Meet our new heart to heart director

My name is Patricia Sullivan, and I received a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies in May 2022, from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. My business background includes database and office management experience in a mid-sized patent and trademark law firm.

Working as a volunteer this past year at the Archdiocese of Chicago Kolbe House Jail Ministry has allowed me to do in jail service, as well as accompanying men released after incarceration. I am an active participant in other organizations like the Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition, the Catholic Mobilizing Network, and Restore Justice Illinois.

I joined St. Gertrude during COVID and felt privileged to be a companion on the RCIA journey this past year, as well as a participant in the Peace and Justice Ministry. I look forward to the new challenge of guiding St. Gertrude’s long-standing Heart to Heart Ministry, servicing the Edgewater/Rogers Park communities. For me, growing in faith is a lifelong process moving us to continual and constant development, advancing in spirituality, coming up against social justice issues, and taking action towards improving conditions in our society.

In 1986, social worker Mary Ann Collins and a few other women from St Gertrude parish realized that their older Edgewater neighbors needed broader community assistance with grocery shopping and getting to/from medical appointments and procedures. Thus, the Heart to Heart Seniors Ministry was born.

The mission of Heart to Heart is to provide screened and caring volunteers who assist older adults throughout the Edgewater/Rogers Park neighborhoods so that they can remain independent and connected to our community for as long as possible. This contact with our staff and volunteers also reduces feelings of isolation and loneliness which so many of our seniors are experiencing. Additional volunteer services can now include visiting seniors, making well-being telephone calls to them, and sending greeting cards celebrating important events in their lives. When needed, we also make referrals to supportive services and/or public agencies on behalf of seniors who need them.

All Heart to Heart staff members and volunteers have completed VIRTUS training, a program created by the Catholic Church and monitored by staff of our Archdiocese to protect vulnerable populations such as Seniors. Additionally, our volunteers and staff must also complete ongoing monthly VIRTUS trainings to maintain compliance with this program. Each volunteer and staff member has received all COVID-19 vaccinations currently available.

Our volunteers thus enrich their own lives by sharing their abilities and talents to make a real difference in the lives of the seniors they serve.

April Showers bring… lifted spirits!   

Miss B’s UIC-Hospital physical therapist referred her to the Heart to Heart Lending Closet for a rollator. Delighted to get a sturdy walker with a seat, Miss B patiently waited in the Ministry Center parlor for her PACE bus ride home to the west side.  As we watched the rain, she mentioned her years working at Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Elderly, including when Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s mother Maria lived there. “I got the call when the Cardinal’s mother arrived – the staff wanted me to be there to welcome and care for her!” Miss B reminisced.  

Her welcoming demeanor was confirmed not 10 minutes later, when Jacqueline rang the bell, desperate to borrow a Lending Closet wheelchair. Jacqueline’s teen son, a varsity CPS high school basketball player in the Chatham neighborhood, had been injured in a game. He needed a wheelchair to attend school for the next six weeks and CPS suggested the Lending Closet. Miss B assured the worried mom that her son would do just fine and promised prayers of healing. 

As the rains softened and Miss B and Jacqueline each headed home, I imagined Maria Bernardin and her son Joseph smiling down on such chance meetings that lift all our spirits!  

~ Laurie Hasbrook, Lending Closet Manager

March saw our staff quite busy with getting all of our volunteers into compliance with the VIRTUS program mandated by the Archdiocese of Chicago. This program requires all volunteers to complete yearly background checks and monthly training sessions to help keep the seniors helped by our Heart to Heart Seniors Ministry safe. Thank you to all those who spent valuable time and energy achieving this mandated compliance!  

We also plan to offer interesting and educational programming to our parishioners and neighbors later this spring and into the summer months. One such presentation will focus on the origins and focus of palliative care and hospice. Sheets listing all of the hospices in Chicagoland and their contact information will be distributed to all attendees. For further information, please call me at 773.973.5464, the Ministry Center telephone number. Calls not answered immediately will be returned promptly.  

Heartfelt thanks to all who so generously offer their support to this important ministry.  

~ Jane Callahan-Moore, Director of Parish Social Services/Heart to Heart Seniors Ministry

"Siyahamba, ekukanyen' kwenkos', Siyahamba, ekukanyen' kwenkos' We are MARCHing in the light of God, we are MARCHing in the light of God" ~ South African folk song  

Friends from Swedish Hospital called in March -- medical supplies for a field clinic in Ukraine were desperately needed. Could the Lending Closet help? Serving internally displaced refugees, the clinic needed basic items. The Lending Closet sent 12 boxes of donated first aid supplies (gauze bandages, alcohol wipes, aspirin, etc...), delivered directly by a Chicago delegation to the Ukrainian clinic that week.  

Closer to home, a grateful mother stopped by to donate durable medical equipment, including "the Hog", pictured above. A folding Hemi Walker, the Hog, supported her 26 year-old son during his recovery from a motorcycle accident. The mother said she'd spent hours in prayer at her son's bedside. The Hog, no doubt, has been amply blessed for whoever needs it next!  

The generosity of St. Gertrude parishioners and donors from throughout Chicago allow us to meet needs locally, and sometimes farther afield. Thank you for your support!  

~ Laurie Hasbrook, Medical Equipment Lending Closet Manager 

In addition to responding to local needs, the Lending Closet collaborated in February with Margaret Okodua, a nurse from Rogers Park. Margaret arranges shipments of donated medical equipment and supplies to Home of Mercy & Peace in Uromi, Nigeria. A refuge for formerly homeless, abandoned, or isolated seniors, HMP is a pastoral initiative of the Catholic Bishop and Diocese of Uromi, managed by the Sisters of St. Louis.  

Thanks to your generosity and donations from our local community, Heart-to-Heart has an abundance of certain items. On a frigid February night, a group of stalwart St. Gert's volunteers loaded two cars full of surplus walkers, commodes, and crutches for Home of Mercy and Peace.  

A heartfelt thank you to those volunteers, and to all who make such generosity beyond our borders possible.   

~ Laurie Hasbrook

Did you know that there is a special and valued ministry that needs participants, particularly our homebound and physically-restricted parishioners? There are no meetings or dues required, yet the members have a valued connection to parish life by enriching others and themselves through their own dedicated, daily prayer time!   

It works like this—we provide our committed participants with a prayer book and a monthly guide sheet reflecting some of the prayer requests taken from St. Gertrude Church’s Prayer Wall. Our prayer angels become an unseen blessing for so many! We welcome anyone’s interest in this caring ministry. Call Jane 

Callahan-Moore at 773.973.5464 for more information.