She was widowed, she survived the height of the pandemic and she isn’t going anywhere. Checking in with the high-profile founder of Sharing and Caring Hands.
For two decades, Maureen McNeary has quietly powered the high-impact Sharing and Caring Hands ministry at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings. The mom of two teens, a beloved local radio personality known as Mo, shared her experiences.
Mary Jo Copeland, founder of Sharing and Caring Hands in Minneapolis, got to do it not once, but twice during a private audience the afternoon of Sept. 24 at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mary Jo Copeland, 73, who founded Sharing and Caring Hands in 1985, will meet the pontiff in person, along with her husband, Dick, and Bishop Andrew Cozzens.
Mary Jo Copeland plans to retire “when I get to heaven.”
Until then, the founder of Sharing and Caring Hands said her reverence for Jesus and his people is keeping her at the work she began in 1985, including the latest project, just approved by the Minneapolis Planning Commission and by the city council.
Volunteers from St. Patrick parish in Edina collect prepared, perishable food donations from local restaurants and deliver them to Sharing and Caring Hands.
Mary Jo knew an updated version could reach even more people with her message of God’s love and her work with the poor and homeless, she said, and it could inspire readers to make a difference themselves.
Copeland founded Sharing and Caring Hands in 1985 as a safety net for those who couldn’t get help from the government — those who fell through the cracks.
