Covenant House Leader To Speak In Spokane Well-Known Nun To Help Raise Funds

Where there once was the Nordstrom fall fashion show, now there is Sister Mary Rose McGeady in her navy blue polyester habit.

For more than a decade, Nordstrom’s fall fashion extravaganza had raised $30,000 a year for three local charities. But after the 1995 event, Nordstrom dropped the show - leaving $10,000 holes in the budgets of St. Anne’s Children’s Home, Morning Star Boys Ranch and the Guild School.

McGeady (pronounced “mick-gay-de”) is helping Catholic Charities fill the vacuum for St. Anne’s and Morning Star. She’ll be keynote speaker at a $100-a-plate luncheon Wednesday at the Spokane Club.

The Guild School, which is not part of Catholic Charities, is working on its own replacement fund-raiser.

McGeady has achieved near-icon status among Catholics in the United States for her work with Covenant House, a shelter for street kids in 12 U.S. cities and four foreign countries.

The shelters operate on $83 million a year in donations, mostly from Catholics. McGeady has been chief executive officer since 1990.

Her religious order, the Daughters of Charity, is one of the few orders to maintain the religious habit as a uniform for its members.

After joining the order out of high school in 1946, McGeady went to college, eventually obtained a master’s degree and a doctorate in psychology.

Then she went to work on the streets of Boston, New York City and other East Coast metropolises, always serving destitute children. She drove around in vans, handing out food, clothing and hope to homeless teens living on the streets.

In addition to operating 17 shelters, Covenant House runs a nationwide hotline for homeless kids.

When she took over leadership at Covenant House, McGeady went on the fund-raising trail and hasn’t stopped since.

Donna Hanson, director of social services for the Spokane Catholic Diocese, served with McGeady on the board of directors of the International Catholic Child Bureau, an entity formed by Pope John Paul II to address concerns of the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing.

“When you see her, you think her arms could embrace the entire world,” Hanson said.

Advertisements for Covenant House frequently feature McGeady’s imposing figure and smiling moon face next to a waif of a child.

McGeady was sympathetic when Hanson called and asked for the favor - she’s faced budget short-falls herself.

When she took over as CEO of Covenant House, McGeady stepped into the wake of a sexual scandal involving the former director. Donations were down and it was up to McGeady to turn things around, which she did.

Nordstrom dropped its fall fashion show in 1996, instead giving each of the three charities a one-time donation to cover the money normally raised at the event.

“We were doing two benefit fashion shows - one in the spring and one in the fall,” said Nordstrom spokesman John Bailey. “We were looking at costs and budgets and we thought it would be best to concentrate our efforts.”

Even with the one-time donation, the charities were left scrambling. Catholic Charities decided it was time to come up with one signature event to raise a lot of money.

But it takes time to put something like that together, said Marianne Heskett, development director for the diocese.

In the meantime, there was this minor problem of coming up with $10,000 for the boys ranch and the children’s home.

“We decided you just have to seize the moment,” Hanson said. “We’re doing what we hope will be a service to the community as well as a fun little luncheon.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LUNCH McGeady will speak at a luncheon Wednesday at the Spokane Club.