Michele Sims-Gannon ’90

Alumna creates an oceanside place of respite and healing for women fighting cancer 

In January of 2009, Michele Sims-Gannon ’90 was in bed with the flu—but she wasn’t alone. 

Piled up around here were her three children—then 2, 4, and 6—all of them staring at her and wanting to know: When are you going to get up from there and take care of us? 

“It made me wonder what a woman does when she has a long-term illness like cancer,” Sims-Gannon said. “Who is giving her permission to hit the pause button on her responsibilities even for a few days?”  

Shortly thereafter, she had a dream about the Virgin Mary that seemed connected. “She came to me as a very strong, empathetic, loving woman,” said Sims-Gannon, a strongly spiritual person who lives near the coastal town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey. “In the dream, she walked me along the ocean, and, with every step, placed in my heart that I needed to act—to do something.” 

Not one to waste time, by the end of June that same year, Sims-Gannon had filed the papers to create a nonprofit organization that would provide a safe, healing space for women fighting cancer; rented two rooms in a friend’s bed and breakfast in Ocean Grove; and opened the doors to Mary’s Place by the Sea. 

Just 16 years later, Mary’s Place welcomes more than 1,000 women a year at a 10,000-square-foot custom-built facility just a block from the ocean. It is an accomplishment that makes Sims-Gannon more than worthy of being named the recipient of Longwood’s 2025 Humanitarian Alumni Award. 

Mary’s Place offers three retreats each week: one Tuesday through Thursday morning, a one-day session on Thursday, and finally a weekend retreat that begins Friday morning and ends Sunday morning. Another 5,000 women are served through virtual programming. 

In addition to the on-site accommodations and healthy meals for breakfast and lunch, Mary’s Place provides services including oncology massage, reflexology, Reiki, guided meditation, individual and group counseling, and group activities including art therapy, yoga, prayer, expressive writing and soul collage/vision boarding. 

Sims-Gannon knew from the outset that she wanted the services and accommodations provided by Mary’s Place to be free of charge. “In 16 years, we haven’t had to charge a woman a single dollar to come here,” Sims-Gannon said. “This is life-changing for so many women.”  

Currently, Mary’s Place raises $1.4 million annually to support its mission. Stretching those funds as far as they will go are 60 practitioners, many of whom donate their services, and 100 volunteers who supplement the organization’s seven full-time staff members. 

From the beginning, Mary’s Place has depended on the kindness of friends and strangers who believe in its mission. When the organization outgrew that initial bed and breakfast and soon thereafter a rented five-bedroom home, Sims-Gannon and her board appealed to a local bank to lend them enough money to purchase land and construct their current facility. 

The two lots a block from the water in Ocean Grove alone cost $700,000, she said. “There is no way we could have personally financed it. They believed in us. They felt our passion.” So did her husband, a local builder who submitted the low bid for the construction, and a bevy of subcontractors, who donated time and materials. The first guests arrived in June 2016. 

“We built our 10,000-square-foot home in 18 months,” said Sims-Gannon, adding that the expansive porches with ocean views are one of her favorite features. “I love seeing the women in the rocking chairs on the porches, some of them wrapped up in blankets even in the winter, just looking at the ocean. So many women come here from land-locked areas, and the ocean is very healing to them.” 

Mary’s Place supports women with any type of cancer at any stage. They learn about Mary’s Place from a variety of sources, including cancer support groups, and travel to the Jersey Shore from all over the United States—primarily New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, but also from California, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii and beyond—as well as Canada and Europe. The average age of guests is 47. “These are working women in childbearing years with children at home,” said Sims-Gannon. “We’re now seeing a huge shift toward younger women.”  

It seems impressive that someone could build such a large and complex organization from nothing, but Sims-Gannon, who earned a degree in German at Longwood, says it’s just part of her personality, which first showed itself when she transferred to Longwood from Arizona State. 

“I just didn’t feel a connection at Arizona State. I felt overwhelmed at the size of it,” she said. “I had a friend at Longwood who was also was studying German. She said it was a great department, and the teachers all know you. I was just 18 years old, but I didn’t hesitate. I packed up my car and drove across the country to get to Farmville. 

“Coming to Longwood was really what laid the groundwork for me to stretch myself to the unknown. You don’t have to know everything that’s going to happen. You just have to be open and adaptable,” Sims-Gannon said. “There’s no stopping me once I get set on something.” 

And she’s not stopping with just one Mary’s Place. Due to the overwhelming demand and the lengthy waitlist, Sims-Gannon said the organization’s expansion committee is currently looking at a second location with hopes of building a second facility within the next three years. 

“We now get more than 2,000 applications a year for our retreats,” she said. “It is validation that we have created something that fills a need. The gratitude from the women who come here is what fuels every person to do what we do. When you have a woman say to you, ‘Thank you. This is where my healing began,’ that’s motivation to improve it and to grow it, so you can reach more women.” 

 

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