Ms. Nancy Benoit
Campus Minister
St. Raphael Academy – Pawtucket, RI
Whether through her roles at Saint Raphael Academy or extensive volunteer efforts, Nancy has always focused on community and the service of others. In fact, she met Ray, her husband of 45 years, in the summer of 1969 at a volunteer program for housing and welfare. “I owe all the blessings in my life – spouse and children – to volunteering and community service,” she said.
Elected State Representative of Rhode Island in 1985, Nancy focused her 16 year career on children’s issues such as day care, children in state care, and childhood poverty. She came to Saint Raphael in 1989, first as a Spanish teacher for 19 years, then entering the Campus Ministry Program where she coordinates outreach to the Lasallian community and directs students in community service weeks and trips during vacations to address poverty in the Pawtucket area, whether through serving in the soup kitchen across the street from Saint Raphael, running a camp for low income school children, or working with the local day care, assisted living facility, and elementary school. “The most rewarding part of my life at Saint Raphael,” she said, “has been the Lasallian connections and relationships I have been blessed to experience.”