Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities

Want to join me in making a difference? During the Summer of 2020, I will be swimming the Molokai Channel to raise money for the Sisters of St Francis of Neumann Communities, a congregation of 320 sisters who serve people in need. The Molokai (Kaiwi) Channel is 28 miles long and one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world.  There are strong winds, rough currents and large swells. This, along with the abundant sharks and jellyfish make for a very challenging swim! Only 70% of the swimmers that attempt this swim are able to finish.  
I have been inspired to accept this awesome challenge by the life and legacy of St. Marianne Cope.  A woman of great valor, this beloved "mother of outcasts" spent her early years in central New York where she was the leader in the feild of healthcare, education and her own congregation.  She and her fellow sisters established hospitals to serve patients without financial means with dignity and compassion.
In 1883 Mother Marianne and six other Sisters of St. Francis bravely responded to a call to care for the people with leprosy (Hansen's disease) on Molokai.  
They  devoted their lives to improving the lives of those men, women and children whose disease left them exiled to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa.  These poor souls had been cruelly seperated from their families and abandoned in the harshest of conditions to fend for themselves.  Mother Marianne and the sisters brought these people healthcare and so much more. They established a community that supported individual creativity, dignity and respect. They brought beauty to the island  with gardens, music and art. The grave sites of thousands of people who died from Hansen's disease cover the peninsula on Molokai, but the sisters devotion brought a measure of peace and comfort to their time in this place. Mother Marianne's extraordinary actions lead to canonization as a saint by the vatican in2012. 
Mother Marianne's call to act as a servant of God and the Franciscan values she embraced gave her the courage to accept difficult challenges with diplomacy and grace.  Today the Sister's of St. Francis continue her legacy of service and compassion through their missions and ministries.  If Mother Marianne and her fellow sisters could journey across the United States and the ocean to Molokai to help the poor and forgotten, I can swim the 28 miles from Molokai to Oahu. Won't you join me and support the Sister's of Saint Francis?
I hope my swim can bring awareness to the Sister's cause, St. Marianne's example, and honor the lives lost on Kalaupapa. May we all choose to love unconditionally like Mother Marianne and instill hope in those in need every day!