Sister Deanna Schroeder, SDS
Service is Key to Every Ministry

“This way of life helps me fulfill my desire to be of service to others. It has given me a freedom to minister in many different places and to meet and work with so many interesting people.”

Golden Jubilarian Sister Deanna Schroeder, SDS, taught for thirty years in the primary grades in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Mississippi and then in social service outreach to the marginalized in McKee, Kentucky. For the last eleven years, she has been the coordinator of the retired Salvatorian Sisters and in a ministry she describes as a “Jill of all trades.”

“Today at the Salvatorian Sisters Residence (SSR) we have a ministry of prayer and service to one another, family and friends. There is a really good spirit here. We are a family. Our Sisters receive prayer requests and every day offer their sufferings for others,” Sister Deanna explained. SSR is located on the St. Anne’s Salvatorian Campus, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is home to twenty-four Salvatorian Sisters. There are also six Sisters living at St. Anne’s. Sister Deanna coordinates activities, medical appointments, and family celebrations for the community. Many of the Sisters are volunteers at the adjacent St. Anne’s Home.

One SSR colleague, Jan Garthee, said, “Sister Deanna is a great person to work with. She is kind and gentle to the Sisters and gives so much of herself to so many. She is a very good friend to us.”

Sister Deanna cherishes the moments of Christian love among the many persons who live and work at SSR. Her ministry is based on the fact that the Sisters are family and that accepting, caring and forgiving one another is what family members do for one another. In fact, Sister Deanna is a member of two large families through birth and vows.
The Schroeder Family encompasses twelve siblings, and Sister Deanna is the second oldest. The family grew up in Dickeyville, Wisconsin. Her mother, Pauline, 95, and her sons and daughters all still live in their home state.

“I loved teaching and had wonderful years with students, staff and families in traditional elementary school settings. In 1982, I joined several other Salvatorian Sisters in Clarksdale, Mississippi. We lived and worked with Sisters from four other communities. I learned how to teach and live with less. After seven years, I moved on to do outreach ministry in McKee, Kentucky. I was inspired to reach out to the less fortunate by the late Father Luke McArthur, the St. Pius X parish pastor during the 70s when I taught at the parish school. His words of advocacy for the poor touched my heart,” Sister Deanna pointed out.

One of the Sisters who lives at SSR said, “I don’t know what we would do without Sister Deanna. She is patient and fair and will do whatever needs to be done. She makes time for each of us,” said Sister Mildred Lotzer, SDS.

Sister Deanna is a member of Mother of Good Counsel Parish, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and loves to take long walks and hiking in the woods, gardening and baking. “I have been so blessed with the gifts necessary to do the ministries to which I have been called,” the Golden Jubilarian said.