MISS VIRGINIA –
A LIFE OF CARE IN ACTION
July 12, 1906 – Born Virginia Schrantz in Fort Wayne, the second of five children of Edward and Elizabeth Schrantz.
February 1924 – Both of Virginia’s parents die within 11 days of each other. She is 17.
June 1925 – Virginia graduates from St. Catherine’s Academy at St. Patrick’s Parish in Fort Wayne.
Spring of 1928 – Virginia is one of a class of 17 to graduate from the new St. Joseph’s Hospital Nurses’ Training School. Commencement exercises include the dedication of the building by Bishop John F. Noll.
1928 – Begins 20-year nursing career.
1937 – Virginia is assigned as a registered Red Cross nurse to emergency flood relief duty in Southern Indiana.
“I nursed for about 20 years before I began to combine nursing with social welfare. ... I began to feel uneasy, as if I should be doing more. I think that is God’s way of nudging you into another position that he wants you in.”
Circa 1950 – After studying sociology, Virginia begins providing free nursing services to residents of Westfield Village, a lower-income housing addition in the city near Rockhill Park.
“With my nursing experience, there were a lot of things for me to do. ... [P]eople would be homebound and sick and would need nursing care. I would go to them in my everyday clothes, as a friend.”
1950s – Works extensively with special needs children, becoming a leading advocate and educator in the area.
1954 – Miss Virginia, as president of the Westfield Community Council, helps organize two clean-up campaigns downtown sponsored by the Urban League and other organizations.
1954 – Miss Virginia begins serving as lay director in-residence at the Holy Family Center interracial apostolate in downtown Fort Wayne, just one block from the present-day Miss Virginia’s Food Pantry. The center provides educational programming, first Communion preparation, adult leadership classes, a piano for lessons, a craft shop, a selection of games and magazines, a free Catholic library, and forums for interracial dialogues to help “bridge the gap between races.”
“It brings races together and makes all of us feel that we are part of the human race.”
1959 – Miss Virginia moves into a house at 620 East Douglas Street and establishes what she calls “The Mission House,” carrying on the work she did at the Holy Family Center and living off donations from the families she serves and others. Her food, clothing, and other things all come from the same donations of charity. She also serves without pay as nurse for the sick in the neighborhood.
“It is a happy and peaceful situation – complete dependence on God brings out the joy in life.”
1961 – In an article in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Virginia describes herself as a “missionary” and her life’s mission as “helping persons in urban centers who have somehow been short-changed of some of the benefits of our society.”
Circa 1964 – She moves her mission to a house at 1405 South Hanna Street, where she operates the Mission House for about 12 years.
“You never know, each day, what God is going to bring to your door…but there is a very generous reward of grace and peace for those who share.”
Circa 1976 – Miss Virginia moves into the present location at 1312 South Hanna. She provides for those in need with food, clothing, household items, meals, and, for some, a bed for the night. It was said, “The doors never are locked and the lights never are out at Miss Virginia’s mission house.”
“Miss Virginia has earned the trust, love and respect of many hundreds of poverty-stricken, troubled and frightened people over the years.”
– Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, 1979
May 1982 – Miss Virginia receives the Notre Dame Award of the Year, presented by the Fort Wayne Notre Dame Club “in recognition of outstanding service to God and fellow man,” for community leadership and work in business or professional life.
June 6, 1982 – Mother Teresa visits Fort Wayne. Miss Virginia has a private audience with the future saint and tells her: “Christ strengthens all of us through each other.” Mother Teresa tells Virginia “to keep on” with her work.
“The people try to help one another. I feel this is where peace is.”
1982 – A News-Sentinel article on community development block grants reports that: “Most requests range between $4,000 and $20,000, but the Virginia Schrantz Mission House, 1312 S. Hanna St., asks for only $408. The money would be used to organize urban gardeners, purchase seeds and share the gardening experience.”
1986 – Health Department prohibits Miss Virginia or her volunteers from distributing grocery items or hot food, as state law forbids their being distributed from a facility that is not in a separate structure from living quarters. Supporters, led by the Lions Club and the National Association of Women in Construction, build a separate structure adjacent to the house for distributing food. Construction is completed in mid-July.
1987 – The Mission House also serves as a homeless shelter, with room for 10 to 12 people. It receives a federal grant for $9,200. Miss Virginia Schrantz says she has room for only 10 to 12 people to sleep overnight but wants to use the grant either to buy a vacant home nearby or expand the existing building. She says her goal is to provide overnight accommodations for up to 40 more people.
March 9, 1990 – Miss Virginia is one of five local citizens who received a Jefferson Award, given by the American Institute for Public Service.
April 1990, Miss Virginia is recognized by WANE, Channel 15 as one of “15 Who Care.” There were 74 nominees for the awards. U.S. Senator Dan Coats nominated her.
July 29, 1992 – Miss Virginia receives the Sertoma International’s Service to Mankind Award. She was nominated by the Fort Wayne Downtown Sertoma Club, a local service organization.
November 13, 1995 – Inner City Hope Corporation is formed, and title to the house at 1312 S. Hanna Street is transferred to the corporation.
January 1998 – Miss Virginia is recognized by the Fort Wayne Martin Luther King, Jr. Club with a community service award, “recognizing people who have made significant contributions to the African-American community.”
January 23, 1998 – Miss Virginia dies in hospice of congestive heart failure. Mungovan and Sons and local businesses donate her casket and funeral services.
“They feel you must love them or you wouldn’t be this close to them. ... But this is a reciprocal thing. I get much more than I could ever give. I see Christ in them.”
1998-present – Board members and volunteers decide to carry on with Virginia’s work. The mission closes briefly for cleaning and painting and reopens in mid-March 1998. Over time, the mission of Miss Virginia’s is narrowed to that of a food pantry.
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Today, Miss Virginia’s Food Pantry serves over 20,000 people a year, with an average of 60 volunteers distributing some 730,000 pounds of food. The legacy of Miss Virginia’s over 40 years of service to her community lives on in the mission of the food pantry she founded and the people she inspired to love their neighbors through action.
