Sister helped found Network

An original gate post still stands on the property and will continue to be a gentle reminder that the Ursuline Sisters of Paola were the gatekeepers of this amazing place so many call home today.”

The Ursuline Legacy Park will be the first thing visitors see as they drive up the treelined drive or while driving past the Lakemary campus.

“The grounds will be filled with native trees, shrubs, and wildflower meadows, and while they may have replaced our beautiful lake, we are excited and honored to share and tell the beautiful story of Lakemary,” Davis said.

“We worked with the new owners of the convent and were able to get a few pieces of memorabilia that we will have on display at Lakemary,” Davis said in the impact report. “The artifacts and park will be a wonderful way to continue to honor the history of our organization and the Ursuline Sisters.”

Employees from the marketing department are hoping to visit Kentucky this summer to interview the four former Paola Sisters who now live at Maple Mount. Photographs and video stories will help archive the many stories of the beginnings of Lakemary.

The Ursuline Legacy Park is expected to be completed by fall of 2023. Those who want to contribute to the project can contact Sally Beyers at Development@Lakemary. org.

Not far from Lakemary, the former Ursuline convent was sold in 2019, and then sold again in 2021 to GMF Capital, which is renovating the property for Arista Recovery, a drug rehabilitation center. As reported in the Miami County Republic on June 8, 2022, Arista officials are working to preserve as much Ursuline history in the building as possible.

Marisa Garrett, a behavioral health

Summer 2022 technician for Arista Recovery, is serving as resident historian throughout the process. She said a wing of the Arista Recovery facility will be dedicated to the Ursulines and the history of the building.

“We love and appreciate and want to know that history,” Garrett told the newspaper.

With renovations near completion, Arista officials held a special event on June 4 before the facility started taking clients. Ursuline Associates along with Ursuline Sisters Angela Fitzpatrick and Michele Morek were invited to visit the campus and held a prayer service in the cemetery.

Sister Angela said the visit was touching. Her knowledge of the former convent was helpful to the Arista staff, who asked her many questions about its history.

“I’m so glad it’s going to have life again,” Sister Angela told the newspaper.n

Ursuline Sister Angela Fitzpatrick submitted a letter to the Kansas City Star opinion page in April 2022 to raise awareness of the need for prison reform, especially dealing with racial disparity.

“That was a first for me, I’ve never sent my opinion to a newspaper before,” Sister Angela said.

Despite a long history of being involved in social justice issues, Sister Angela found the motivation to try something new after spending three days in Washington, D.C., celebrating 50 years of Network – the justice advocacy group she helped begin.

“I’m glad I went, it was a wonderful experience,” Sister Angela said. She was a young Ursuline Sister of Paola, Kan., in the winter of 1971 when she was among 47 women religious who traveled to Washington to determine how they could make a difference if they united. In April 1972, Network was formed and has been engaged in political activism for social justice ever since.

When Network planned its 50th anniversary celebration on April 21-23 with a Justice Ablaze Gala and Advocates Training in Washington, Sister Angela was invited as one of the founding members.

“I was so happy with all the diversity and young people,” Sister Angela said. “There were college-age people, it wasn’t just gray-haired sisters.”

The Ursulines of Paola merged with the Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph in 2008. Sister Angela has continued serving in her native Kansas, now as a caregiver in metropolitan Kansas City.

This gathering was quite different from her first trip in 1971, Sister Angela said.

“It was encouraging, hopeful. We knew it was possible to have an effect,” she said. “We were seeing things that had been accomplished, like the Affordable Care Act,

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