Mercy gives $600K to community projects

St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy Health System, the parent company of St. John’s Health System in Springfield, has awarded $600,000 to nearly two dozen community programs in its service area, which includes parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Louisiana.

According to a St. John’s news release, the Springfield entities receiving funds are:

• Beisner Vision Rehabilitation Center of the Ozarks, $20,000, specialized intervention and training for children with severe visual impairment;
• Psychiatry Outreach, $38,102, telehealth equipment for mental health patients;
• Medication Access Program, $50,978, to provide medications for 3,000 patients who otherwise could not afford them; and
• Health Ministry Network, $4,671, scholarship for parish nurse education.

Other area recipients are the Lebanon-Laclede Interagency on Food & Enrichment, which received $10,000 for kitchen expansion and food supplies for Laclede County’s only food pantry, and Kornerstone in Shell Knob, which received $15,000 for prenatal, childbirth and parenting classes for teen mothers.

“This is a gift to serve those who are economically poor and to work for change on their behalf,” said Lynn Britton, president and CEO of Mercy, in the release. “We have a 200-year heritage of caring for impoverished women, children and the sick going back to Dublin, Ireland. This is about Mercy supporting the communities we serve.”

Since 1988, Mercy has awarded charitable grants of more than $8.5 million in the communities it serves, the release said.[[In-content Ad]]