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Health & Fitness

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Fun, fashion and faith were the news of the day at SVdP’s Catherine’s Center Breakfast Fashion Show Fundraiser, on Wednesday, June 12th at Notre Dame High School.  It was a lovely morning where residents and alumna of Catherine’s Center, a home for women coming out of incarceration, modeled fashions from SVdP Thrift Stores. Personalities shined as the women sauntered down the “catwalk,” illustrating the empowering nature of this transformative program for women reclaiming life after incarceration. 

 The keynote speaker was a senior resident who wanted to share with the guests about miracles, blessings and dreams.  She began by asking if anyone in the room had ever been on a diet or wished to lose a few pounds.  Her long, trying journey started when as a young woman she wished to be skinny and beautiful.  So, she began using drugs to help control her weight.  She went on to what seemed like a perfect life.  As she said, she had made it:  graduating at the top of her class from nursing school, having a Cinderella wedding, building a dream house, driving matching SUVs, and being blessed with children.  Yet, she was still using methamphetamines. 

 Her cycle of recidivism, abuse and addiction continued, until 2011 after her 6th arrest for selling drugs to a narcotics officer.  “God showed me that he believed in me.  I was invited to SVdP’s Catherine’s Center.  I am at Catherine’s Center, not as a statistic but as a testimony, not court ordered, but because it is my home, I want to be here.  Miracles come full circle.  God uses everyone to help create miracles.  SVdP’s Catherine’s Center is not just a recovery program. It is a place where you can find life, be transformed; where you can be encouraged.  So, I stand with these women of Catherine’s Center, who have come together – a big beautiful rainbow.  Tell your daughters, tell your friends – you are all uniquely beautiful.  This is about life.  This is about loving each other. Thank you all.  Today, I am part of the miracle of Catherine’s Center.”

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 With a holistic approach – mind, body and spirit, plus facing challenges and doing an abundance of hard work combined with unconditional love and compassion, lives can be transformed.  This is the miracle that all in attendance saw and believed in – and hopefully, you can too!

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