Martin Luther King Observance Day—January 17, 2011

On the radio this morning I heard two interesting statements: “In the past three days we’ve picked up 4.5 inches of snow." “We’ve had 12 inches of snow already in January.” I think I would rather have six inches of snow in one day rather than one inch every day for six days.

Bloodmobile report: Our goal was 250 units of blood collected. In actuality we collected 209 units and had 13 who were turned away for whatever reasons. Though we did not reach our goal, we did very well. Two hundred nine units is a lot of blood. I know that some of are donors are “snowbirds” enjoying warmer temperatures and missing out on our Minnesota winter event. Thank you to all you generous donors. You are life savers.

The “Make a Joyful Noise” fundraiser in December for the local food shelf, raised a total of $5,150 which is over $1,300 over last years collection. We know that the number of persons needing to use the food shelf services is up. So, thank you, too, to all who donated to this good cause.

Friday afternoon the Sisters who live in Clare Residence celebrated Sister Justina’s 99th birthday, which was yesterday. Her nephew brought a big cake yesterday. So Sister Justina’s family and Sisters enjoyed cake, ice cream, nuts and mints to celebrate her 99 years of life.

Tomorrow we have our Employee Recognition Dinner and awards for those employees who have worked here 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years. We have wonderful employees.

A silent retreat starts Friday evening at 7 p.m. and lasts until noon on Thursday, January 27th. It is a quite large group of Sisters making this retreat. The retreat director is Father Jim VanVurst, OFM. I am not making this retreat. I have too many things on my calendar that would keep me from prayer and quiet.

Another beautiful 1,500 piece puzzle was finished last week. It is fun to see employees and Sisters spending time working diligently in little spaces of time to fit the pieces together. As soon as one puzzle is finished, another one is started.

Peace be with you and God bless you.

Sister Mary Lou