Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Rec center is a local asset
A place for kids to stay good
BY SARA J. BENNETT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LINCOLN HEIGHTS — Nothing but the best will do for children who come to St. Monica's Recreation Center.
Contrary to what some might expect of a rec center in a community struggling with poverty, St. Monica's has no shabby furniture. No pool tables donated from someone's basement. And no vandalism.
The newly renovated rooms are pristine, filled with Lego sets, new games and iMac computers. Tuesday, at the first of three annual winter holiday parties, a disc jockey entertained teen-agers who clamored for gifts of brightly colored insulated lunch bags.
Sister Mary Luke would have it no other way. The 62-year-old Episcopal nun has run St. Monica's Center for nearly 22 years.
She buys children bikes, clothing and meals at nice restaurants. In the summer, she takes kids to Tabor Cottage, a countryside retreat in Richland County.
As a postulant, she worked with street people, hippies, drug abusers and folks in trouble with the law. She's still known for insisting that people take responsibility for their own troubles.
St. Monica's is the cornerstone of her ministry.
Sprawling from a big Victorian house on Chester Road, the free center draws 60-80 kids on winter weekday evenings and up to 300 in summer. It is funded by the Sisters of the Transfiguration in nearby Glendale.
Sister Luke, as the children call her, likens the center to a big family.
“The whole thing kind of evolved, and we all did it together — the community and me,” she said. “People often say this is the best-kept secret in Lincoln Heights.”
This year's holiday parties are a personal celebration for Sister Luke.
They are the first to be held at St. Monica's after a major addition and renovation project was completed last January. After a bout with ill health, she spent 1999 hiring new staff and planning new programs.
“A year and a half ago, I was building this without really knowing if I could do what I'm doing today,” Sister Luke said. “I think right now I'm able to see the trees for the forest. We can go now.”
As a girl, Sister Luke spent her time at a recreation center in her Montreal neighborhood. When she joined the Sisters of the Transfiguration at age 28, she envisioned a similar center for Lincoln Heights.
“I always say that if there were more rec centers, there would be fewer penitentiaries,” she said. “I think there's a real need to have a place for kids who don't have a problem so they can go there and stay good.”
Reginald Guinn, a staffer who credits Sister Luke with getting him treatment for alcoholism, calls St. Monica's “a mainstay of the community.
“You knew it wasn't going anywhere, and you could trust it,” he said. “Even when I was a kid, you res spected it. If somebody dropped something in the yard, you'd say, "Hey, pick that up.' And heaven forbid Sister Luke would see you.”
That respect translates into success for Sister Luke.
“I've been in this community a long time, and I can't say if (my methods are) right or wrong, but it works,” she said. “I can tell you if there's no graffiti, and I can go away to the country in the summer and come back and the windows aren't broken and this place looks the way it does, and other places don't look that way, then we're doing something right.”
Though the Sisters of the Transfiguration pick up the nearly $400,000 annual tab to run St. Monica's Center, Tabor Cottage and accompanying social service programs, Sister Luke has a network of people, businesses and charitable foundations to help with the rest.
This spring, the center opens with renewed purpose. Sister Luke wants to develop the study area. She wants to expand the crafts programs. She wants to provide cooking and sewing programs.
“I don't think I ever grew up,” she said, reflecting on her years at St. Monica's. “I don't think I know how to do anything else.”
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