We were in the Church from babies on,” says Tammy. “Holy Spirit is my parish to this day. We have been with Holy Spirit for 58 years.” After marrying and having children, Tammy told her husband she wanted their children raised in the Catholic Church. He agreed and supported the children when they became altar servers. Watching their children serve at the altar inspired Tammy’s husband to go through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RICA) and join the Church. He and Tammy then worked closely with Sister Marie James on training the altar servers. There was not an NCCW affiliate at Holy Spirit for a long time. The women’s group eventually disbanded due to lack of participation.
Photo Credit: Tom Tracy
The pastor wanted to start a Council in the parish and turned to Laurie Ulseth. Laurie asked Tammy to be a member, but Tammy was not interested at all. She eventually agreed to become a member, but she did not plan to be active in the organization. This was Tammy’s first ‘yes’ to NCCW. “Suddenly I fell in love with Council and my Council sisters,” Tammy says. “I found myself saying Mary’s ‘yes.’ I cannot even imagine my days without Council. I couldn’t image time without my Council sisters.” Tammy threw herself into the work within her parish, and it wasn’t long before she became involved at the diocesan, deanery and state levels. Working with committed Catholic women to make a difference in the Church and the community was exciting for Tammy, and she was eager to share the joy with all the women she knew. “I went to Mass every week. That was the extent of it,” says Tammy. “I kind of felt like my faith was falling a little stagnant. Then Council came along. Now I see the Council sisters in our pews. I love to talk Council with women. I look forward to the added strength I get from all the things we do together."
She carries prayer cards in her purse with her name and phone number on them to hand out to women who don’t know the joy of Council. “No woman is going to throw away a prayer card,” Tammy says. Tammy is proud of how Council women have come together over the years to help where they are needed. In 2022, the Province Convention (State of Florida) was set for the Diocese of Venice Then Hurricane Ian hit and the Conference was almost canceled. After the hotel said they had power and could host the Convention, Tammy gathered her women together. “I said, ‘Ladies, the conference is on, but these women need our help.’ We filled an entire office with supplies in one week and we collected $9,000 to give to the bishop,” says Tammy. “I was just totally amazed. That’s the comfort we bring to one another as strong faithful women. We need to stay strong, faithful and powerful because of all that is happening in the world. When you put a room full of faith-filled women together, watch out!”
Hugs for the Homeless was another way Council women made a difference in the community. “When I was Province Director, the woman who heads it up said her goal was $60,000. She hadn’t quite hit that amount,” Tammy says. “I just really really pushed the Hugs for the Homeless for all seven dioceses in our Province. We finally made $68,000 and distributed the money through all seven dioceses. There was a new shelter that had opened up, and I was so happy to be able to donate a nice check to them.”
In the Diocese of Palm Beach, the affiliates work together to support seminarians and have an emergency fund to cover their needs. Part of the program is a Remembrance Tree for NCCW members who have died. Donations are made in honor of deceased loved ones, whose names are put on a scroll, which is then buried under the tree. The seminarians pray every week for the people listed on the scroll. Then for the Feast of All Souls, the scroll is burned and a new scroll started for the upcoming year. Tammy’s work in Florida was noticed at the national level. President Beth Mahoney contacted her and asked her to be the Chair of the Education Committee. “I thought, ‘Can I do this?’” says Tammy. “My husband is so supportive of Council. He’s so wonderful, he always says, ‘It’s what you love, do it.’” Taking the position was another opportunity for Tammy to say, ‘yes’ to NCCW. And she has jumped right in. “I have an absolutely phenomenal committee,” Tammy says. “What my vision was the first time I met with my committee gals, was that we need to establish something visual for women to take back to their parishes after Convention.” The Tree of Life was born. “The bishops planted the seed in 1920 and the women ran with it. They had to keep nurturing it to make it grow,” explains Tammy. “The strong roots are our foundation—our priests, bishops and advisors. There are the branches—all the projects we do, and the many things we support. Then what’s missing? What makes all these projects work? Membership. Those are the leaves that need to grow.”
Creating the Tree of Life was a team project for Tammy and the Education Committee. “Bishop Wack did a beautiful video for us,” she says. “I wrote a poem about the NCCW Tree of Life and how the Devil tries to get his hands on it and that we have the strong roots that sustain his attacks. We have to fight against him to keep our tree strong.” At Convention, the Tree of Life will be on display and an invitation for all members to make the tree full of leaves. “We will have leaves and hearts on all the trees,” says Tammy. “Members are going to write their stories on the leaves and put their leaves on the trees.” Tammy hopes members will take the visual back to their Councils and create their own trees. “For the 2025 Convention, we will see how many leaves they will bring,” Tammy says. Tammy hopes this will be a way to show women how strong they are when they work together. “The sisterhood is so strong and powerful,” she says. “You have these women who are there to support each other. I had no idea there were women who are thinking the same way I do. In our parish we created a little brochure that we were allowed to leave in the vestibule that talks all about Council. On the back we listed all the things that we do in the parish. We ended up getting eight or nine new members because of all the things they didn’t know we did.”
Tammy is excited to share the joy of Catholic sisterhood in NCCW with more women, making the organization strong and vibrant and continuing the work that began over 100 years ago.
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