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Lifting each other up: A special request

Help replace elevators for our elder Sisters of Providence

Our elder Sisters of Providence have dedicated their lives to service and caring for others. They have lifted so many others up along the way: a young child being taught to read, a patient dying in a hospital being accompanied to the end, people in churches needing spiritual support and guidance. Can you help lift up these sisters who have lifted up so many others through the years? 

Sister Joan Mary Schaefer in the Providence Hall west elevator that needs replaced.

The total cost to replace our aging elevators is $400,000. From October 3, the Feast Day of Saint Mother Theodore, until October 22, the Congregation’s Foundation Day, we are asking you to support our sisters in order to replace and repair our problem elevators.

There is good news! Generous donors are providing matching gifts up to $200,000! That means that every gift up to $200,000 given will be matched and doubled to get us to our goal of $400,000. So when you give now, you can have twice the impact!

About the elevators

Several elevators serving our sisters need to be replaced or repaired. These elevators are in Lourdes Hall, our assisted living residence, and Providence Hall, where many of our elder sisters live. From sisters stuck in elevators, to sisters with mobility issues having to walk far out of their way several times a day to take another elevator, to costly service repairs several days a week. The need is clear. These elevators need replaced!

Sister Ann Casper exits the elevator in her home in Lourdes Hall.

Lourdes Hall has the only elevator that can fit a hospital gurney. Lourdes is our assisted living facility and houses 37 residents. A majority have mobility issues requiring them to need walkers, rollators, canes or wheelchairs. Residents are housed on four floor levels, all requiring stairs or an elevator to reach. When emergencies arise, this elevator must be dependable! Additionally, most residents use the elevator about 12 times a day traveling back and forth to meals, church, the mail room and visiting other sisters. The elevators are also used to bring food service to the residents.

Providence Hall currently houses 38 Sisters of Providence, the majority of them 80 years old and above. Residents live on the 2nd and 3rd floors, requiring use of the elevator or climbing stairs many times a day. Sisters living on those upper floors are often living with chronic aging conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, heart or lung disease and decreased stamina. With a multi-level retirement facility, elevators are vital. The west elevator is out frequently. So many sisters have even become stuck in it that there is now a chair in the small space so they have a place to sit until they are rescued! Can you help with this vital need for our sisters?

Each of these gifts will be doubled to reach our need of $400,000!

Give them a lift today!

Other ways to give

Donate by phone

812-535-2800
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET
Monday through Friday

Donate through your Donor Advised Fund or IRA

How to give through a donor advised fund
How to give through a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA

Donate by mail

Mission Advancement Office
1 Sisters of Providence Road
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, IN 47876

Legal Name: Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana

EIN: 35-0868174

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