COMMUNITY & CULTURE
NONPROFIT
SPOTLIGHT
academically and with extra-curricular activities. He got a scholarship
to Mizzou to study engineering,” she said, adding that the team at
Marygrove did whatever they could to support him. “Nick learned how
to drive in a staff person’s car…and when he was applying for housing at
Mizzou, one of the staffers was leaning over his shoulder to help. He’s
in his 20s now, and he still comes back. We make room for him. We are
his family.”
Feldt said that Nick is just one example of the many children
profoundly impacted by their time at Marygrove.
“These are children who’ve survived things, who have been through
significant trauma and have complex histories of abuse and neglect,” she
said. “For children who have been diminished and whose trust has been
betrayed, Marygrove helps bring out their unique gifts and abilities.
There’s a lot of heavy lifting that happens here, but it’s worthwhile - to
see these young people have faith in the people at Marygrove, and then
ultimately, in themselves.”
MISSION To provide quality mental health services to severely
H
elping abused and neglected children reclaim their
childhood - that’s what the Sisters of the Good
Shepherd set out to do when they established
Marygrove in St. Louis more than 165 years ago.
“In the city of St. Louis at that time, a lot of kids
who were traumatized and had issues related to abuse, neglect, poverty
and mental illness were not getting the help they needed,” noted
Kathryn Feldt, chief development officer for Marygrove.
In the mid-1960s, the sisters moved to North County on a 43-acre
campus overlooking the Missouri River, providing “a much more
restorative environment,” for the children, according to Feldt. And
while Marygrove initially focused on helping teenage girls, its mission
evolved over time to respond to the community’s changing needs.
“We still get calls from young ladies who spent their formative years
here to tell us about how they appreciate the impact those sisters had,”
Feldt said. “But in the ‘80s, as the sisters began to age, they realized that
the mission wasn’t sustainable.”
That was when current CEO Sister Helen Negri began to grow the
organization into one that serves children from birth to 21 years old
with five main programs: therapeutic residential treatment, therapeutic
foster care, transitional living, independent living and crisis services.
Combined, the programs reach more than 1,300 children and families
each year.
“We have over 200 children who are receiving residential treatment.
These children are living with us so that they can be positioned for
a healthy, self-sufficient future by learning basic life skills, financial
literacy and how to get a part-time job, as well as helping them through
high school and college,” Feldt explained.
One of the crucial roles that Marygrove plays in the children’s lives is
giving them a sense of family. Feldt recalled the story of Nick, who came
to Marygrove as a teenager.
“Nick was in foster care and had been in three different foster
systems when he came to us. He was here for four years and was in
the transitional living program. He excelled in high school, and did well
disturbed children, young adults and their families, who are
economically disadvantaged.
HOW YOU CAN HELP Marygrove’s signature fundraiser, Bloom,
takes place on March 2 at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis. This
year’s honorees are the Tersigni Family Foundation and Sister Helen
Negri. For tickets or more information, call (314) 830-6201 or visit
marygrovechildren.org.
SAVVY I SOPHISTICATED I SASSY
83