Sister Edna Lonergan: Intergenerational Care Pioneer

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Back in 1983, Milwaukee’s Sister Edna Lonergan had an original idea to care for the elderly and disabled. She called her program Adult Daycare, designed for the elderly and disabled unable to care for themselves when family members aren’t home. Years later, Sr. Edna expanded the adult daycare program to include child daycare. She said, “When you bring children and adults together for planned and informal activities, from daily exercise to art and music-making, children benefit from positive one-on-one attention from nurturing adults, who also benefit by sharing wisdom and skills with children. You create a family.” All this happens under the nonprofit umbrella of the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care.

But let Sr. Edna tell this remarkable story. There are two St. Ann Center campuses. The original is in Bay View, but I met her on the newer North Side location, the Bucyrus Campus (2450 W. North Ave.). The huge building is an inviting oasis in a blighted area of mostly disadvantaged Black residents. With a waterfall of white hair, Sister Edna radiates a prophet’s aura through her gentle demeanor. It’s as if trust had a personality. 

Tell me about your background, where you grew up, schools you attended, your parents, and also how you became involved with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi 

I was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. My mother was a homemaker who mothered seven children. She was happy and very creative. My dad was an electrical engineer and worked for the Boston Naval Shipyard and later in Newport where he helped develop some of the Naval War Games. At the age of three, I encountered a nun, a tall Sister who was fully habited. I looked at her and decided that’s what I want to be. By the time I was 13, I was working at the St Coletta School in Braintree, Massachusetts, helping with developmentally disabled boys. I did housework, shining floors, peeling potatoes. One day, one of the sisters asked if I wanted to join the community of The Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi and go into religious life. Our family all moved to Newport, but eventually I ended up in Milwaukee at the age of 14 at the motherhouse in Milwaukee. That was 1956. I attended high school at St Mary’s Academy, which no longer exists. It was a time of learning. 

What happened after you graduated from high school?

I did my postulancy, a year of training for the religious life. I took my vows at the age of 21 and made a promise to serve God. I pretty well knew at that time I wanted to be a nurse. I attended the Sacred Heart School of Nursing, and I was a nurse for a few years, then went to Cardinal Stritch University. I wanted to be an occupational therapist and so I attended Mount Mary University for a couple years. After that, I opened an occupational rehab department at the Sisters of St Francis on the South Side.

As the director of rehab, I oversaw the physical and speech therapists. But I wanted to go deeper, and asked if I could get a masters degree in gerontology at North Texas State. While I was getting my degree in Texas, we visited a woman caring for three elderly people in her home, and I thought we could do that, we could open an adult day care in Milwaukee. That was a new concept back in the 1970s, caring for the elderly during the day so they could be home at night with their families, instead of having them to a nursing home before they needed to be there. 

How did your adult daycare program in Milwaukee come about?

The Sisters said that if I could get grant funding, I could start my daycare program. I applied for a block grant, and the county supervisors voted four to three to provide the grant money. $21,000 to take care of 11 elderly people for an entire year in a large room in our healthcare facility. We started with two grannies and two older men. We gave them rehab, provided recreation and even meals. That was 1983.

When did the intergenerational program happen, the blending of children and adults? 

The adult daycare program was new and innovative and it kept growing. We needed more space, and I moved us to the basement of the motherhouse. With the aid of more grant money, I renovated the basement. And then we were working with not just the elderly but people of all ages, some with strokes or developmental disabilities. We needed more staff. Women who had children came and helped, but when their children were home from school, I lost some of these women as my staff. I told them, ‘Bring your children with you.’ They did, and magic happened. 

What do you mean by magic happening?

As an example, there’s the story of Frank, a stroke victim in a wheelchair. Children liked to hop on his lap and ride around in the wheelchair. Frank had serious grand mal seizures a couple times a week. One day, a little girl named Kathy was sitting with Frank on his wheelchair. I could see his seizure coming on, but then little Kathy wrapped her arms around Frank. It was such a sweet gesture—and Frank never had the grand mal seizure. I thought, why are we isolating the age groups? They should interact. Some of the men taught the kids how to fish, and the women taught the kids about having tea parties. It was fun having the children around. I looked at this as if we were all a big family. 

You kept expanding. How did the St. Ann Intergenerational Daycare Center happen on the South Side? It’s quite the complex. 

I had a friend, Marty Stein. I told him that I’d like to build an intergenerational daycare center that would help people of all ages. He helped me raise $10 million to build the new building, which is called the St. Ann Stein Campus. It was completed in 1999. Marty and Tim Sullivan, then the CEO of Bucyrus International, also helped raise $10 million to build what is now called St Ann Center Stein Campus. It was completed in 1999.

Later on, you built the Bucyrus Campus on the North Side in the heart of zip codes 53205 and 53206. How did this project come about?

I wanted to provide a daycare center in the poorest area of Milwaukee, where we are sitting right now. My big helper was again Tim Sullivan. That’s why we call this our Bucyrus Campus. It was completed in 2015 at a cost of $21 million. At 80,000 square feet, it’s larger than the first campus. Most of our staff is hired from this area, meaning we do our best to have local residents working for us. 

We like to see local residents running businesses, and we try to help. In this building, we have a woman who makes soaps and creams and rents space near the main entrance for her business, which is called Aloekui. Soon, she will be moving into her own store. And, next door to us, BIZSTARTS has an office. They help people start new businesses, and we give them free space for training on Saturdays.

How many employees do you have at the St. Ann Center?

We have somewhere around 200 employees for both campuses. On this campus as of yesterday, we have 106 adult daycare clients of all ages enrolled. We are about to open a special unit for younger disabled adults who love computers and electronics. 

Let’s talk about your childcare facility. You have a state-of-the-art playground here. 

We actually have five playgrounds, each designed appropriately for an age group. 

Are the children here all day long?

Our childcare is open all day long, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday! Depending on the parents’ work schedules, some parents might need us to care for their children a few hours before or after school daily, some might just need us three mornings a week, and some may need the full day. We care for babies as young as six weeks old, and children all the way through age 12.

The idea is to teach the children to become compassionate. Right now, we have the capacity to care for 45 children here, and we have a long waiting list, but we don’t have enough teachers. The good news is we just hired three teachers from Kenya.

Do the parents of these children have to pay for childcare?

If they qualify for programs like Early Head Start or Wisconsin Shares, they don’t. But those who can afford to pay something do pay.

I think you call your process intergenerational care.

We provide an intergenerational homelike setting. We specialize in compassion, care and dignity. We bring all ages together, from six weeks old to 100 years old. Youngsters learn to respect and socialize with all types of people, and the older adults delight in making friends of the kids—that really keeps them healthier, physically and emotionally. It’s also good for our children to be around people who appear different. If we had more of this type of intergenerational care, I strongly believe there would be less bullying in schools, more tolerance and compassion.

Among your many talents, I read that you design jewelry. The sale of your jewelry is for a good cause, right?

Yes, it is. Years ago, we used to hold regular rummage sales with items people donated to help raise money to cover our operating costs. The vintage jewelry people donated sold so well that we started focusing just on that. Then, I learned to design my own jewelry. The proceeds from sales of my jewelry and the donated vintage jewelry go to provide baths here for our adult clients.

Many of our clients have mobility difficulty or unsteadiness and can no longer get into their home tub or shower—and they can’t afford to pay for our bathing service. It costs us about $25 to give someone a bath, depending on their disability. We are always coming up with new ways to help people.

St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care-Bucyrus Campus provides a free Wednesday evening family-friendly entertainment series for all ages called Indaba Nights. The series takes place from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Indaba Band Shell, 2450 W. North Ave, through Aug. 31.