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Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 28, 2006

Detroit – Sr. Annette Zipple, RSCJ, is retiring after 40 years from the Sacred Heart Enrichment Program, which she founded back in 1966 and has directed each summer ever since.

Recalling those early years of SHEP, Sr. Zipple says Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton played an important role in helping launch the program that each year provides a two-week arts enrichment program for girls aged 9 to 12 from the city of Detroit.

"In those days we (the Religious of the Sacred Heart) were semi-cloistered, so I couldn't get out and promote it, and he was a great help," she says.

Photo by Robert Delaney India Bradley, 9, and other SHEP participants perform "Carnival of the Spirits," a dance devised by teacher Alana Barter.

For its first few years, the program was offered at the former Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grosse Pointe Farms, but the sisters closed the school in 1969, and Sr. Zipple moved it to nearby Grosse Pointe Presbyterian Church for the next six years.

"Then it came to my attention that many of the girls felt they could only develop their creative gifts by getting out of the city and coming to Grosse Pointe, and that wasn't my intention at all," Sr. Zipple recalls.

So, she moved the program to Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit's Indian Village area, where it remained for 15 years. "They never charged us a penny, which was a good thing, because we didn't have a penny," Sr. Zipple says of the two Presbyterian congregations.

Later, the program moved to Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit's Corktown area, and then to several other venues before returning to Most Holy Trinity.

Sr. Annette Zipple, RSCJ

As she retires from SHEP with the completion of this year's program, Sr. Zipple says she feels she has proved her point about the difference the arts can make in young girl's life.

"They love the arts and they discover so much about themselves through the arts," she says.

Over the years, thousands of girls have been through the program, and many of them have gone on to distinguish themselves in various endeavors. For example, one is now a successful opera singer in Italy, another is a dermatologist, one is a school principal, yet another served as Detroit's deputy mayor, while another heads a department of Wayne County government.

But Sr. Zipple is not only proud of those who have achieved high positions, but also of the very many who have gone on to have successful marriages, and she notes that she has encountered some of their children – and even their children's children – in SHEP classes.

Sr. Zipple says her leadership of SHEP has shaped her spirituality. "We always emphasize peace, love, joy and hope, and I think these four words we try to build our program around describe my spirituality," she explains.

Alana Barter, who has taught with the program since 1987 and is now a co-coordinator along with Penny Godboldo, says Sr. Zipple not only founded SHEP, but has remained at its helm all these years. "Sr. Annette is the captain – she steers the ship," Barter says.

Mary Zdrodowski recalls how Sr. Zipple's enthusiasm for the program got her to sign up as a teacher for its first year, and how the joy of working with the girls has kept her involved these 40 years. "I really think I've gotten more out of than I put in," Zdrodowski says.