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Following Felician Footsteps

Dec 9, 2024

In July the Angela Hospice Board of Directors announced Jamie LaLonde as Angela Hospice’s next president and CEO, upon Marti Coplai’s retirement this month. As part of her orientation into the role, Jamie was invited to join representatives from other Felician ministries on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi, to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of the Felician vocation, and the saints who inspired it: St. Felix, St. Clare and St. Francis.

An important goal of the pilgrimage was to immerse Jamie and the other leaders in the motivations and lifestyle of the Felician Sisters, inspiring them to lead with purpose and intention.

Jamie LaLonde

“I know that there’s a great responsibility to take the investment that they made in me as an individual, to figure out, how do I carry all of that back to our team?” Jamie said.

The pilgrimage also strengthened her commitment to Angela Hospice.

“The responsibility held by the role of CEO is something that I don’t take lightly, and especially now after the experience of going on Pilgrimage feels infinitely more sacred and special,” she said. “It solidified my feeling that we’re doing something really special at Angela Hospice.”

With a background in social work, dementia care, and nursing home administration, Jamie first joined the Angela Hospice team in 2021. Among her main goals in leading Angela Hospice into the future, is securing Angela Hospice’s position as an independent, not-for-profit organization. With the national trend toward an increase in for-profit hospices, many not-for-profit hospices are shrinking.

“I don’t want that to be the case with us,” Jamie said. “What did the Sisters do? They expanded and they grew to share their mission.”

As CEO, Jamie is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the legacy of the Felician Sisters, a community she first became involved with during her childhood and early teen years in Bay City, MI. She hopes to continue their relentless pursuit of serving the common good, and honor their intent to care for as many people as possible, working together with staff, volunteers, and the community toward this common goal.

“The spirit of giving and serving others in a really humble way feels really natural, and it feels like home to me,” Jamie said. “There’s not really a day that goes by that I don’t feel that everybody here is something special as part of the team, and that there’s value in what we have individually, and then collectively. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do.”

Felican-Franciscan Heritage

St. Francis of Assisi left his extravagant lifestyle behind after hearing God’s call. He dedicated his life to serving the poor and marginalized, and preached the Gospel to lepers. He received the stigmata shortly before he died.

St. Clare of Assisi, inspired by the preaching of St. Francis, turned away from a life of wealth and nobility to live simply in devotion to God. Others joined her as the Poor Clares. They supported Francis’s ministry up until his death.

St. Felix of Cantalice became a Capuchin friar after being spared injury in a farm accident. He joyfully sought donations on the streets of Rome for the friars’ ministries to the poor and sick, preaching to the children through songs he composed.

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