Last year, just as the Cabrini College graduates were leaving campus, the moving vans were arriving and a series of over 50 campus office re-locations was about to begin. First up, the move of the MSC Mission Offices from the College’s historic Mansion to the Cottage located on the northwest corner of campus.
After a spectacular renovation of the property by the College’s Facilities Department, The Cottage was ready for us. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by! Given the natural setting of the Cottage, we have delighted in all four seasons here.
Fittingly, on this Monday, we had international MSC visitors with us to help commemorate this happy occasion. Sr. Lucy Panettieri, MSC, Provincial Councilor, brought
Sr. Laura Baldini, MSC, Sr. Hanna Dima, MSC and Sr. Amarech Herego, MSC for a visit to Radnor. They toured the campus and met many members of the College community who impressed the Sisters with their mission spirit. They also spent time at the Cottage. Following their visit to the Cottage, Sr. Lucy and the sisters travelled to Langhorne, PA for a visit with Sr. Arlene Primus, MSC and Sr. Stephanie Kabacinski. MSC.
Another exciting development at the Cottage is the inauguration of a new container garden. The backyard of the Cottage is blessed with southern exposure. The sunlight streams down all day. When Cabrini College acquired the property, the vestiges of a vegetable garden were in place. Over the course of the past year, the MSC Mission Offices staffers had dreamed of reconstituting the garden in order to grow vegetables for the various shelters in the nearby city of Norristown with whom the College’s Wolfington Center for Service partners. Collaborating with Wolfington Center Director Tom Southard, “Francesca’s Garden” as Sr. Grace Waters has dubbed it, will provide fresh produce for the guests at these various organizations.
In consultation with Gus Feudale, the head groundskeeper at Cabrini College, and Cabrini student Stan Thompson, plans have been developed to prepare a full vegetable garden for which the prep work will begin later this summer. Members of the College community will be invited to work in the garden and the future bounty will be given to Catholic Social Services of Montgomery County, PA, the Norristown Hospitality Center and Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center (CHOC ) and other homeless shelters with whom the College has an on-going relationship.
Jumpstarting the garden this month was the gift of heirloom tomato plants from Cabrini College alumna and trustee Elizabeth Riley Bell ’69 and her husband Ray. Elizabeth delivered the plants cultivated by her husband to campus and Gus Feudale took it from there. Different varieties of heirloom tomato plants are now in place in large containers at the Cottage made secure from the many deer and fox visitors that frequent the property.