Florida Catholic | Hope Community Center

TOMÁS EVANS I EL CARIN
Supporters of the Office for Farmworker Ministry gather for the dedication of the new Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka, Oct. 25. The 8,120-square-foot center will allow space for tutoring, dance classes, parenting classes, computer learning, social services and much more.

Farmworker center is a dream come true for four nuns

BETTY ANN WEBER | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 11.02.07

APOPKA | It was love and exaltation, so alive you could feel it — moving through the air, energizing staff, enveloping arriving guests. Before them stood the solid brick-and-mortar fruition of a 35-year dream.

With a last dab of paint and the official blessing of Bishop Thomas Wenski on Oct. 25, Hope CommUnity Center for farmworkers in Apopka was up and running.

Looking back to the early 1970s, four youthful Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur arrived on the scene: Sisters Cathy Gorman, Gail Grimes and Ann Kendrick, all now in the Office for Farmworker Ministry. The fourth, Sister Teresa McElwee, directs the Office of Peace and Justice and Family Learning Center in Apopka.

“I remember the day Sister Teresa first told me their plans,” said Apopka Mayor John Land at the opening of the outdoor morning program.

“They came here to serve the poor and neglected, setting up in a garage. Now look.”

The sparkling new center, in a less-troubled area on North Park Avenue, will house ongoing as well as new programs such as: parenting, youth ministry, a learning lab and a career center targeting skills needed by youth and adults in English and math, high school equivalency diploma and citizenship education. Counseling and social service case management will also be offered.

Additionally, the Notre Dame Americorps program provides full-time volunteers for tutoring, mentoring, after-school programs, adult basic education and literacy, plus educational advocacy and support within the public school system.

Bishop Wenski, at the podium, spoke of Archbishop Joseph Patrick Hurley, who died 40 years ago. “Responsible for the entire state of Florida, the archbishop, a man of great vision, said, ‘The church should do good.’ We should be seen as doing good. The sisters,” he said, “came to do good. They understood the needs of the poor, and their solidarity and service will be left as a legacy to all. Their work will continue.

From top left clockwise, Notre Dame de Namur Sisters Teresa McElwee, Cathy Gorman, Ann Kendrick and Gail Grimes.

“They made the church look good.”

Bestowing a blessing on the building, the workers and the entire assembly, Bishop Wenski said, “We honor and celebrate our dignity. God bless this ministry. It is a community of justice and peace, as God calls us to be. The birthright of all who call God father makes us all brothers and sisters.” With a smile, he added, “Just in case God doesn’t understand English, I’ll repeat it in Spanish.”

Hope CommUnity Center board member Mary Carroll, a licensed mental health counselor who kept things humming during the long months as Sister Gorman recovered from a serious heart attack — then surgery and a lengthy hospital stay due to injuries from an automobile accident — assumed the duties of master of ceremonies for the program.

“Board member Arcardio Espinosa likes to say, ‘These are my crazy nuns — the crazy nuns who saved my life.’” Then, she read a quote that began, “Here’s to the crazy ones,” and ended with “because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Sister Grimes countered with, “If we’re crazy, so are all of you. You helped us. As all of the sisters are known to say, ‘We are the lucky ones. So many people have jobs they hate. We earn our living doing what we love.’”

An official ribbon cutting by the Apopka Chamber of Commerce rounded out the program, then more smiles and hugs, and guided tours. There was so much to take in during a brief walk through the spacious building. Some women, obviously impressed by the 12 computers with Internet hookup — a NASA donation — were eager to sign up for classes.

Standing in the center’s entrance hall, looking up, one feels showered with the watchwords of St. Julie Brilliart, Sister of Notre Dame de Namur — “Let your hearts be as wide as the world.” The words are painted in several languages.

Seated in a quiet corner, as the crowd thinned out, a fatigued Sister Kendrick slipped off her shoes. Soon the halls would be humming again with a small invasion of children, then the adults looking for aid and education. “In the middle of troubles, we have an abundant life,” she said. “We have to see that everyone is included and can find a place at the table.”

One might wonder what will happen to the program without the fearless four nuns some years hence. Sister Maureen White, who recently left a teaching job in Nigeria — along with Sister Eucharia Madueke — to work in the Apopka ministry, believes she has the answer. “It will continue,” she said with a soft assuredness. “It may change, but it will go on.”

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Farmworker center is a dream come true for four nuns

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