Copyright Kalispell Inter Lake
Joy has fueled Sister Judy Lund’s long-lasting work in education. When she got her start teaching third grade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she found that her students were filled with the emotion. “It just bubbles over them,” she said. “It tells you about life. There are some hard times, but you know, you can come through it. And kids can teach us that.” She brought joy to her students, and they brought joy to her. “And to me, that’s the essence of life, to find joy and to give joy,” Lund said. After over three decades teaching at St. Matthew’s Catholic School on Main Street in Kalispell, the ebullient 90-year-old Dominican sister cherished by staff and students has decided to retire at the end of the school year. “I have to pull it to a close,” Lund said, her smile turning to a frown. When Lund first arrived in the Flathead Valley to teach nearly 34 years ago, she only planned to spend the summer. But after the school’s third-grade teacher quit, she was asked to cover for the year. “I’m still here,” she laughed. Lund taught science at St. Matthew’s before transitioning 10 years ago to teaching scripture to fifth- and sixth-grade students. It will be the last subject she teaches before retiring. While Lund said she integrates faith into every subject, getting to teach religion in the Flathead Valley has been a gift. “In this beautiful countryside, you can’t help but be close to God in nature,” she said. Lund herself was drawn to the picturesque landscape after visiting her grandmother in Coram at age 10. She takes her fifth-grade students, whom she teaches the New Testament, up on the bluffs of the Wayfarers Unit of Flathead Lake State Park. Looking out onto the water provides a view reminiscent of the Sea of Galilee, she said. “I want the children to get an idea of what it was really like when Jesus taught on the mountainside,” she said. From teaching elementary school to college courses, immersing students in the subject matter has always been a pillar in her teaching. Lund majored in literature and taught high schoolers Shakespeare before coming to St. Matthew’s, so theatrics naturally play an important role in her curriculum. Her sixth graders learn about the Old Testament, and every year she has them recreate the Last Supper. The students transform pieces of cloth into costumes, and the wine is traded for grape juice. A parent or sometimes Lund will bring in cooked lamb to try. “I’m hoping that’ll help them see both Old and New Testament in a whole more personal way," she said. EACH YEAR, Lund also makes sure to involve her students in the Sparrow’s Nest of Northwest Montana, which provides housing to homeless high school students. Her involvement in the organization started with a wrong phone number. When Lund made an unrelated call, a stranger picked up the phone. “She didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know who she was. And we started talking,” Lund said. The stranger told Lund about a project she was working on to help homeless teens. “We were just very concerned about the homeless children,” Lund said. On her way to school in the morning, Lund recalled seeing teens sleeping underneath cars in parking lots or camping out on the side of Albertsons grocery store. That stranger turned out to be Marcia Bumke, one of the shelter's founders. At the time they spoke, Sparrows Nest was still an idea. But after securing property, rallying community support was easy and the program took off, Lund said. Up to eight teens aged 14 to 18 can be housed there at one time, each with their own room. Since opening in 2016, Sparrow’s Nest has housed over 75 youth experiencing homelessness, according to the organization’s website. Lund would sometimes bring her class to the Sparrow's Nest shelter while its residents were at school so her students could learn about the program. The students would also craft gifts for the high schoolers at Christmas and graduation. “The kids, as soon as you say, ‘Sparrow’s Nest,’ they’re willing to do anything,” Lund said. AS one of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Lund was stationed around the country to teach and even spent time assisting orphanages in Bolivia. The congregation helps fill gaps in service in education, social justice and health care. But the sisterhood has been dwindling in Flathead County and across the country. At one time, there were five sisters in the valley, but Lund is the last one. When she joined the sisterhood in 1955, there were 1,000 sisters and now there are only around 200 remaining. “We’re just growing old,” she said. After retiring, Lund plans to live at a retirement center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, among her Dominican sisters. “It’s a whole new way of how we’re going to spend the rest of our lives now,” she said. BEFORE HER expected departure, the school made sure to celebrate her contributions to the school and community. A surprise assembly attended by former students, current ones and Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson was held in September, soon after her 90th birthday on Aug. 31. The surprise was difficult to keep, though, because the kids were struggling to keep it a secret. “They were bursting to say something,” she smiled. The timing of the surprise wasn't ideal, though. She was wearing jeans after finishing her usual Friday task of rummaging through the recycling with her students to separate paper from cardboard. “I thought, ‘Oh sure, of all times to have the mayor come and I’m in my worst outfit,’” she laughed. The decision to retire was not an easy one, Lund said, it took talking it over with her fellow sisters — and with God. “It’s always a conversation with the powers that be on whether I stay another year,” she said. “It’s always been a very wonderful, mutual decision, hard though it might be.” In the end, she made the decision she felt was best for the students. “I don’t have the energy that I’ve had in the past, and that would be a disservice to the children, you know,” she said. “It’s time for me to move on.” But Lund plans to cherish the rest of the school year, keep chasing joy and sharing it with others. “I’m going to enjoy every minute to the fullest, right to the very end,” she said.
