Have you ever wondered where all your money goes during Charity Week? Well, this year, the University of Dallas is donating Charity Week money to GOLD (Gospel of Life Disciples and Dwellings) and St. Francis Montessori.
GOLD provides personal care, housing and community to elderly people at the end of their lives, and St. Francis Montessori school works to educate, catechize and, according to their website, “[awakens] each child’s natural wonder.”
Both organizations were founded in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, which is significant as this year is the Jubilee Year of St. Francis and the 800th anniversary of his death.
According to a founder of GOLD, philosophy major and 1986 UD graduate Sr. Maria Faulkner of the Trinity, “Mary and Jesus founded GOLD, hopefully I just helped,” as did other UD graduates. Faulkner strives to imitate St. Francis of Assisi, who radically loved God and others.
GOLD’s mission, said Faulkner, is to provide “end-of-life care and accompaniment, specifically for people that are in need due to age or terminal illness.” Faulkner said they serve those “who would otherwise be alone.”
According to the GOLD brochure, volunteers provide care “free of charge for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.” GOLD currently has four volunteers working at the home. The volunteers, a community of consecrated and lay persons, are called “LifeGuards.”
“LifeGuards,” according to the GOLD brochure, “dedicate themselves to living the joy of the Gospel through a ministry of compassionate presence and humble service with the dying.” Faulkner said, “We’re a volunteer-based ministry, so none of us are paid for this, and so it’s very important that Charity Week funds will help us keep the house going.”
After an unexpected expense with the air conditioning, Faulkner found out that GOLD would be receiving Charity Week funds. She thanked Jesus and said, “It came at a time when exactly it was needed.”
The money will go directly to the house for food, electricity, clothes and care for the elderly residents.
Faulkner said, “That’s how God blesses us because we’re doing this for God.”
Currently, GOLD has three residents at their St. Adelaide Dwelling in Grand Prairie, TX personal care home. Their other dwellings are St. John Paul II Dwelling in Moore, Oklahoma and Blessed Stanley Rother Dwelling in Cerro de Oro, Guatemala.
At their homes, the volunteers and residents pray, eat and go through daily life together.
The house is also a dwelling place for Jesus. There is a chapel with a tabernacle at each GOLD location, prayer being a central part of their mission.
Faulkner emphasized that UD students are welcome to volunteer at any of their locations, and are welcome on a pilgrimage to their sister organization in Assisi next year.
Margaret Jennings Sullivan, BA English ‘24 and valedictorian, and her husband, Patrick Sullivan, BA Theology ‘24, served at the GOLD house in Oklahoma for a year. They then served together in Grand Prairie, TX, before Patrick entered medical school.
Faulkner was touched that Charity Week funds were also going toward St. Francis Montessori, which cares for people at the beginning of their lives, while GOLD cares, said Faulkner, “for those who are the outcasts of our time.”
According to Polly Christensen, a composition teacher at St. Francis Montessori and a catechist of the Good Shepherd, St. Francis Montessori is an elementary school with the mission “to educate children according to the principles of Maria Montessori and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.”
Christensen said, “We hope to awaken wonder in the children and instill in them a desire to learn throughout their whole lives.” They also hope to “collaborate with parents to help them fulfill their God-given task, to educate their children.”
There are three campuses: St. Francis Montessori for 3-6 year-olds, San Damiano Montessori for 6-9 year-olds and St. Clare Montessori for 9-12 year-olds.
St. Francis Montessori was founded in 2009 by Polly and Joe Christensen with the help of UD alumni. Christensen said, “We have a lot of gratitude to UD because my husband and I met in the graduate program[…] we have a really great connection with UD.”
Of the five current lead teachers at St. Francis, four are UD alumni.
The money from Charity Week donations will be going towards increased safety measures and current maintenance for the school.
Some of their other recent projects have included a new playground and driveway repair.
Christensen, when asked about her favorite part of working at St. Francis Montessori, said, “I just love to see the children. They’re just so innocent and beautiful, and just full of love […] and seeing their wonder, their delight, and their innocence.”
Christensen said, “We’re very grateful to UD […] we’re very grateful for the formation UD has given all of us as students and becoming adults, doing God’s work in the world and the continued support of UD through Charity Week.”