First Posted: 9/10/2014

Misericordia University will celebrate the 90th anniversary of its founding by the Religious Sisters of Mercy with a series of events for the campus community and the public during Mercy Week from Sept. 21-26. The schedule will include the dedication of the Founders Circle, a special Mass, a “Stuff the Bus” donations collection and a service fair for students.

The highlight of the event is the lecture, “The World Needs Mercy…Can You Respond?,” presented by Dr. Karen Schneider, RSM, M.D., assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 23 in the Catherine Evans McGowan Room of the Mary Kintz Bevevino Library. The program is free to the public.

Dr. Schneider will discuss how children in poverty around the world need the assistance of others. She will discuss how she and others have responded to this suffering through her ministry, Mercy Medical Mission, which arranges for medical care and surgeries for children in Peru, Guyana, Haiti and other developing countries, and how every-day people can also assist.

In addition to Dr. Schneider’s lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 23, a Mercy Prayer Service will take place at 4 p.m. in the University Chapel.

Mercy Week 2014 will commence with a Liturgy at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21 in the Misericordia University Chapel in Mercy Hall.

A Mercy Week Mass will be held at 12:05 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 in the Mercy Hall Chapel.

There will also be a presentation at noon on Sept. 22 in Huntzinger Room 218 in Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall by the Misericordia University students who attended the Young Mercy Leaders Conference held earlier this year in Ireland. The students met with students from Mercy-sponsored colleges around the world and addressed areas of critical concern to the religious order, including women and children in poverty, social justice, and environmental sustainability.

OMisericordia University will celebrate the 90th anniversary of its founding on Sept. 24, 1924 on Wednesday, Sept. 24 with the dedication of the road that forms a half circle in front of Mercy Hall. One of the numerous roads on campus being named to comply with 9-1-1 emergency response standards, the newly-named Founders Circle, will be dedicated at 11:30 a.m. at a ceremony on the Mercy Hall front lawn followed by Mass in the University Chapel at 12:05 p.m. The cutting of a ceremonial 90th anniversary cake will take place at 12:30 p.m. in the Banks Student Life Center Lobby.

The University’s Staff Council will host a “Stuff the Bus” event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25 in the Wells Fargo Amphitheater. The council’s goal is to fill a bus with donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste, white t-shirts in sizes medium, large and extra-large, socks and baseball caps for migrant workers in the Keystone Health Farmworker program. Donations from the public are welcome and can be dropped off with Maria Cabrera, staff council member, in Room 109 of the Banks Student Life Center.

A Service Fair also will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25 in the lobby of the Banks Student Life Center. It offers students a chance to meet with representatives from numerous local service agencies that work with the community and have a need for volunteers and support.

A service project involving students from the Hildebrandt Learning Center inLehman will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 26 in the Catherine Evans McGowan Room of the Mary Kintz Bevevino Library. Ttudents will do arts and crafts with the children, and Thomas J. Botzman, Ph.D., president, is scheduled to read a book to them.

Mercy Week at Misericordia will conclude with a “Comfortable Cup of Tea,” a reception for faculty, staff and Sisters of Mercy from the area, on Friday, Sept. 26. The event will include Celtic music and a performance by the Emerald Isle Dancers to celebrate the heritage of the Sisters of Mercy and the establishment of the religious order by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland in 1831.

Other events of the week include the Misericordia University Employee Awards Dinner, which will recognize employees for length of service and exemplary work ethic.

Additional information on Mercy Week activities at Misericordia is available by calling 570-674-1483.

w.

www.twitter.com/MisericordiaU