Sister Alice Keegan
Sister Alice Keegan engages in tutoring with Faduma, whose family immigrated from Somalia several years ago as refugees, and who is working on obtaining her High School diploma, while improving her command of the English language. Sister Alice has been involved in tutoring in both reading and English (ESL) since 2002, in Vancouver and in Saint John, NB. She participated in the Laubach Literacy Tutor Training Program in Vancouver in 2002, and again through R.E.A.D. Saint John in 2019. Her love of English vocabulary and grammar finds an outlet in helping others improve their use of the language, so they may better their lives. (Photo: Donna Hall)
MONICA PLANTE, SCIC
Sister Monica Plante, scic was born in Regina, SK. She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy and worked for a year in an office at Simpson-Sears, before receiving her teacher’s certificate from Moose Jaw Teachers’ College.
A rural two-room school in Mutrie, SK was her first teaching position. It was that year she was drawn to the Sisters of Charity and the orphanage in Prince Albert, SK and their dedication to Mary. While visiting the Sisters at Rosary Hall she was told their novitiate was in Saint John, NB. So on September 5, 1955 she left Regina to enter the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception in Saint John, NB.
As a teacher she taught elementary and high school in Saint John, New Brunswick; Holdfast, Saskatchewan; Edmonton, Alberta; Low, Quebec; Vancouver, British Columbia and Lima, Peru.
After 20 years of teaching, she coordinated the 75th Anniversary of Holy Family Hospital in Prince Albert, SK and compiled the historical booklet, and the 50th Anniversary of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC and the historical booklet. She also compiled the historical book for St. Patrick’s Orphanage, Prince Albert, SK while doing pastoral care at Holy Family Hospital.
After a second term in Peru and a sabbatical in Arnprior, Ontario, she began Parish Ministry in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta; Lower Post BC/Watson Lake, Yukon and in Merritt, BC until June 2000.
When Sister Monica was appointed Archivist in 2000, she moved to Vancouver. She gathered experience and information from volunteering at the Vancouver Diocesan Archives and from the Sisters of St. Ann in Victoria, BC, and attended her first CAG-O Conference in Niagara Falls in 2000. She arrived in Saint John in 2001 as assistant archivist to Sister Marion Murray.
As Archivist, her giftedness in historical research, writing and display work were called upon for many celebrations. She made significant contributions to the 150th and 165th SCIC Anniversaries and the 50th Anniversary in Peru. Monica retired from the SCIC Archives in 2020.
Sr. Monica says of herself in the words of St. Vincent de Paul, “I am neither for this place or that but for any place God wishes to send me.” Amen!
LIFE GENEROUSLY SHARED IN MISSION
Sister Rita Coumont, SCIC returned to Canada in mid-
SISTER MINISTERS IN HIGH CANADIAN ARCTIC
High in the western Canadian Arctic, Sister Fay Trombley has been a pastoral leader among Inuvialuit indigenous people since November 2005. A theologian and church historian, she is spending her “retirement” serving in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories at Our Lady of Grace mission. On the shores of the Arctic Ocean, the community affectionately known as “Tuk” witnesses midnight sun in summer and Northern Lights in winter. For an in-depth article with photos about Sister Fay’s ministry among the people of Tuktoyaktuk, please go to the link below. The article first appeared Nov. 10, 2014 in Global Sisters Report online and was later printed in the Feb. 13-26, 2015 edition of the National Catholic Reporter newspaper: http://globalsistersreport.org/ministry/ministry-top-world-14526