Wilma’s Place founder helped educate troubled teens
Former nun Wilma Scherloski died March 18
It wasn’t a hard decision for Wilma Scherloski.
When she was principal of Cathedral Girls High School in the 1980s, she was approached by teachers concerned about the number of students missing classes.
The reasons were often due to poverty, drug addiction, family troubles and special learning needs. Scherloski, a former nun, saw an immediate need for an alternate education program, which she started in 1989 at the high school on Main Street East, near Wentworth Street South.
“Some of them just can’t make it in a regular program,” she told the Spectator in 1992. “It’s another chance for them to find themselves, sort out their difficulties, and then get on with their lives.”
Over the next few years, the program grew to involve dozens of girls. They were so appreciative of the chance to carry on their education they named it “Wilma’s Place,” after their principal.
It offered students a more independent learning model, flexible hours and counselling.
In 1993, it opened to teenage boys and continued to expand. It was once in the former Cathedral Boys High School (the girls and boys schools merged in 1992 in a new building on Wentworth Street North) and since 2013 has been housed in the former St. Columba Catholic School on Main Street East, near Sherman Avenue South. Thousands of teens have gone through the program.
The faith of Scherloski, who died at age 82 on March 18, played a role in its establishment.
“My faith has always been important to me,” she said in 1997 when she retired from what was then the Hamilton-Wentworth Roman Catholic Separate School Board. “All the gospel values of Christ … living out the beatitudes. Things are not important, it’s what you do. Simplicity is where it’s all at.”
After Scherloski left the board, she went to work at Regis College in Toronto, where she served as dean of students for 20 years. She received an honorary doctorate in sacred letters in 2016.
Pat Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, had known Scherloski since the 1980s and spoke to her as recently as last fall. She wanted to get together and talk about support for mental health, but the meeting never happened.
He remembered when the student proposal to name the program after Scherloski came to the board for approval.
“We were more than happy to do it,” Daly said. “It was just so appropriate. It reflected her dedication to young people. She was an amazing Catholic leader. She provided outstanding Christian witness.”
On social media, former students and staff lauded Scherloski, including some who had attended the program. Dorice Robichaud left school at 15 and ran away from home a year later. She said she received a “real chance” for an education at Wilma’s Place.
“She left an indelible mark of goodness in our world,” she said. “I will never forget her.”
Pat Finnigan, former chaplain at Cathedral Girls High School, recounted, “As one of my friends said, Wilma was a trailblazer. She always found ways to make people’s lives happier. She was not afraid to take risks.”
Scherloski was born July 11, 1941 to Louis and Pauline Scherloski in Russell, Man. Her father was a farmer.
She went to school in a one-room schoolhouse and then to boarding school. At the school, she found and decided to join the Ancaster-based order Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate. She was known as Sister Adele and taught in schools in Saskatchewan and Ontario, including in Ancaster at St. Ann Catholic Elementary School.
She left the order in 1974 and joined the separate school board as a special-education teacher. Shortly after, she became vice-principal of Cathedral Girls High School, and then principal in 1980. She became superintendent of schools and religion and family life programs in 1991.
Scherloski is survived by her sisters Clara, Lorraine and Margaret, her brother Gordon, and many nieces and nephews.