DEDICATED TO
SISTER MARIE LUISA VASQUEZ, OP
Loan Fund Board Member, 1990-2010

On Sunday, Mary 25, 1986, Sister Marie Luisa Vasquez of the Adrian Dominican Sisters was among thousands of New Mexicans – and an estimated 6.5 million Americans – who participated in “Hands Across America.” It was a both a charitable benefit and a publicity campaign, during which the participants held hands in a human chain across the United States that raised $34 million to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty. The dramatic event was the spark that ignited formation of The Loan Fund. 
 
The New Mexico Conference of Churches applied for and received a grant from “Hands Across America” to form a committee to study how best to alleviate poverty in our state. Sister Marie Luisa, who was then working as a pastoral assistant at Albuquerque’s Church of the Risen Savior, served on that committee. Its members traveled around New Mexico, consulting with a wide variety of people about the possibility of setting up a non-profit loan fund to help low-income people start a business, or become successful with an existing enterprise.
 
When it was clear that the idea was indeed feasible, The Loan Fund was organized and Sister Marie Luisa was among several committee members who were invited to serve on our first Board of Directors. She remained on our Board until she retired two decades later.
 
Why did she say “yes” in the first place? “I was very interested in poverty issues and was looking for an activity that would further the mission of my Congregation – to promote peace and justice,” she says now. “It was a way to do something that was more than just putting a band-aid on the problem. It was giving people a hand up instead of a handout.” And why did she stay on our Board for two decades? Sister Marie Luisa saw herself as a representative of the interests of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, who gave us our first donation and an early loan that was renewed in subsequent years. However, she was also “very convinced in the vision of The Loan Fund; we always did what we said we were going to do. We’ve given a lot of people a start in doing something for themselves and others: they start a business, and then they hire employees.”

“We were becoming the truly public servant that we were called to be.”
 
We thank you, Sister Marie Luisa, for your vision, your steadfastness, your dedication and your guidance over your two decades of service. You helped us remain ever mindful that everything we do must serve the people that The Loan Fund was called to serve in 1989.