WESTFIELD–The Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield received much-needed funds from Westfield Bank yesterday.
Westfield Bank donated $5,000 to the group from the Westfield Bank Future Fund. That amount is the first part of $25,000 that the bank promised the organization over the next five years. Sisters of St. Joseph’s said they will use the money to help the many nuns in elder or infirmary care so they can afford food, shelter and clothing.
Jim Hagan, left, presents a check to Sisters Maxyne Schneider and Betsy Sullivan.
“We wanted to be the lead gift so hopefully others will follow,” Jim Hagan, President of Westfield Bank, said about the donation.
The Sisters of St. Joseph have lengthy ties to Westfield, which was part of what prompted Westfield Bank to donate the money.
“St. Joseph’s has served explicitly in Westfield’s St. Mary’s schools since the 1890s,” Sister Maxyne Schneider, President of Sisters of St. Joseph, said.
The Sisters have been dealing with severe economic difficulty as the median age of their members has crept up while membership totals have declined. Additionally, their means of income, which mostly came from education, has become harder to come by, so less money is going into the group than ever before.
“About six years from now, our total earning will fall under $200,000,” Schneider said.
In order to offset the rising costs and lowering money available, Schneider said the group decided to sell their “motherhouse,” or central headquarters, Montmarie Nursing Center in Holyoke, in Dec. 2014. A majority of the women who were receiving care there were sent to a facility in Boston, and the sale helped to push the deficit the group faced from $40 million to $8 million.
“We were forced really–compelled–to sell our property in Holyoke,” Sister Betsy Sullivan, Vice President of the group, said.
Still, Schneider and Sullivan said that there are currently 209 Sisters who are currently under the care of St. Joseph’s, whose median age is 77. Of that amount, 170 live within a 15-mile radius of the greater Springfield area.
The group has received other donations, including large ones from Springfield Archdiocese Bishop Mitchell Rozanski and the Springfield Archdiocese itself. The total donations have helped the group considerably, Schneider said, but the group is still searching for “around $1.5 million” in donations.
