Crane Project Takes Flight - Messmer Catholic Schools

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MESSMERTODAY ▼ St. Rose and St. Leo Catholic Urban Academies News Catholic Knights Reading Initiative Bill O’Toole, president and CEO of Catholic Knights, celebrated Catholic Schools Week at St. Rose and St. Leo Catholic Urban Academies on January 29, 2009. O’Toole joined 4-yearold kindergarten students in a special reading of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to honor the Catholic Schools Week theme of “celebrating service.” After the reading, O’Toole and volunteers from Catholic Knights Branch 318 presented a donation to support the Catholic Urban Academies’ school library. In addition, Catholic Knights members helped students create their own giving tree to show how they can serve their families and community. Ken and Pat Tushaus have volunteered and read to students and coordinated volunteers at Messmer Prep and the Urban Academies. The Catholic Urban Academies of St. Rose and St. Leo also celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe with Catholic Knight volunteers. Students held a prayer service, as well as receiving cookies and prayer cards from Catholic Knight volunteers. Catholic Knights is a not-for-profit Catholic membership organization that provides financial and fraternal services that strengthen families, parishes and communities. For more than 120 years, Catholic Knights have helped build better communities through volunteer action. Each year, Catholic Knights members help to raise more than $1 million in support of parishes, schools and communities. Catholic Knights President Bill O’Toole reads to Kindergarten students at St. Rose & St. Leo Catholic Urban Academies. Ancient Order of Hibernians annual fundraising dinner. Ancient Order of Hibernians William Ryan Drew Scholarship This fall, the Catholic Urban Academies of St. Rose and St. Leo hosted the William Ryan Drew Scholarship Dinner. The Ancient Order of Hibernians holds this annual event at the St. Rose Campus. The purpose of the spaghetti dinner and auction is to model the Order’s motto of “Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity.” The Ancient Order of Hibernians also strives to provide hope and opportunity to those of every background. With the funds raised from this dinner and auction, the Milwaukee division of this organization provides scholarships to families who attend parochial schools, including the Catholic Urban Academies. A number of students from St. Rose, St. Leo and Messmer High School helped with preparations for the event. Their duties ranged from set up, greeting guests, to helping the kitchen staff with the preparing of the food. All who attended were impressed by the politeness and efforts of the students working that night. Many guests made a point of communicating to Principal Lewis Lea how impressed they were with the students. The event was a huge success filled with enjoyment to benefit a worthy cause. The Hibernians were able to raise thousands of valuable dollars to make a difference in the Milwaukee community through scholarships. Our thanks to the Ancient Order of Hibernians for their commitment to urban youth. 6
▼ MESSMERTODAY More Churches, Families Transferring Holiday Spending to Poor Printed with Permission of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (www.jsonline.com) By Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Isaiah Renfro, 8, happily carries Christmas packages on Monday. Messmer High School tutors and a book club collected $1,500 worth of gifts for his family after a fire destroyed their home. For as long as they can remember, Sue and the Rev. Mike De- Long have exchanged Christmas gifts with the adults on her side of the family. Over the years, they've given or received every conceivable variation of tool, sweater, shirt, candle, Christmas novelty and home decoration. You name it, and they've wrapped or unwrapped it around the holidays. But this year, the DeLong and Lahm families have abandoned that tradition to create a new, more meaningful one. Moved by the crushing needs of the poor here and around the world, and their own hunger to make Christmas more spiritual, they pooled their $250 and perused a less conventional Christmas catalog from the Christian relief organization World Vision. From it, they've chosen to give a goat and four chickens to a family in the Third World; part of a well to pump clean water into a village where there is none; and clothing, blankets and other essentials for children in their own country. "We live in a land of excess; we have so much of everything. And there are those who don't have enough," said Sue DeLong, whose Brookfield family will celebrate today, with Christians around the world, the birth of the Christ child in a manger in Bethlehem. "It just seemed like we should be able to help," said DeLong, whose husband is the pastor at Milwaukee Evangelical Covenant Church, at 7727 W. Center St. "If everyone did a little bit, it would make such a big difference." That philosophy is behind the growing popularity of such organizations as Alternatives for Simple Living and Advent Conspiracy, which encourage people of faith to give more spiritually: to give of their time or companionship, and to buy for those with true needs, not just wants. "It's giving people permission to do what they've wanted for so long... to step out of the craziness of the Christmas season and engage their loved ones in the worship of the season," said Jeanne McKinley, director of the Portland, Ore.-based Advent Conspiracy, which has tracked more than $3 million in giving, much of that for clean water initiatives around the world, since it started in 2006. A number of Wisconsin churches have joined in, including Blackhawk Church in Madison, which raised $140,000, most of that to build clean water wells in Peru, on a single Sunday in December. "We challenged everyone to buy one less gift," said Nancy Lindroth, Blackhawk's director of team development. "The generosity astounded us. Like everyone else, we have people who are losing their jobs or struggling economically," she said. It is the economy, with its heart-wrenching and endless tales of lost jobs and home foreclosures, that has caused many to reevaluate their giving this Christmas. "The need has always been there, but it's now in sharp focus," said the Rev. Debra Trakel, whose parishioners at St. James Episcopal Church in downtown Milwaukee raised $1,200 - in addition to their ongoing work to feed and clothe the poor - to keep a family from being evicted before Christmas. Jeff Monday and students deliver gifts. Stories of generosity abound. PHOTO BY MARYJO WALICKI At Messmer High School, where sophomore Crystal Robinson's family lost its home in a fire, fellow students, faculty, volunteers and their families and friends made sure that, after they moved into their new house, they had plenty of groceries, money for bills and an abundance of Christmas gifts - all elegantly wrapped and ribboned - to open on Christmas morning. At All Saints Catholic Church near N. 25th St. and W. Capitol Drive, this year's holiday meal and party for those in need nearly doubled in size to 300, with many of the newcomers its own members who have fallen on hard times. "So, the few that still have something, instead of taking one star off the (giving) tree, they're taking 10, to give to their fellow parishioners," said Debbie Timko, who coordinated the program. 7
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Crane Project Takes Flight - Messmer Catholic Schools

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