Letter from Father Jack 

Dear Co-Workers and Families,

Though I do not have much news, I wanted to write to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am so grateful to all of you who believe in Misericordia and show it in so many ways.  We could not do all that we do without our wonderful Staff and Volunteers.  It is amazing how life is so good for our residents. I am sure families appreciate our staff even more when they have everyone home for these long weekends.

We continue to fight with the City over Thome Avenue. We are so disappointed with the way they stole our Handicapped parking outside of the main family entrance. Pure stupidity. We will continue to work to rectify all of this as we pursue the purchase of Thome Avenue.

We continue to pray for the staff of McAuley as they have lost so many residents. Fr. Bart and I celebrated a Mass in early November to remember all of them. Since then we have also lost Fatimah Afrin Gresham and Maria Reyes. May they rest in Peace.

The Christmas festivities have already begun. A special thank you to the Foundation Staff, Kitchen, Housekeeping, Maintenance, Bakery, Rec and Leisure Team, and Gift Shop to name a few who have been working so hard to have us ready for all of these events. We will welcome thousands of people to our home. What an opportunity and a gift, but also a large challenge. Thanks to all who will work so hard over the next month to make this all happen.

We know parking continues to be a challenge. It takes great patience, not only here but at the malls and all busy places in this season. Thome Avenue does not help. We will continue to look at ways to improve all of this. As our Notre Dame study continues, looking at our facility, we are very aware of these issues.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Laurie Daugherty to the team of Vice Presidents. She will share responsibility for Residential Services with Chris. She will be the VP for the Village, Shannon Apartments and Rosemary Park. She began her career many years ago as a DSP and had served at a number of organizations. We are delighted to welcome her to Misericordia and to her new role.

We are currently hiring many staff to fill spaces and to prepare for Rosemary Park. I ask all of you to be welcoming of all of our new people. Misericordia is a big organization to get to know. Please help them in their on-boarding process by making them feel at home and being as helpful as you can be. The last two classes have been filled with many wonderful people, let’s make them feel very welcome here.

I pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Sincerely,

Father Jack Clair