-American and 41% have been
female. We have also
had an increase in Latino
residents (7%) which led
the ministry to recruit
Johaly Chavez, our
bilingual Coordinator of
Resident Recreation and
Volunteers.
Highly Active
AntiRetroviral Therapy
(HAART) can help
persons with HIV Disease
live longer, healthier
lives if taken early with
appropriate health care.
Although treatments
have improved, the epidemic
of new infections continue,
especially in the South. As
of June 30, 2015 there were
7,625 reported persons living
with HIV disease (including
3,108 living with AIDS) in
our 10-county service area.
Larry Hollcroft
Stan Patterson, House of
lived at
House of Mercy
from
Mercy President since 1997,
June 1991 to F
ebruary 1992.
says, “House of Mercy
cares for some of our most vulnerable citizens.
On behalf of our residents and staff, I thank our community
partners for twenty-five years of generous support. We could not
continue this AIDS ministry without you.”
DICKENS and HOPE: Our Family Dogs
Dickens was a white Samoyed
who came to House of Mercy
around Christmas 1992.
Dickens was able to sense
when a resident’s death was
near and, if invited, he would
spend more and more time
close by, often lying in the
resident’s bed. Director of
Nursing Shirley Stowe said,
“He knew before the staff knew.”
Dickens lived at House of
Mercy for over six years and
died in Oct. 1999.
A yellow Lab puppy named
Hope joined House of
Mercy in 2000. She was full
of energy and a lot of fun
but also a lot to handle!
Hope, our last live-in dog,
was adopted by volunteer
Steve Keeble who brought her to back to the residence to
visit. Hope lived a happy life with Steve until her passing
in 2012.
LaGena Lookabill Greene, model
and HIV+ activist, shares a hug with
a House of Mercy resident in 1996.
In recent years residents have enjoyed visits with therapy
dogs from Paws to People.
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HOUSE OF MERCY
PO Box 808, Belmont, NC 28012
www.thehouseofmercy.org
NONPROFIT
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 16
A Ministry of the Sisters of Mercy
Providing a Home for Persons Living with AIDS
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HOUSE OF MERCY NOTES
• Thank you to Sinead O’Doherty
for her service on the House of Mercy
Board as Secretary and Development
Committee Chair. Congratulations on
your new job in Greensboro!
• House of Mercy appreciates
grants from Broadway Cares/Equity
Outgoing board memFights AIDS, Catholic Human Services ber Sinead O’Doherty
(R) received a plaque
Fdn., Community Fdn. of Gaston
of appreciation from
County, Dudley T. Dougherty Fdn.,
Maggie Baucom (L),
Charles A. Frueauff Fdn., Stephen &
Board Chair.
Mary Birch Fdn., Barbara & Mike
Gardner Charitable Fund, Kent Richard Hofmann Fdn., The
Jerry R. Licari Fdn., The Lovett Fdn.,
The Merancas Fdn., the Raskob Fdn.
for Catholic Activities and the Sisters of
Mercy of NC Fdn.
• The Pound Cake Lady never wanted
Volunteer Yashica
McDowell dances
with House of Mercy
resident Alberto
after a Bingo game.
to leave her name or receive thanks for
her home baked pound cakes for House
of Mercy residents. This elderly woman
(now in her nineties who recently moved
to receive assisted living) took great joy
in bringing pleasure to our residents. We
appreciate the love she shared with us!
• Please consider a donation to House
of Mercy via the reply envelope or credit card donation at
www.thehouseofmercy.org Thank you!
RESIDENCE WISH LIST
These items are needed at House of Mercy and
can be dropped off at 304 McAuley Circle in Belmont on the
Sisters of Mercy campus (or call 704-825-4711).
•Donated meals and drinks: bottled juice, soda, Kool Aid, Crystal Light, tea bags, Gatorade
• XL garbage bags, liquid laundry & dish detergent, Clorox, Lysol, Mr. Clean
• Movie tickets to Franklin Square (Gastonia)
• Gift cards: WalMart, Golden Corral, Pizza Hut, Tony’s Ice Cream, KFC, local restaurants
• Individually wrapped snacks
• Gallon freezer Ziplock bags • Pantry staples
• Canned foods
• Dove soap: bar or liquid
• Dove body wash, deodorant • Canned fruit cups
• Flushable wipes
• Shampoo, conditioner
• Kleenex
• Triple blade razors
• Hand Sanitizer
• Vaseline, chapstick
• Paper towels
• Toilet paper
House of Mercy Board of Directors
Maggie Baucom, Chair • Yates Dunaway IV • Dee Dee Ellis • Kathleen Finnigan • Mike Grace, Treasurer
Tania Mariciano, Secretary • Ellen Palmer, Vice Chair • Stan Patterson, President/CEO • Sister Jill Katherine Weber