On Friday, Feb. 12, Bishop Noll students donated money to the Sojourner Truth House as part of a campus ministry-sponsored jeans day for the last day of Catholic Schools week. They raised exactly $400 for the Sojourner Truth House.

Sojourner Truth House, founded in 1997, is a charity organization that “serves homeless and at-risk women and their children and underserved members of the community through three streams of service”. The charity is sponsored by the Poor Handmaidens of Jesus Christ and run by an expansive board of directors, headed by the chairperson Judith Stanton. They offer several services, primarily helping homeless women and children get back on their feet. 

Bishop Noll’s been working with STH for about 5-6 years. 

“My first year here in 2015-2016,” says Ms. Stacia Bolakowski, campus minister, “We did a supply collection drive (socks, soap, toilet paper, etc.) at the BNI/Andrean basketball game. All items were donated to STH. Along with the Senior Service Retreats, those have been the main ways we have contributed.” 

The executive director, Peg Spindler, has even come to BNI on occasion to speak with students about vocations. 

In real life, Sojourner Truth was born a slave; after many years of abuse, she gained her freedom July 4th, 1827. She worked and traveled constantly, usually with Frederick Douglass, across the Midwest and Northeast to end slavery. 

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right-side up again;” Sojourner Truth in her famous 1851 speech, “Ain’t I A Woman?”