A group of outspoken, no-nonsense nuns in Orange County has a message to the world: Embrace immigrants and the poor.

  • Roman Catholic nuns run Hope CommUnity Center in Apopka
  • Center provides support to immigrants and families
  • Organization has expanded to 2 campuses since 1971

Sister Ann Kendrick leads the group, who, along with Sisters Teresa McElwee, Gail Grimes and Cathy Gorman (who passed away a few years ago), set up the Hope CommUnity Center in rural Apopka, which has a large immigrant community.

"Love and protect, embrace — to say, 'You are good people. You belong here,' " Kendrick said.

"Our job is to say, 'You're undocumented? You belong,' " she said.

The Roman Catholic nuns established the center in 1971 to work with farmworkers and citrus pickers.

"We saw the poor everywhere," McElwee said.

"It was the people who were the ones who decided they needed a clinic, and we worked with them. They decided they needed housing, and we worked with them," Grimes added.

The set up a clinic, immigration services, English classes and tutoring for immigrants. But it was not easy in the beginning.

"We discovered there were active (Ku Klux) Klan members in Apopka and in positions of certain influence, and we starting getting threats," Kendrick said.

But they refused to leave, and almost 50 years later, the nuns of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur run the Hope CommUnity Center, which has grown to two campuses and receives donations of support from both volunteers to Disney and the United Way.

Their center in Apopka features colorful artwork representing a collection of diverse messages. A mosaic at the entryway is not only ornamental, but has meaning for the nuns and the immigrants who get support from the center. A blue mosaic, for example, showcases the struggles that immigrant workers have had at Lake Apopka.

"I believe the revolution is happening now, and we're not alone. Being together matters," Kendrick said.

Every year, Kendrick wonders if she should stay or go.

"Do I want to do it? So far, every year, the answer has been 'Yes,' " she said.