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Caritas Award Ceremony
The Caritas Awards were established in 1995 through the generosity of an anonymous SJU donor. Each year a distinguished Saint John's Alumnus and a Saint Benedict's Alumna and two upper class students - one from each campus - are selected to receive this award for their commitment to social change and social justice. Each alum will be allowed to designate a volunteer organization to receive a $1,500.00 cash award in the recipient's name. Each student receives a $500.00 award for a volunteer organization of his or her choice. Each year one CSB student and one SJU student recipient is chosen to receive the Caritas Award for their commitment to service and social justice as identified by the Social Change Wheel.
In 2010...
Two students and two graduates from the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, and Saint John's University, Collegeville, will be honored during the Caritas Award Ceremony Monday, March 29 at the Alumni Lounge, Quadrangle Building, SJU. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by an awards program at 6 p.m. and includes a keynote speech from Kathy Langer, director of social concerns for the St. Cloud Diocese. The event is free and open to the public.
This year's recipients are Christin Tomy, CSB senior and Spanish and French double-major from Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Alex Schafer, SJU senior and sociology major from Chippewa Falls, Wis.; Theresa (Guentzel) Reichert, CSB alumna '05; and Marty Roers, SJU alumnus '93.
Since coming to CSB, Tomy has volunteered with Prison Ministry, VISTO adult and child swim programs, the Fast Forward Youth Program, Amnesty International and Alternative Break Experience trips to Guatemala and El Paso, Texas. She also volunteered at an orphanage during her semester abroad in Chile. Tomy has worked as an English tutor with Mexican immigrants in Cedar Rapids, and organized an awareness and fundraising event on campus to benefit the people of Postville, Iowa, a town that experienced an immigration raid in May 2008. She is currently serving as an intern at Casa Guadalupe, a non-profit Hispanic ministry in Cold Spring, Minn. Tomy is also working on an independent project, Banco Esperanza (Hope Bank), a student run micro-lending organization that aims to empower low-income Hispanic women of the Cold Spring area.
Schafer has worked in prison ministry with inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud; planned and led a service trip to southern Wisconsin for flood relief in 2007; and served on an Alternative Break Experience trip in 2008, where he worked with underserved children during an after school program. In the spring of 2009, he worked with the Benedictine Action Team (BAT Cave), helping to plan a fundraiser for Tanzanian schoolchildren, events for Catholic Social Teaching week and several Urban Plunges. He spent the summer of 2009 working in Chicago as an urban staff member of Youthworks,finding and scheduling volunteer sites around the city for more than 400 youth. This year, as a part of the Spirituality and Social Justice team at CSB and SJU, he planned and led a men's service trip to Chicago to help an after school program and a Catholic church with their social justice work.
Schafer (left) and Roers (right)
Roers spent seven years in foreign missionary service with the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful after graduating from SJU with a biology degree. His journey crossed different countries in Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador) and East Africa (Sudan, Kenya, Uganda). Roers also worked in the Mission Office for the St. Cloud Diocese from March 2003 to August 2005. Roers is currently a campus minister coordinating social justice and service outreach opportunities for college students at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a position he has held since September 2008. He strives to connect college students to those on the margins of society with the unique challenge of struggling to engage students in direct service and social justice issues, which can often seem so removed from the sheltered life of the average college student.
Traveling abroad to help others has been a core responsibility in both Reichert's life and nursing career. While a student at CSB, she participated in many service activities and studied abroad in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where she counseled AIDS and tuberculosis patients. After graduating from CSB with a nursing degree, she spent six months working in Calcutta, India, volunteering as a nurse in a school and an orphanage. After the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Reichert traveled to Haiti for two weeks to work with patients in a makeshift hospital in Port-au-Prince. She is currently working as a registered nurse in the Children's Center at St. Cloud Hospital. Reichert is also attending graduate school at St. Catherine University in St. Paul with a goal of becoming a nursing professor so she can teach students to develop a critical awareness of social justice issues in nursing and healthcare.
Past Award Winners:
2010
Students
- Christin Tomy - CSB '10
- Alex Schafer - SJU '10
Alums
- Theresa (Guentzel) Reichert - CSB Alumna '05
- Marty Roers - SJU Alumnus '93
2009
Students
- Ashleigh Leitch - CSB '09
- John Smith - SJU '09
Alums
- Marilyn and Joe Schmit - CSB Alumna ’56 and SJU Alumnus ’55
- Nick Davis - '02 SJU Alumnus
2008
Students
- Maya Main – CSB ‘08
- Ben Demarais – SJU ‘08
Alums
- Christine Kustelski – ’96 CSB Alumna
- Paul Conroy – ’05 SJU Alumnus
2007
Students
- Kristen Roehl – CSB ‘07
- Dylan Sheldon – SJU ‘07
Alums
- Samantha Henningson – ’04 CSB Alumna
- Jeffrey Corey – ’94 SJU Alumnus
2006
Students
- Megan Kuhl – CSB ‘06
- Dan Dooher – SJU ‘06
Alums
- Christine Gam – ’02 CSB Alumna
- Paul Fried – ’99 SJU Alumnus
2005
Students
- Kirsten Flaten – CSB ‘05
- Kevin Boggeman – SJU ‘05
Alums
- Sarah Mechtenberg – ’99 CSB Alumna
- Dave Charpentier – ’89 SJU Alumnus
2004
Students
- Kate Eder – CSB ‘04
- Chris Hausmann – SJU ‘04
Alums
- Kate Percuoco – ’02 CSB Alumna
- Eric LeCompte – ’99 SJU Alumnus
2003
Students
- Karolanne Hoffman – CSB ‘03
- Gabe Berendes – SJU ‘03
Alums
- Sarah Athman – ’99 CSB Alumna
- Mike Sersch – ’00 SJU Alumnus
2002
Students
- Jen Maza – CSB ‘02
- Nate Gottfried – SJU ‘02
Alums
- Katie Krolczyk – ’96 CSB Alumna
- Dave Johnson – ’97 SJU Alumnus
2001
Students
- Amy Petersen – CSB ‘01
- Felicia Ochs – CSB ‘01
- Travis Doboszenski – SJU ‘01
Alums
- Rachel Stokman Brown – ’96 CSB Alumna
- Phil Steger – ’97 SJU Alumnus
2000
Students
- Erin Schwalbach '00
Alums
- Stacy Rooney '98
1999
- Reba Mathern-Jacobsen
- Andrea Foley
1998
Alums
- Cheryl Jones Kreager '90
1997
Alums
- Ann Bukoskey '76
1996
Alums
- Deborah Doom '95