A Beacon of Hope in St. Augustine, FL

When I come across an organization that provides alternatives so a woman knows that she doesn't have to chose abortion & when that organization is named after my confirmation saint it it doubly bound to catch my attention.

In this case I was reading 1 of the articles in the Sept 2008 The Word Among Us when I came across this article: A Woman on a Mission The Twin Miracles of Caroline Wolff and the St. Gerard Campus. I knew that I had to check it out. I wasn't disappointed.

Started by Caroline Wolff in 1981, St. Gerard Campus offers women a place they can go to when there is no where else to turn to. Both her story & the story of St. Gerard's are a powerful testimony to what God can do if someone but says yes to the call.

Many years ago when she was living in New Jersey, she had a bout with kidney cancer. The diagnosis, plan your funeral. She was paralyzed, jaundiced & struggling to breathe because of a collapsed lung. Mary appeared to her & said: "Tell your children about me." She was instantly cured. As she puts it "Cured with a mission." The mission was to spread devotion to Mary esp through daily prayer of the Rosary. She told her children, their friends & the 40 some teens in trouble that her & her husband opened their house to over the years. Over the years they lived in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, the desert Southwest & finally Florida. Besides taking in teens they organized community service, opened a soup kitchen, helped rescue the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, PA owned a successful business, taught school & coached basketball.

So, now they were in Florida. Time to retire, but again, God had other plans. this time it was breast cancer. Again, through Mary God healed her. & with that the knowledge that she now had another mission. That mission became St. Gerard Campus.

It didn't start out under very auspicious circumstances. In fact, according to the article: "The buildings were in shambles, cheerless and institutional. The property stood neglected and overrun with weeds. The fences sagged drunkenly, where they stood at all. There were no staff, no supplies, no endowment, no funding whatsoever." But there was 1 thing they could do & they did it. "They prayed in the street out front." There weren't many people there. "Just a few people praying." But that was all God needed.

Today that collection of buildings have been restored. & more importantly, since 1981 they have "helped over 45,500 mothers in crisis." Many of those helped are teens with no where else to turn. & they did it without any public funding at all. It all comes from private donations & charitable community organizations.

As they say on their website: "The campus serves as a maternity home for pregnant and unwed mothers, and is an accredited high school. Day-care and residential programs are available as well. All services are free and offered to everyone."

According to the website, the school offers a teacher to student ratio of 3 to 1. I'll let them speak for themselves to describe what they do & why: "Not only does this high ratio create an optimum learning environment but it helps to induce a warm, nurturing bond between teacher and student.The goal of St. Gerard Campus is to give emotional and physical support to young women whose needs would otherwise be ignored by most of the people in our fast pace community." The school is supervised by a staff of certified teachers & is fullu accredited.

How & why do they do what they do: "Working closely with local health care agencies, the young women are given alternatives to abortion. The staff stands behind our philosophy and consistently follows through with help that is needed by a young mother or mother to be. Whether it be physical, spiritual, social or emotional support, aid is provided including necessary details like providing good nutrition. A healthy young woman will be faced with fewer problems during her pregnancy. St. Gerard Campus is not affiliated with any church. A safe shelter is provided to young women in crises providing a stable atmosphere of caring and protection. With loving help and support, the mother and child can build their lives with a good foundation of knowledge and happiness."

The website is full of success stories abbout the young women they have helped. Since they don't take any public funding they rely on the gifts (large & small) of donors who care. Right now they are raising funds for an ultrasound machine. Please go to their website for more information.

I close with these words of Caroline Wolff. “The really ignored ABUSED women of this world today is one who has been abandoned by the father of the baby she is carrying.” Many would simply abandon them, many would have them do the wrong thing by getting an abortion. Thank God for places like St. Gerard Campus who do the right thing & care for the women & their children.

(Note: Recently on the TH website, someone once again brought up the canard that those of us in the Right to Life movement only care until the child is born. This place is another of so many ministries that proves that claim is libelous, at best.)