b'Making a DifferenceTHEY ARE ALLGODS BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE.Grandma Lorraine spreads love through Partnering With The PoorBy Kevin ConwayW Schroepfer regularly receives updates, photos andith no connection to the Society of Mary,Sleepy Eye, Minn., seems to be among heart-warming letters from her sponsored children the last places one would expect to currently, Shekhar at Morning Star School in Singhpur,find a dedicated donor to the Marianist Missions India, and Vanessa at Our Lady of Nazareth School inPartnering With The Poor program.Nairobi, Kenya. In return, she shares photographsBut Sleepy Eye resident Lorraine Schroepfer is one and sends small gifts, cards and notes, signedofof the Marianists dedicated donors. courseGrandma Lorraine.Grandma Lorraine, as shes known to children I tell them that they are very precious children ofYou find yourself she sponsors, has been sponsoring children in India God, and they are awesome, she said. And I remindsaying, I cant help and Eastern Africa since 2014, when she received mail them that God wants them to be doing well in theirall of them, but I can from the Marianist Mission promoting Partnering studies, too. Im just so proud of them and admirehelp that one and With The Poor. their stamina.make a difference to Its such a reasonable cost and a simple way to Theyd admire her stamina as well. In 1973, afterthat one. And then help children living in such dire circumstances without 11 years of marriage, Schroepfers first husband, amaybe another one. adequate housing and food, she said. It makes me flight surgeon officer in the U.S. Navy, died suddenly,feel good that they can eat every day, have shelter, some leaving her a single mother with four children between Lorraine Schroepfer clean clothes and, hopefully, all the love they need. the ages of 6 and 10. After his death, she moved thefamily from California, where her husband had beenstationed, back to Minnesota to be near extended family.MARIANISTS IN MINNESOTA And, oh, myshe had plenty of family to be near.Number 11 of 13 children, Schroepfer had grownThe Society of Mary never established an outpost in Minnesota and never came up in the German-Catholic community of New Ulm,closer than communities in Wisconsin at Durand and Galesville, about 20 miles Minn., where she attended local Catholic elementaryeast of the border. According to the Marianist Province of the US National Archives and high schools. When she returned to the area, shein San Antonio, the Marianists established missions in 1856-57 around Germantown, settled about 20 minutes away in Sleepy Eye, a ruralWisc., near Milwaukee, more than 200 miles east of Minnesota. Then, in 1880, community named in honor of a Datoka chief in south-the Marianists arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which is about 70 miles central Minnesota. Two of her sisters lived there.north of the border. Finally, Marianists came close in Wisconsin with the communities When she remarried in 1979, her new husbandin Durand and Galesville, but they never made it into Minnesota. brought six children into their marriage. The blended,18 Call 1.800.348.4732'