April 24, 2009
Students share in bishop’s twentieth anniversary celebration
Above is the cover of the book prepared by students and staff members in the 28 diocesan schools which commemorates Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger’s twentieth anniversary of installation as the Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Evansville. Above, he shows his pectoral cross to Spencer Kuhn, Scott Sherwood and Tommy Conner, eighth graders at St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh. Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Service for your car — $500
Service for your damaged roof — $2,000
Service for your broken washer — $200
Service for your God and Community — priceless
Those words are found in a special book dedicated to Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger as he celebrates his twentieth anniversary of installation as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Evansville.
The book was compiled by students and staff members in the 28 diocesan schools. It’s titled “Building God’s King-dom,” and in it each school illustrates ways — through photographs, drawings and essays — the way it has offered service to its parish community and the larger community.
In the introduction, Donna Halverson, director of schools, notes that the schools have “dedicated their community service during this school year” as their gift to the bishop.
“Throughout your 20 years as our ‘Chief Teacher’ we have seen you put your faith into action by your dedicated service to our communities. From saying Mass for prisoners in Carlisle, speaking to each high school senior class, supporting the work of the Little Sisters of the Poor, answering phones for the Jerry Lewis MD Telethon, to honoring seniors at Wisdom Day and the Golden Jubilee, your community service has been an inspiration to all of us!”
This year the theme for Catholic schools has been “Building God’s Kingdom” with an em-phasis on “serving others,” Hal-verson said. “We dedicate all our service — from filling St. Vincent de Paul pantry shelves to visiting nursing homes — to you.”
The cover of the book features the bishop showing his pectoral cross to students at St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh. Inside, each diocesan school has two pages which are filled with photographs, drawings, school logos and students’ comments about service.
St. Benedict Cathedral School in Evansville chose these words “Service for your car — $500; Service for your damaged roof — $2,000; Service for your broken washer — $200; Service for your God and Community — priceless on their pages, noting “service is an integral part of the St. Ben’s School and parish community.”
Students at Christ the King School in Evansville shared their experiences working with the Christmas Giving Program, with one student noting, “I am thankful that I go to a Catholic school where I have the opportunity to do such a good thing.”
Corpus Christi’s page was filled with photographs, including two pictures of tennis shoes the students collected. Flaget Elementary School in Vincennes included pictures of the Giving Tree Canned Food Drive at Christmas and students making blankets to take to their buddies in nursing homes.
Good Shepherd School in Evansville had a photo of students welcoming home Army Specialist Jeffrey Gates from Iraq. The school participates in an Adopt-a-soldier program and sends cards, letters and gift packages to soldiers serving overseas.
“Service is where you help someone in need without getting something in exchange for doing it,” wrote Veronica Bitt-ner, a student at Holy Cross School in Fort Branch. Her school’s pages included comments from students, colored drawings and photographs of service projects.
There were essays by Kyle Freyberger, Adam Goepfrich and Alexis Lilly, students at Holy Family School in Jasper. They wrote on the topic, “Serving God.”
Each grade level at Holy Redeemer School in Evansville has a special service project during the year, and these were listed in the book. Their projects include nursing home visits, collecting pennies for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and collecting items for the Christian Life Center.
The students at Holy Rosary School, Evansville, filled their pages with photos of nursing home visits, making prayer blankets for the newly baptized members of the parish, and helping with an “Adopt a Spot.”
A caption under a photograph of the teachers at Holy Spirit School in Evansville notes, “Over 200 years of service in our Catholic schools.” There were also comments written on the theme “Build God’s Kingdom through Service” by Ashton Welte, Aaron Lichlyter, Rachel Dewig, Erik Slow and Georgie Davidson.
Mater Dei High School’s pages focused on the total stewardship hours donated: 6,845, including 775 hours from the freshman class, 1,380 from the sophomore class, 2,010 hours from the juniors, and 2,680 from the seniors. There is a note from the Interfaith Food Pantry in Posey County which states, “The Mater Dei volunteers . . . are some of the nicest hardest working kids I have ever met.”
Precious Blood School in Jasper had a variety of photos with students collecting pennies, helping out a community food bank, and honoring veterans.
Memorial High School in Evansville also featured photos of active students helping out with service projects such as the Soup-er Supper” and the Appalachia Service project.
Resurrection School in Evansville featured photos of students unloading food items at the St. Vincent de Paul Food pantry after the school’s “War on Hunger.”
The pages for Rivet Middle School and High School were filled with photos of its students wearing blue and gold and doing a variety of service projects. The pages were filled with the words “Service is . . . helping, love, kindness, what we do.”
The Builders Club is a student-led community service organization at St. Bernard School in Rockport. There was a photograph of its members with the caption noting they “participate in a road clean-up several times a year, a canned food drive at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and in putting baskets together at the local food pantry.”
There were drawings, photographs of happy students and comments about service on the two St. James School pages. Haubstadt student Marita Coyle wrote an essay on the “ABCs of Service” which began “Adopt-a-family at Christmas” and ended with “Zestfully give.”
“You are the leader of the Evansville flock. Still, on your twentieth year, as a bishop you rock!” Those were the opening lines in a letter written to Bishop Gettelfinger for St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh, which wished the bishop “happy anniversary and many more.”
Wrapping presents for needy families, participating in a hun-ger walk, sorting donated shoes, writing cards to service men and women. These photos represented the service projects at St. Joseph School, Vanderburgh County.
Students at St. Joseph School in Princeton were shown delivering cookies, visiting nursing home residents, collecting canned goods and raising money for Riley’s Children’s Hospital.
“Helper of the church, representing God on earth, servant of the Lord,” are the words written by Jarod at St. Matthew School. The Mount Vernon school also had drawings by students and essays about service.
This year, students at St. Philip School in Posey County collected books to send to a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia, Africa. They also raised money for the spinal muscular atrophy foundation, and their pages are filled with photographs capturing those efforts.
Students at St. Theresa have been busy “Building God’s Kingdom” by making donations to the Ozanam Family Shelter, recycling tennis shoes to be turned into playground materials, and decorating two-by-four boards for Habitat for Humanity.
There is an annual parish pen pal lunch at St. Wendel School, St. Wendel, as well as a Fiesta Guatemala which raises money. Students also send care packages to service men and women who are from St. Wendel.
The pages about Sts. Peter and Paul School in Haubstadt focus on many of the events the students participated in this year including writing letters to their parish prayer partners, having bake sales, and making cards for residents at River Oaks.
There are three Catholic schools in Washington, the elementary, the middle and the high school. During the school year, the WC students collect soda tabs for the Ronald Mc-Donald House. They also participated in the March for Life in Washington, D.C., passing out blankets and backpacks of ne-cessities to the homeless there, and they collected canned goods for the local food bank during the annual Thanksgiving food drive.
A photograph in the West-side Catholic section has these words, “Serving God by Serv-ing Others,” and a sketch by Breea Helming features the words “Love others as I have loved you,” John 15:12.
The last page of the book features the prayer card from Bishop Gettelfinger’s installation in 1989 and the words from Psalm 16.