From the Catholic Universe Bulletin, November 11, 2011
Thriving in the city
Ursuline nun inspired by Thea Bowman, people of Mount Pleasant neighborhood

By Brandon C. Baker
If asked, Ursuline Sister Shelia Marie Tobbe could share plenty of stories about times when she knew she had positively affected someone's life through her ministry and volunteer work.
However, she'd rather not.

"I'd like to turn that around and say that these individuals affected my life," said Tobbe, the mission and outreach coordinator of the Thea Bowman Center in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood. "If it's not a mutuality, there's no real transformation. When we try to go and fix people, it doesn't work.

"It has to be a transformative ministry, and that's what I tell all the volunteers. You have as much need of being here as they have of you, and then you have a true faith interaction : that's what Bishop (Anthony) Pilla used to say."

Still, Tobbe has led food drives, given thousands of computers to needy families and aided the education of Clevelanders during her time as the Bowman Center's mission and outreach coordinator and executive director. For that reason and many more, Tobbe was recently awarded with the organization's first Beacon of Hope Award at its annual benefit dinner at Casa di Borally in Richmond Heights.

"In honoring Sister Sheila Marie Tobbe, you have chosen an Ursuline Sister who has demonstrated many of Thea Bowman's qualities," Cleveland Auxiliary Bishop Roger W. Gries wrote in the event's program. "Her tireless work with the city parishes during the configuration was outstanding."

Tobbe grew up in Cleveland Heights, attending St. Ann School. In 1963, she entered the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland andHprofessed her final vows nine years later. She spent time teaching and coordinating educational programs at St. Catherine, St. Cecilia, St. Henry and Epiphany parishes.

She remembers people laughing at her because of her age in the '60s when she wanted to take part in the Diocese's El Salvadoran mission. In 1979, she took a trip there, and her ministry further crystallized. That trip : during which she met Archbishop Oscar Romero prior to his assassination : also inspired her six-year mission in El Salvador during the '90s as a member of the Cleveland Diocesan Latin American Team.

She knew Father Dan Begin before her trip from their time working together in the early >80s at St. Catherine Parish. When she came back, he immediately recruited her as Pastoral Associate at Epiphany Parish and St. Cecilia Parish.

"When I came back, he said, >we really have to think about the city differently. It really is becoming mission territory, so all of your experience in El Salvador, we'll need to bring to the fore here and create a mission in the city,'" Tobbe said of Fr. Begin.

Tobbe made good on his wishes, and became an advisor to the Bowman Center's board once it opened in 2001. As her role has grown there, Tobbe continues working to help Mt. Pleasant residents fight the foreclosure and banking crises, as well as problems with health care and education.

"Our families and children are really being left with nothing," she said.

On Saturdays, the Center distributes food, and one Tuesday evening a month it does the same. The organization's sponsoring parishes also help the Center provide hot meals from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Children are also provided with healthy snacks after school during the week.

Tutoring programs are also provided in conjunction with the No Child Left Behind legislation, and the Bowman Center also provides a summer program and 4-H club for children.

As part of its adult education program, about 20 people come daily for GED instruction, along with various computer classes. She said about 10 percent of 17,000 or so residents in the Mt. Pleasant area have computers. To boost that figure, the Center provides free computers with installation and two years of maintenance at the end of 25 hours of instruction through the Connect Your Community program, which has been active at the Bowman Center for about a year. More than 2,000 computers have been provided as a part of the program.

What keeps her motivated to work in an area she says is "at the bottom of any statistic in Cleveland?"

"Prayer, what else but prayer?" Tobbe said.

Baker is a freelance writer.