Winter 2011
from Beatitude House
SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
In the 16th century, Saint Twenty Years of Dreams and Visions Angela Merici, founder of Sr. Nancy Dawson, General Superior Ursuline Sisters the Ursuline Sisters of Younstown, had a dream in which she was inspired, in the midst of a turbulent society, to provide stability and security for women and children and to call them to their fullest potential. To realize that dream, she also had a promise: “Jesus Christ will enlighten you about what you have to do.” This “dream” and “promise” is what the Ursuline Sisters, Beatitude House board, staff, benefactors, women and children celebrate during the 20th anniversary of its foundation. The same “dream” and “promise” of Saint Angela Merici had an abiding presence in the life of the founder of Beatitude House, Ursuline Sister Margaret Scheetz.
is sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters and is located in Northeastern Ohio
Where did her “dream” and “promise” of Beatitude House begin? In 1990, at a small college restaurant at Kent State University, Ursuline Sister Mary O’Leary, then our community director of finance and Sister Sr. Margaret Scheetz Nancy Dawson, general superior, met Sister Margaret for lunch. Sister Margaret was completing a master’s degree in computer science. The sisters asked Margaret, “What would you really like to do with your future?” Sister Margaret answered, “I would like to work with poor women and children who are homeless.” The sisters confidently responded, “Then do it!” And she did! The dream of Saint Angela and the promise that Jesus would “tell her what to do” started to take form. After weeks of scouting multiple sites, countless hours of building repair and renovation and preparing each apartment with furnishings, Beatitude House opened its first transitional housing facility to four homeless women with children in July 1991 with Ursuline Sister Margaret Scheetz as its first executive director. (Continued on Page 2)