The Sisters of St. Dominic of Racine, WI. founded the Eco-Justice Center on a farm in 2004 to promote sustainable living and care for creation.

In 2004, one of our esteemed clients, the Sisters of St. Dominic in Racine, Wisconsin, planted the seeds of a community movement. These “seeds” were quite literal and became their Eco-Justice Center, where visiting individuals and groups can learn about good land stewardship and care for creation.

The Sisters have always had an active mission in Racine, and have founded and led several other community centers and initiatives over the years. Their diverse endeavors include a domestic abuse shelter for women and families; the HOPES Center, which serves the unsheltered; and the Siena Retreat Center, a place for faith-based lectures and “transformative” spiritual retreats.

While these other projects focus on living in harmony with humanity and oneself, it is the Eco-Justice Center, or “Eco-J,” that teaches visitors how to live in harmony with the earth. What the Racine Dominican Sisters started in 2004 has grown into a movement that has rippled through their community's surrounding areas in Wisconsin and the greater Midwest. The important message they have helped to spread is one of “justice, healing, and right relationships among all living things,” per Eco-J’s mission statement.

Caritas Vehicle Services had the opportunity to sit down with Eco-J’s executive director, MaryLynn Conter Strack, who oversees the grounds and the center's many programs. Strack was able to speak to the growing importance of environmental education and organic farming practices, and explained to us how Eco-J teaches it's visitors about key sustainable living practices.

At Caritas Vehicle Services, Our Mission is To Serve. We take special care in providing the transportation needs for your community so you have more time to focus on your community's unique mission.

The following is the story of one of our esteemed clients and their congregation’s 100 years of good stewardship and selfless service to their community in Merrill, Wisconsin.

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In times of crisis, ministry serves as a beacon of guidance, assistance and hope to those most in need. Caritas Vehicle Services’ sister organization, the non-profit CARITAS For Children, has worked tirelessly for over 20 years to help raise children in the poorest areas of the world out of abject poverty by providing them food, housing, clothes and, perhaps most importantly, access to education at all levels, from kindergarten to university. In fact, if you are a client of Caritas Vehicle Services, you have already provided indirect support to the CARITAS mission.

Now, there is another cause, forced into the forefront of minds everywhere by an oppressive Russian regime. That is the brothers and sisters of Ukraine who face a brutal military assault on their lives, their loved ones, their peace, their home, and their democracy. Now, for Ukraine, the cause is survival and freedom from tyranny. For CARITAS For Children, the new cause is solidarity and support.

All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents.

Pope Francis, Laudato Si', Paragraph 14

This statement by the Holy Father is certainly striking – an encouragement for every person on earth to use their unique and God-given tools to assist in caring for His creation. The growing problem of climate change may feel like an impossible task to the individual, but Pope Francis is confident that if we all do our part, real change can happen.

What does it really mean to be one with creation? In such a difficult time as that which the world has experienced this past year, we often hear calls to be “at one” with our fellow men, to celebrate the things that unite and bring us together. The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph have a long history of promoting unity, from their origin in France to their eventual settlement in the United States in the 1800s, including New Orleans, Louisiana. The sisters have been here ever since. Their mission (derived from John 17:21: “That all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; I pray that they may be one in Us”) focuses on union with God and everyone they encounter, especially by working in “ministries that respond to spiritual, social and physical needs.” (csjoseph.org/our-mission)

At this time of the year, it is important to pay closer attention to the people and things that fill our lives with joy and meaning. One of Caritas Vehicle Services’ esteemed clients, a bakery company from Racine, Wisconsin called Racine Danish Kringles (RDK), lives the spirit of the season not only with their delicious pastry, but also with their generous giving to several charitable organizations. This is their story.

Author Robert Swan wrote, "The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it." When Swan's words were written, the world was a much different place. More specifically, people still had library cards. Modernity, however, has brought us access to all of the information in the known world at the touch of a button. And while many ignored Al Gore's pleas throughout his film, "An Inconvenient Truth", it continues to become more difficult to remain oblivious about the state of our environmental climate. 

There is a reason that the core statement of Caritas Vehicle Services is "Our mission is to serve". We chose these words because we strive to the best of our ability to provide the same care to our clients that they provide to their local & global communities. We revere the Sisters to whom we provide vehicle management solutions, learning from their devotion to God and His creation just as we hope they are able learn from our automotive expertise. With pride in this reciprocal relationship, we know that our efforts as fleet management specialists help alleviate the administrative burden of vehicle management and allow our clients to remain focused on their own ministry and mission.