Sacred Heart Shrine - Ursuline Mother House - Paola, Kansas U.S.A.
N 38° 34.179 W 094° 51.998
15S E 337384 N 4270673
Located near the northeast corner of the Ursuline Convent at 901 East Miami Street in Paola, Kansas.
Waymark Code: WM6336
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2009
Views: 3
From the May 2005 "Sign Of The Times" Quarterly newsletter of the Ursline Sisters of Paola.
http://www.paolaursuline.org/pdf/05_may.pdf
After 30 years, a gift given by David Watson continues to bless the
Ursuline Sisters of Paola. Watson, who now lives in Wisconsin, returned to his boyhood home recently and visited Ursuline. In 1976, 14-year old Watson approached then-Superior Sister Raymond Dieckman about a potential Eagle Scout project. She knew just the thing. The
Sacred Heart Shrine near the northeast corner of the Ursuline
Convent had become grown over with vines and bushes. It was literally encased in foliage.
Originally built in 1916 to replicate the Rheinstein Castle on the Rhine River in Germany, the Shrine is constructed of petrified-formation stone, imported from the bottom of Lake Erie. The statue of theSacred Heart was in disrepair.
Over the Bicentennial summer, Watson organized volunteers to
tear away the vines, dig out the beds surrounding the structure,
remove the stairwell access to the roof and restore the Sacred
Heart Statue to its original condition. After completing the entire
project, Watson stayed on at the Ursuline Motherhouse, cleaning,
painting and mowing.
“What a joy to see David again,” said Sister Raymond. “I have such fond memories of those days. Some of the vines were so tough he had to use a tractor to extract them. He did a beautiful job. I feel blessed for the opportunity to have been involved with his Eagle Scout project.”