Mercy Medical Center marked Heritage Day with a colleague barbeque and a cornhole tournament. Colleagues celebrated the special day by enjoying typical barbeque fare – hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salads, and cookies – as a local band provided background music.
Mercy colleagues serve food at the annual Heritage Day celebration.
Heritage Day was held on July 17 – just a few days before the 176th birthday of Catherine Horan, who founded the Sisters of Providence of Holyoke and took the name Mother Mary of Providence. Heritage Day provides an annual opportunity for Mercy colleagues to pay tribute to members of the Sisters of Providence congregation for creating and sponsoring the health ministry.
In 1873, four Sisters of Providence from Canada established a mission in Holyoke, leaving behind their familiar surroundings for western Massachusetts. Within one week of arrival, they established the House of Providence and accepted the first orphan, planting the seeds for the congregation’s first ministry that later became known as Brightside for Families and Children.
