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Sister Mardelle Bellinghausen honored for work at Marian Central

Sister Mardelle Bellinghausen

After working at Marian Central Catholic School in Woodstock, Ill., for 33 years, most of them as head of the guidance department, Sister Mardelle Bellinghausen is being honored by the school. In conjunction with the school’s 50th year celebration and kick off of a $5 million building project, school officials have announced they’ll name the new guidance department: “The Sr. Mardelle Bellinghausen Guidance & Counseling Center.”

“The work that she did here was outstanding,” says school superintendent Tom Landers. “She touched the lives of every student that went through our school. Hence, it’s only appropriate for us to consider a naming opportunity for her, since so many of our alums not only know her but have had opportunity to be positively influenced by her.”

Sister Mardelle, who started work at Marian Central in 1970 and has a scholarship named for her, can tell many stories about her days at the school and the students she counseled: the student with low ACT scores she helped get into a college; the student who was knocked out cold when kids threw rocks at him; the mother who asked Sister Mardelle to counsel her child, even though that child wasn’t a student at the school. “I just think it’s our mission to care,” she says. “I look back in gratitude at those years.” When they met with her, students would talk about everything from school to The Simpsons television program, “If it’s important to them, you listen,” she says. “They’d come in with excess baggage and dump all this stuff and then they’d go out with empty baggage.”

One particular student Sister Mardelle remembers, often complained about how his teachers were unfair. Sister Mardelle finally responded by pointing to a crucifix on the wall and saying, “That is the most unfair thing that has ever happened in the world.” The boy thanked her, years later, for the valuable lesson she’d taught him.
“I loved teaching and I loved administration but those were special years (in counseling) because I stepped inside of people,” says Sister Mardelle. “It’s very humbling, you know. I feel kind of undeserving of it. When Tom Landers called me, I broke down and so did he. I guess the thought that comes to me is that it was a place of healing. I think of the healing and the dignity and respect we’d given to people in the department by our understanding. It was hard for me to leave that.”

Landers describes Sister Mardelle as caring and interested in the well-being of individuals, regardless of their strengths and challenges. “She helped young people become all that God intended them to be.” Landers explains, “We’re very happy to honor her and also recognize all the work that she did for us at Marian Central.”
As Sister Mardelle reflects upon the experience, she says, “Thanks, Lord, for any good you allowed me to do or any sign you allowed me to be.”

A gathering to celebrate Sister Mardelle’s honor and to inform people about the school’s building project took place Feb. 10 in Woodstock, Ill.

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