We're building this as a community effort. Throughout September, staff, board members, volunteers, and supporters can create their own fundraising pages, collect donations from friends and family, invite their networks to support MEP, or simply make a gift! This Mercy Day marks the start of the countdown to the 200th anniversary of the founding of the first House of Mercy.

To that end, we're inviting our community to spend September walking toward Mercy Day, with a celebration at MEP on September 24.

Walk to Mercy Day brings people together to walk side by side, share stories, and welcome others in. The tradition traces back to 1827, when

Catherine McAuley opened a house on Baggot Street in Dublin to shelter homeless women, care for the sick and dying, and educate children in a neighborhood with little access to schooling.

Nearly two centuries later, Mercy Education Project carries that same spirit forward through its programs for women and girls in Southwest Detroit. Catherine McAuley and her companions became known as the “Walking Sisters,” because they left the convent daily to work directly in the community, unusual for nuns at the time.

Catherine McAuley described the spirit behind that work simply as...

That same idea, steady steps over grand gestures, is what this event asks of every participant. It's why we're walking in her footsteps this Mercy Day. Learn more at www.mercyed.net/mercyday.