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FSPA recognized for service

Sister DeSales Curti retires from FSH after 51 years

Sister DeSales Curti

Sister DeSales Curti recently retired from the pharmacy department at Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in La Crosse, after 51 years of service. A reception was held in her honor at the hospital in September.

Sister DeSales professed her first vows with the FSPA in 1955, and in the same year, joined the staff at Franciscan Skemp Healthcare as a pharmacy aid. After earning a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., she returned to Franciscan Skemp and eventually became chief pharmacist, a role she held for twelve years. She returned to a staff pharmacist position in 1972 and maintained that role until August of this year.

Sister DeSales has also served as a volunteer in the pharmacy at St. Clare Health Mission since the clinic opened in 1993. She says she will continue in the role of volunteer supervisor at the mission.

Franciscan Federation Peacemaker Award

Sister Mary Kathryn Fogarty

Sister Mary Kathryn Fogarty has received the Franciscan Federation’s annual Peacemaker Award, which was presented to her at a meeting held in Rochester, N.Y., in July. Sister Mary Kathryn received the award for her dedication to peace through spirituality.

The Peacemaker banquet program reads, Sister Mary Kathryn Fogarty, “Has has made a life time goal of being a spiritual friend and mentor in all her encounters. Whether as an educator in the U.S., the principal of an elementary school in Santa Ana, El Salvador, and director of the Franciscan Spirituality Center in La Crosse, her guiding spirit became a beacon for others on their spiritual journeys. As FSPA vice president, she was the council’s liaison to three congregation’s spirituality centers.”

Women’s Fund Award

Sister Leclare Beres

The Women's Fund of the La Crosse Community Foundation awarded Sister Leclare Beres the Roberta Zern Women in Leadership Award on Oct. 17. Sister Leclare was selected because of her leadership in developing and directing the Indochinese Screening Clinic and the St. Clare Health Mission. She is the second person to receive the award. The Women's Fund exists to enrich the lives of women and girls so that they can do the same for others. The fund encourages the advancement and full participation of women and girls by providing grants for projects which foster an impact on attitudes and actions that benefit women and girls, promote opportunity, health and self-sufficiency for women and encourage women and girls to develop as philanthropists. Roberta Zern was a La Crosse area philanthropist who supported the work of the Women's Fund.

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