OMAHA, Neb.-- The people waiting their turn to rappel down the 17-story Highline Apartments building had strict instructions: Don’t come up to the roof until we come get you.

Most of the group, assembled there for a fundraiser, seemed content to hang back in the designated waiting area half a flight of stairs below the roof, where they’d eventually step over the edge into the blue sky high above downtown Omaha.

All but one person, actually. Sister Stephanie Matcha, age 81. The octogenarian nun who does her own stunts, from running 5K races to rocking “Beer Barrel Polka” on xylophone, was ready.

She kept bouncing up and down the stairs, the hardware on her rappelling harness clinking, to ask what was taking so long. After one trip up, someone half-jokingly asked her to say a prayer. She paused at the base of the stairs.

“Hail Mary, full of grace,” Sister Stephanie began.

But she stopped when she reached the last line, which goes “... pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

A grin creased her face between the twin gray tufts of her otherwise black curly hair squishing out below her blue helmet. She began to laugh.

“Maybe we should say an ‘Our Father' instead. It doesn’t end with the hour of our death!”

Everybody laughed. Tension relieved. It was another on-brand moment for Sister Stephanie, a  Czech South Omaha native and member of the Notre Dame sisters who after 50 years of working and volunteering at Siena Francis House — the largest provider of services to unhoused people in Nebraska — is still lending her effervescent presence to the organization and its cause.

It’s what brought her to the early May occasion atop a high-rise apartment building. 

People raised money by signing up to participate and seeking pledges. Siena Francis also had corporate sponsors and celebrity participants, including Nebraska astronaut Clayton Anderson.

Sister Stephanie was not an official celebrity. But she had a large cheering section among Siena Francis staff and volunteers — and not just because she was the top fundraiser among the 60 participants.

“She always brings that joy and energy,” said Siena Francis CEO Linda Twomey, who was in the same group waiting to rappel. “She just gets everybody involved. Because her energy is so contagious, she just gets everybody involved.”

Sister Stephanie started helping Siena Francis way back in the 1970s, when it started as a women’s emergency shelter. A fellow member of the Notre Dame Sisters used to prepare meals for people at the shelter. Sister Stephanie delivered the food.

She held several roles over the ensuing decades, including as a case manager and activities director. She worked for a time with people in Siena Francis’s Miracles addiction recovery program.

As a volunteer, her labors lean toward the social: helping with bingo, putting on birthday celebrations with donated cakes, throwing root beer float parties at the Siena Francis campus.

“Sister Stephanie has been a beacon of hope for so many people down at Siena Francis House,” said a man in a Spider-Man suit who had just finished rappelling the Highline building.

The man was Dave Kuiper. He now works at Siena Francis House as the dock manager. He met Sister Stephanie 12 years ago when he was enrolled in the Miracles program. Kuiper, 49, said he struggled with addiction and had tried many different treatments.

“I had thoughts about wanting to leave (the Miracles program),” Kuiper said. “Sister really inspired me to stay. And it changed my life.”

He remembers looking forward to when Sister Stephanie handed out socks, and to the root beer floats. And he remembers Sister Stephanie’s visits to the day shelter during the holidays, when “her aura would bring all these different walks of life together.”

“These were people out of prison like myself, gang members, bikers, drunks, people just down on their luck. And Sister would have us all down there together holding hands around a Christmas tree singing Christmas carols,” Kuiper recalled.

Twomey said Sister Stephanie “doesn’t see any differences between people.”

“She doesn’t have any reservations,” Twomey said. “The clients love her. The staff love her.”

The Notre Dame Sisters religious order, known for its focus on social justice and education, has had a long and storied history in Nebraska and Iowa. The order provided teachers for many Catholic parish schools, and operated the Notre Dame Academy girls high school in Omaha for 48 years before its closure in the ’70s. After the school closed, the sisters converted it into affordable housing for seniors. 

They’ve worked to combat domestic violence, aid immigrants, serve the elderly and advocate for human rights. Their numbers have dwindled to 26 sisters in the United States, according to the order’s website. Though fewer and older, they still find ways to serve, Sister Stephanie said.

“The Notre Dame Sisters’ mission is to respond to the needs of the poor and the marginalized in our society and world. That’s my inspiration.”

You can also draw lines from her youth to her work with homeless people and the lengths she’ll go to, literally, for the cause.

She said her father helped homeless people and alcoholics at their house when she was a child. And she grew up playing sports in competitive settings in her South Omaha Czech neighborhood.

“Gymnastics, everything, volleyball, running, broad jump, running broad jump, a 500-yard dash, and we were judged on everything,” Sister Stephanie said.

She developed a competitive spirit and a desire to stay physically fit. She also learned to play several musical instruments in her musical family. Those things combined with her drive to raise money for Siena Francis House and the Notre Dame Sisters.

She likes to be first.

“Second place is just the first loser,” Sister Stephanie said. She laughs when she says it. But she means it.

She has almost always won her age group in the annual Siena Francis House 5K fundraising run. (She also won the “best women’s biceps” award on a cruise ship trip with her family, but that’s another story.) When the Notre Dame Sisters were raising money virtually during the pandemic, Sister Stephanie brought out the xylophone.

She played the “Beer Barrel Polka” and “In the Mood” while urging people to roll out a barrel of money for the sisters and get in the mood to donate.

When the rappelling event came up this year, Sister Stephanie was quick to sign up. 

“I feel directly connected to that (homeless) population, and I know how important it is to continue to fund Siena Francis House, the shelter and all the good they do on a daily basis,” she said. “And you know, not only feeding, clothing, sheltering, but empowering people to transition into … a safe life, a safe environment.”

And rappelling sounded like an adventure.

“This day has to be the day you’re living, making it the most,” she said.

Sister Stephanie paid close attention to the instructions from the people at Over the Edge, the company that ran the event. Over the Edge, which helps with similar fundraisers across the U.S. and in Canada, doesn’t get many people in their 80s, although a 104-year-old has rappelled with them.

In reality, someone could pretty much just dangle on the rope and be lowered down. That’s not Sister Stephanie’s style.

“I’m not going to go down looking like some old lady,” she said.

The rappellers went down in pairs. I was paired with Sister Stephanie. She started ahead of me. About seven or eight floors down, I caught up to her. She looked over and said, “You’re not going to beat me!”

“Sister,” I said, laughing. “This isn’t a race.”

“I know,” she said. “But I’m going to win.”

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