Making a difference: South Bend women volunteer, lead, minister to area residents
The South Bend Tribune is spotlighting women in the area, whether they are already in the spotlight or escaping much public attention for their efforts, who are putting in the work to make their neighbors' lives better. These are their stories.
Pastor Vickie Van Nevel
SOUTH BEND — Spend a little time speaking with Pastor Vickie Van Nevel, pastor of First United Methodist Church of South Bend, and you'd never know she considered retiring from her calling a year ago.
After 20 years as pastor at Northwest United Methodist Church, she was asked to head South Bend's downtown church that has many thriving ministries for the South Bend area's homeless, hungry and poor people.
Senior Pastor Ivy Butler
MISHAWAKA — When her husband, Bishop Rico Butler, died unexpectedly at age 44, Ivy Butler continued to lead the flock that he'd gathered almost 16 years earlier, with some members having left the grips of addiction.
Ten years later, Ivy Butler still serves as senior pastor of the church and its more than 250 members from “all walks of life.” She also heads the school that the couple had started here at Power in Praise Crusade Ministries, at Mishawaka Avenue and Logan Street.
Roxanne Ewing
SOUTH BEND — Roxanne Ewing knows cats.
Ask about any of the 80 felines that live in her garage-turned-cattery for Pet Refuge, and she recites their name, reason for being there, and a bit of their medical and behavioral history.
Marijo Martinec
SOUTH BEND ― Most people probably wouldn’t recognize Marijo Martinec if they saw her out and about in the South Bend region.
But her voice is a familiar one on area radio stations, reminding people of the food insecurity faced by 76,400 people or roughly 10.3% of the combined population in St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, Kosciusko, LaPorte and Starke counties.
Nan Tulchinsky
SOUTH BEND — Even now, as she mows her lawn, “every single time I turn back toward the house, I check to see if he’s home from school yet,” Nan Tulchinsky says of husband Mark.
It’s notable on multiple levels: Tulchinsky’s 80 years old and still cutting grass, and the husband she’s habitually keeping an eye out for has been gone more than 15 years.
But that’s Nan Tulchinsky. Quick to be reflective, yet quick to forge ahead. Quick to turn that mower in whatever direction is required.
Charity Stowe and Rachel Mospan
SOUTH BEND ― Charity Stowe moved back home to South Bend a few years ago and bought a big green house in the Monroe Park neighborhood, on downtown’s southeast side.
Then she bought two multi-family homes across an alley to the south. She runs seven rental units there.
And now she plans to direct $570,000 toward saving a historic building just a block west, at 516 S. Michigan St.
Through her company Herstoric Development, which she runs with 37-year-old local interior designer Rachel Mospan, she’s following a model for so-called incremental development. The idea is for small developers to take the lead in rebuilding blighted urban areas, particularly in Rust Belt cities where historic properties abound.
Clara Ross
SOUTH BEND — Clara Ross is, on occasion, a clown.
She calls herself Bubbles the Clown. She's been clowning since 1996, she says. In one variation of her look, she wears a festive jester’s hat with many-hued pants, rainbow sneakers and a pink tutu. Her face is outlined with swirls of white paint studded with little red hearts.
Four mornings a week, she works as a greeter at Broadway Christian Parish, a church where people who are homeless or seriously in need go to get breakfast, take showers and pick out donated clothing.
And both of these efforts build toward what Ross, who’s 63 years old, considers her vocation: managing Homes for Tracy, a five-bedroom house where women transitioning out of homelessness can pay modest rent and enjoy support while they figure out their next steps. The nonprofit program opened this spring.
Sheila McCarthy
SOUTH BEND — Growing up near Boston in the 1980s, Sheila McCarthy saw the beginning of the modern era of homelessness.
The U.S. was rebounding from its worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment spiked to 10.8% at the end of 1982 and stayed high throughout the decade.
And in fall 2020, decades after those Boston neighborhoods ignited her urge to do something, McCarthy became the director of Motels4Now, a low-barrier homeless shelter in South Bend that serves about 115 people.
Aladean DeRose
SOUTH BEND — Fresh out of college in the 1970s, Aladean DeRose was a language major who landed a job with the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
"I got a rude awakening of the world in 1973 in the year I graduated college, in that it was a man's world and women were sort of the accoutrements, even with degrees," DeRose said. "The women who were doing all the work behind the scenes were being paid just pitiful."
Gladys Rosas
SOUTH BEND — Gladys Rosas is making up for missed opportunities, like the 21st Century scholarship that she could have had.
She’d signed up for Indiana's 21st Century Scholars program as a middle school student in Goshen, then forgot about it. No one reminded her that the money was within reach. So, she pursued and gained her bachelor’s degree in social work at Hesston College in Kansas anyway — having met many of the requirements to secure the scholarship (except for staying in Indiana), but without the generous benefit.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: South Bend women share time, talents through ministries, non-profits
