A teacher for more than 50 years at Michigan Catholic high schools, Sr. Rose Mary Sam has inspired students, parents, parishioners and friends to join her at Lourdes and serve as volunteers at the “City of the Poor” — so much so that the Catholic Foundation of Michigan created the Our Lady of Lourdes Pilgrimage charitable fund to continue Sister Sam’s 45-year mission.

Current Catholic Foundation board member, Rosanne (Bommarito) Brugnoni, a former student at Bishop Gallagher in the late 1970s, opened the fund in 2021 to honor her former teacher.

The fund created in Sr. Sam’s name will help provide two University of Detroit Mercy students with the chance to join medical professionals in caring for the sick and dying who have made the spiritual trek to Lourdes.

“The vision was to create a scholarship fund – while Sr. Rose Mary Sam was still alive – to honor Sister’s 45 year legacy and create an opportunity for medical professionals to accompany the sick and dying on a journey of hope and healing,” shares Brugnoni, creator of the fund.

“The Catholic Foundation of Michigan provided the perfect landscape to work and collaborate with other organizations that shared a similar vision in creating the scholarship fund.”

The collaboration that was created with University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) College and Order of Malta for health care scholarship recipients was beyond the expectations of the fund’s initial vision.  After two years of planning and fundraising, the two UDM healthcare students received scholarships and will be traveling on May 2nd for a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. Sr. Sam will be joined by a total of five travelers for the pilgrimage, including two UDM representatives who were so inspired by the pilgrimage that they self-funded their own trip to join the journey. These representatives had played an instrumental role in recruiting and interviewing the scholarship recipients.

Past students, friends, and colleagues have been inspired to support this meaningful cause. You too can become a part of this living legacy.

Your support will honor the compassionate legacy of Sister Rose Mary Sam and help extend the spiritually transformative experience of volunteerism at Lourdes to future generations of healthcare professionals. Become part of the Living Legacy to honor Sister Rose May Sam’s 45-year legacy of helping others achieve a transformative, spiritual journey of hope, healing, and reconciliation.

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More Information About the Our Lady of Lourdes Scholarship

 We Adore You, O Christ, and we praise You because by Your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

Lent reminds us that Christ crucified is our hope. But why can it be so difficult to explain to others? Art can be a way to speak to others about Christ when words fail.

The Catholic Church has used paintings and grand architecture to convey throughout history the story of Christ.

In December 2019, a small group of lay faithful optioned the right to purchase an 82-acre parcel in Augusta, Michigan. With one year to raise the funds, seventeen families came together in support of  “The Sanctuary” project and raised $1.25 million dollars to acquire the land.

Through the expression of great art, The Sanctuary, a professionally designed sculpture park and nature preserve, will tell the story of Christ’s journey to Calvary through sixty larger-than-life bronze sculptures depicting the Stations of the Cross and retelling the fourteen encounters Christ had along the path of sorrows known as Via Dolorosa.

Just twenty minutes from Kalamazoo, the location in Augusta, Michigan lies between Chicago and Detroit and a short drive from Grand Rapids, Lansing and Ann Arbor.. Accompanied by an audio tour, visitors will walk the half-mile circuitous footpath, nestled amongst the serene beauty of wooded hills and wildlife. The Sanctuary will tell the story of Christ’s passion and self-sacrificing love for each of us, moving one’s mind from a Bible story on a page to walking with Christ in his final hours.

“We found The Sanctuary struck our hearts as a beautiful blend of faith, art, nature, and evangelization. We were so impressed with the skill of the sculptors and the thorough design of the visitor’s experience,”  shared Eric and Sue Jeska. 

There has never been a more immediate time to share the story of Christ than now. According to a 2022 Pew Research survey, America’s fastest-growing category of religious identity is ‘none,’ or people with no religious affiliation. This group could grow as large as 52% in the next 40 years. 

This data reflects what hearts lack; a personal relationship with God. The Sanctuary will be a place where beauty provides a refuge for the most vulnerable among us who do not know of Christ’s love while offering a place of meditation for the faithful who desire to grow deeper in their relationship with God.

Upon completion in the fall of 2024, The Sanctuary will offer refuge to those who seek to know the love of Christ by encountering His passion in the journey to Calvary made real in the true beauty of art and the haven of nature.  The Sanctuary is a $14.5 million venture. To date, over $7 million has been donated. 

“We chose to partner with the Catholic Foundation of Michigan because they have the infrastructure and expertise in place to accommodate major gift donations with the ability to meet a donor’s preferred method of giving. The Foundation has been a trusted partner handling sensitive donor financial information ethically and confidentially,” shared Sue Jeska.

The Sanctuary team welcomes the opportunity to further discuss the project and its exciting progress with you. Please contact the Catholic Foundation of Michigan with your questions or requests for additional information about how your contribution can be a part of this legacy project.  

Most importantly,  especially during this Lent, we ask for your prayers that God blesses the design team with His guidance and moves hearts to be a part of this evangelization project.

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“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:37-40)

In 1987, an area Catholic family had an encounter that would change the trajectory of their life. Reeling from unexpected diagnoses following the birth of their son, they happened upon a hitchhiker who was presumably en route to Saulte Ste. Marie, but was  350 miles away and headed in the wrong direction Their brief conversation was full of moments that were too unusual to be called coincidences. The young man had recovered from the same heart condition as their son was awaiting surgery. The hope received in that conversation was life-giving. They were reminded in this that their family was seen by God and their son, who had been diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome, was very precious to the Lord.

Their son, now a 35-year-old man, is thriving and brings great joy to all who know him. He is the inspiration for St. Andrew Scholars Fund held at the Catholic Foundation of Michigan. St. Andrew Scholars Fund provides assistance for children with disabilities to attend Catholic school.

“Our great Catholic schools have the desire to be inclusive to students with disabilities, but often lack the funding or training to execute their desire with success,” shared the family. “By providing support for special needs students and inclusive Catholic schools, we’re making a difference in the lives of one student at a time.”

“We have been blessed to have a special needs child.  We wanted him to have a Catholic education.  Unfortunately, we were encouraged to enroll our son in a local public school. Too often, this is the experience of other Catholic families that God has blessed with special children. We aim to change this through the St. Andrew Scholars scholarship fund by both helping families with special children and rewarding those schools that are equipped to welcome them.”

According to the National Catholic Education Association and the Journal of Catholic Education, approximately .5% of Catholic school students have a recognized disability, while [children with disabilities] represent 13% of the overall population.”

When asked why they chose to work with the Catholic Foundation, they said, “The leadership of the Catholic Foundation is inspired and gifted. We were delighted by the people at the Foundation of and inspired by the Foundation’s mission.”

Often, when we are presented with a challenge, the Lord inspires us to create change to make progress toward a solution. The family looks to the Gospel’s example of Jesus reaching out to the edges of society as an example to follow.

“This is our calling; this is what we can do to help people, This is very meaningful to help people achieve a better life.”

Scholarships will be made available for the 2023-24  school year 2023-4 at select area Catholic schools, with plans to expand to include additional schools in the Archdiocese of Detroit as the fund grows. If you are interested in more information on the St. Andrew Scholars Fund,  or to make a donation, please click here.

To chat with us about setting up a fund in honor of a loved one in collaboration with the Catholic Foundation of Michigan, we invite you to call us at (248) 204-0332, ext. 2.

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