Sister Jane Michele McClure Receives 2016 Albion Fellows Bacon Award

Benedctine Sister Jane Michele McClure, Major Gifts Officer for Evansville’s Habitat for Humanity, is the Albion Fellows Bacon Award winner for 2016.

The Women’s Equality Day committee chose Sister Jane Michele for her life-long dedication to Southern Indiana. She received the award during the Aug. 26 Women’s Equality Day Evansville Celebration at the Old National Events Plaza.

“Albion Fellows Bacon believed that substandard housing was the root cause of all social ills,” Sister Jane Michele said. “I am very humbled and very excited to receive this award.”

“I live to see Evansville become cool,” Sister Jane Michele said when the Women’s Equality Day Committee announced her selection. “I want that on my tombstone. And it is coming together because of the hard work and vision of many, many people who have never given up.”

Patsy Sproatt, a Habitat volunteer, nominated her for the award.

“I can think of no one who works more tirelessly to improve the quality of life for the people of Evansville,” Sproatt wrote in support of her nomination.  “(Sister Jane Michele) raises the awareness of the problems of substandard housing, promotes the benefits of Habitat for Humanity, works with community groups and celebrates the success of those who give.”

Sister Jane Michele said she answered an advertisement for the job of Habitat for Humanity’s Director of Development because, while working as the director of development for Evansville’s Catholic high schools (Reitz Memorial and Mater Dei), she was concerned about setting an example for the students. She said she was thinking of getting a group together to take a trip to help those in need in Haiti. Then she saw the ad and realized the opportunities here.

Sister Jane Michele followed in the footsteps of Ann Ennis by helping to organize a woman-build where women come together to build a Habitat home.

She also is proud of the interfaith commitment from The Temple Adath B’nai Israel, The Islamic Center, and both Eastminster and First Presbyterian churches.

“In order to have an understanding we need to work together and get to know each other and do something of good for the community in the process,” she said.