2015 Spirit of St Columbkille Awards

Today we proudly announce the recipients of the 2015 Spirit of St. Columbkille Award. Every year they go to a family or couple that model quiet discipleship for the rest of us. They are:

The Julie & John Cavanaugh Family

Kathy & Jim Burson

Congratulations!

They will receive their awards on Saturday, March 7th at Columb's Ceili. If you want to attend (and we know you do) you can get your tickets here.

The 2014 Spirit of St Columbkille Awards

Kim and Kevin Pokorny were married at St. Peter’s parish in Bellwood, Nebraska, and recently celebrated their 25^th anniversary.  Kim and Kevin became part of the St. Columbkille community in 1989 Their children Chris, a junior at Gross Catholic High School, and Megan, an 8^th grader at St. Columbkille School, have grown up in the parish. 

Kevin, a police officer, is Captain with the La Vista Police Department.  Kim, a registered nurse, is manager of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Kevin has overseen the St Columbkille Festival Raffle for over 19 years; which has been a fun project for the entire family. Chris and Megan have been involved since they were babies.  The Festival is a great opportunity to ‘build family and community’ and the Pokornys would like to encourage others to become involved.

Kevin has coached soccer, softball and basketball. He is an EMHC/homebound, funeral adult altar server, delivers Thanksgiving meals, chaperoned Confirmation retreats and assists the Gross Trap Team.  Kevin is voluntary chairman of the Police Federal Credit Union Supervisory Committee.  

Kim volunteers for funeral lunches, classroom projects, parties, special events and field trips.  She is on the City of La Vista Library Advisory Board, having served as President and Secretary. Kim is very involved volunteering with national transplant organizations working to improve the treatment and care of patients receiving blood and marrow transplants.  

Chris volunteers at the La Vista Public Library, as scorekeeper for St. Columbkille basketball, for the police children’s Christmas party, at the Papillion gun club, and delivers Thanksgiving meals.  As part of an engineering team, he helped to redesign the chapel at Gross Catholic High School.   

Megan volunteers at the La Vista Public Library, for the police children’s Christmas party, delivers Thanksgiving meals, and assisted with the Linus blankets project.  She is a member of St. Columbkille School’s Acts of Kindness through Service and Junior National Honor Society. 

Kim and Kevin believe in a strong Catholic education and feel very fortunate to be part of the St Columbkille Parish and School community. 

Dottie and Al Schmid, married for over 50 years, have dedicated their lives to community. Al’s background in farming coupled with his banking experience brought them to Papillion in 1964.

In 1988, Al, along with his son Jeff, chartered The American National Bank of Sarpy County.  The bank opened its doors in 1989 and after serving as President and Chairman of the Board for many years he is currently Chairman Emeritus. Dottie, born and raised in Massachusetts, met All while visiting an uncle at Offutt Air Force Base. After raising their children, Dottie began a 30 year career as a receptionist and in insurance billing.

Al has served as President of the Papillion Chamber of Commerce, Color Guard and Honor Guard for the American Legion, served on the Boards of the Midlands Hospital Foundation, Papillion La Vista Schools and the YMCA. He was a charter member of the Papillion Area Lions Club Al served on the Building and Finance Committee when the current church was built. He was also one of four original men to serve as Lectors and EME’s when laypeople were allowed. Al has been a member of the West Omaha Serra Club for many years.

Dottie has served as President of the Altar Society, President and member of the Funeral Committee and as an Eucharistic Minister.  She has also been an RCIA Sponsor and worked with Sister Schumaker helping the New Catholic Committee. But most important was being present at the activities of her children and grandchildren.

The Schmids feel blessed with the many friendships that have been made with their opportunity to be involved in the parish and community.

The Spirit of St. Columbkille awards will be presented by Fr. Damian Zuerlein at Columb's Ceili Saturday, March 1st at the Embassy Conference Center in La Vista.

2014 Spirit of St. Columbkille Award

The recipients of the 2014 Spirit of St. Columbkille

 Award have been named. They are:

 The Kim & Kevin Pokorny Family

and

Dottie & Al Schmid

Congratulations!

The awards will be presented by Fr. Damian at Columb's Ceili on Saturday, March 1st 2014. Click here to make your reservation.

2013 Spirit of St. Columbkille Award

The recipients of the 2013 Spirit of St. Columbkille Award have been named. They are:

The Stacy & Rick Denne Family

and

Margo & Mike Neuzil

Congratulations!

The awards will be presented by Fr. Damian at Columb's Ceili on Saturday, March 2nd 2013. Click here to make your reservation.

Columb's Ceili 2012

Marlo and Chuck Monico were our honorary chairs

in an evening of friendship, community and celebration.

It was a record breaking crowd of over 460.

We honored the Cushings and the Gray families

with the Spirit of St. Columbkille Awards.

We thank them for quietly modeling

discipleship to the rest of us.

We participated in the Silent and Live Auctions.

We were entertained by members of

 Dowd's Irish Dance Academy.

We enjoyed each other's company.

And we finished dancing.

The word "Ceili" [kay-lee] is a celtic word for an all inclusive party. That is a very appropriate moniker for this annual parish celebration. Thank you to our sponsors and everyone who worked so hard to make this night happen.

2012 Spirit of St. Columbkille Awards

The Tracy Cushing Family

Barbara & Lloyd Gray

The Spirit of St. Columbkille is given annually to two families who represent the characteristics of quiet discipleship that are a model for the rest of us. The awards will be presented by Fr. Damian at Columb's Ceili on Saturday March 10, 2012 at the Embassy Suites.

Congratulations to those selected!!

Columb's Ceili

Saturday night was Columb's Ceili. The celebration took place under through our Honorary Chairs Amy and Jeff Schmid. They were the first to recognize the dozens and dozens of people who helped put everything together. It was a great evening to gather as a community. We celebrated the Lynam Family and the Dethlefs Family with the Spirit of St. Columbkille Award.

We celebrated each other's company.

Preliminary numbers indicate we raised over $150,000.



And we danced until Midnight.

Fr. Damian has said this should be the "signature event of the parish."

Well, Metro Magazine sure seemed to like it.

Spirit of St. Columbkille: The Dethlefs

Later today, the Spirit of St. Columbkille Award will be presented to the Andrea and Hans Dethlefs family at Columb's Ceili. One of the parish ministries the Dethlefs family has been involved with is “Step Out & Serve.” In this ministry, the family commits to a one-day project to help those in need in the greater community. But, “step out and serve” is also an excellent way to describe the Dethlefs family’s involvement at St. Columbkille Parish and in the community.

Andrea and Hans have been parishioners for fifteen years, serving on various councils, committees and ministries. Whether it is as EMHC’s, Baptism Catechists or serving on the School Advisory Council, Hans says he has been involved because he has been invited. In each case, he sees the invitation to serve as an invitation from Christ himself.

In 1997, Hans and Andrea moved their family to Honduras in Central America to perform missionary work with the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. There, Dr. Dethlefs worked with patients of all ages, but also focused on community health and malnutrition, establishing an inpatient center for severely malnourished children. Meanwhile Andrea helped with translating letters between sponsors and the Honduran children, taught English classes to some of the sponsored (Spanish-speaking) children, and started a library (La Biblioteca San Columkil) with funds raised from our parish.

Andrea feels God calls people to spread the Gospel in different ways. She believes her way is to serve others, whether that is serving at ReRuns R Fun, the school’s Art Reach program or on the Family Fun Festival Committee. She has been a Minister of Care at Papillion Manor and have worked for Kind Hearts (elderly care at home) in our community. She participated with MOMS (Ministry of Mothers Sharing) at St. Columbkille for several years and also helped coordinate DFACTS for 5 years. She teaches Spanish at St. Columbkille Catholic School.

Hans is a family practice doctor at One World Community Health Centers which serves the underserved in South Omaha. In 2009 Hans received the Nebraska Medical Association’s Physician of the Year Award. Hans and Andrea pray an hour of Adoration weekly in the Chapel.

They are delighted to see the same sense of service and discipleship growing in their children. Allison is a senior at Marian High School. She is involved with Youth Ministry including singing in the choir, serving as an EMHC, Lector, Server and participating in Young Neighbors in Action. Christopher is a freshman at Creighton Prep. He is a server at our parish, has participated in Youth Serve and many Youth Ministry activities. Rachel, who is in the sixth grade at St. Columbkille Catholic School, also serves at parish Masses and for several years has helped rake leaves for the elderly in the community. Each year everyone in the family helps at the Family Fun Festival.

Spirit of St. Columbkille: The Lynams

Tomorrow the Spirit of St. Columbkille Award will be presented to Marge and the late Link Lynam at the Ceili. It’s not a surprise that faith has always been a big part of Marge and Link Lynam’s lives, because they first met at St. Patrick’s Church. Marge had started to slip and Link had come to her rescue. Marge said, “Link’s family was so devout their dog wouldn’t eat meat on a Friday.”

Link and Marge celebrated 61 years of marriage, and have been parishioners at St. Columbkille Church for 43 of those years. Link, a pharmacist and avid baseball fan, owned and operated Lynam Drug. They moved their family to Papillion in 1968, relocating the drug store to Tara Plaza.

They were blessed with seven children; four of their younger children attended Sacred Heart Academy, now known as St. Columbkille Catholic School. Link was happy when Fr. Steinhausen was assigned to the parish in 1970 because they had been classmates at Creighton Prep.

In the 1980’s, the Lynam’s were members of “Renew”, a national program offered at St. Columbkille that provided adult formation through small groups. Marge was involved with the Women’s Guild, serving as President in 1982, and Link served as an Usher for many years. They later became involved with SPIRITuality ALIVE.

Service to the parish and the community was such a normal and natural part of their lives that Link and Marge never asked, “why”; they just did it.

2011 Spirit of St. Columbkille Award

Francis "Link" and Margaret Lynam
Hans & Andrea Dethlefs and family

The Spirit of St. Columbkille is given annually to two families who represent the characteristics of quiet discipleship that are a model for the rest of us. The awards will be presented by Fr. Damian at Columb's Ceili on Saturday March 5th at the Embassy Suites.

Congratulations!!

Spirit of St. Columbkille 2

Yesterdaywe highlighted the Caskeys who are receiving the Spirit of St. Columbkille Award. The other recipients are Anna Sortino, Mary Pechar and Gina Urbanski for their work with ReRuns.There is something of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves in the story of LaVista’s ReRuns R Fun.

Of Christ taking our minimal offering and generously maximizing it, not only for our own benefit, but also for the good and well-being of many others.

Anna Sortino began what became ReRuns in 1997 in the basement of her house as a sort of upscale garage sale. But two years later, just as she prepared for her spring sale, her husband, Mike was diagnosed with leukemia.

Doctors gave Mike little less than a 50-50 chance to survive. A successful entrepreneur, he began selling off his businesses. Anna, meanwhile, turned ReRuns over to St. Columbkille Church.

There was something of a promise in it: “Here you go, God, this is yours now ….. And … please …. heal my husband.”

God did. With treatment, Mike beat back the leukemia and has remained free of it ever since, even running more than two dozen marathons in the last decade.

Anna, meanwhile, took back the reins of ReRuns, establishing it as a nonprofit organization. Now it was God’s, and under his care, says Anna, “we just went boom.”

“We did not start making money until the year we gave it to the church,” she says. “t'was no longer for me. It was to help others because they helped us when we needed it.”

Without God, she adds, “we would have been sunk. I don’t know what I would have done without Him. He has helped ReRuns grow to where it is.”

Today ReRuns is the largest nonprofit children’s consignment sale in the United States, involving more than 400 volunteers, 1,000 consigners, 6,000 shoppers and 70,000 items at its signature spring sale.

It’s also become one of the area’s biggest philanthropic organizations with more than $1 million in goods and donations benefiting St. Columbkille Church and School, the Omaha Food Pantry, Sienna Francis House, the Smile Train and many others.

For the past decade, Anna has been assisted by the loyal friendship of fellow St. Columbkille parishioners Mary Pechar and Gina Urbanski. During ReRuns’ seven-month selling season the trio volunteers 60 to 80 hours a week, coordinating volunteers, cataloguing merchandise, producing various communications, maintaining a Web site, managing a database of 15,000 customers and coordinating their extensive donations. Often, their husbands and children are helping alongside them.

Reruns has become their life.

“I absolutely love it, eat it, breath it,” says Mary. “It’s like watching your children grow. ReRuns is a miracle in itself.”

You might here the same thing said in Honduras, where ReRuns proceeds have helped build a home for orphans and the elderly. A few years ago Anna, Gina and Mary visited Honduras to see their impact firsthand.

“I get such a rush knowing that our hard work generates the means to help make a difference in so many people's lives,” says Gina.

That includes lives right here at St. Columbkille. ReRuns has had a deep and widespread impact at our parish and school, purchasing classroom projectors and screens, white boards, and library shelves for the school and security cameras for the church. They’ve also helped fund playground renovation, tuition and school fee assistance, an 8th grade scholarship, the YNIA mission trip, our chapel/crucifix fund, Thanksgiving meals and much more.

“We have been beyond blessed,” Anna says. “We keep working for the Lord and I keep thinking if we keep doing the right things and helping others, everything else just falls into place.”

Spirit of St. Columbkille Award 1

Chuck and Jean Caskey were delighted when they met with Fr. Steinhausen and he assured them he would get all o ftheir children into the school. With ten children, that had been a concern. So Chuck and Jean bought their home in Papillion, joined the parish and our community has been better for it ever since.

In the first years, having to sometimes stand on the front steps for Mass, it seemed apparent that a new church wasneeded. Chuck first became involved with St. Columbkille Church by visiting parishioners to raise funds to build the current church.

When St. Columbkille Church began the Eucharistic Adoration ministry, Chuck Caskey was surprised that they were struggling to fill the hours. So for over 25 years, you will find the Caskeys in the chapel on Saturday mornings. Chuck describes Eucharistic Adoration as “very centering. It’s a good way to get your life on path – to get first things first. You miss it if you don’t go.”

Impressed by how much her grandchildren were learning about geography, Jean was instrumental in bringing the Passport Club to St. Columbkille School. The first through sixth grade classes receive weekly visits from people teaching them about various countries. Jean visits with students in the third grade.

Their roles have changed since 1978, when they arrived in Papillion. Initially, Jean was most active with the baking committee. Today, Chuck is a sacristan and a member of the RCIA team. He and Jean serve as hosts for RCIA meetings throughout the year at their beautiful farm home.
Today the ministry they most enthusiasticly endorse and recomend are the Conversational Dinners. “It’s a great way to get to really know people you see at Mass.”

Tomorrow Chuck & Jean will be given the Spirit of St. Columbkille award for quietly demonstrating to the rest of us what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Congratulations Chuck & Jean!

Spirit of St. Columbkille

Anna Sortino, Mary Pechar & Gina Urbanski

Charles & Jean Caskey.

The Spirit of St. Columbkille is given annually to two families or groups of people who represent the characteristics of quiet discipleship that are a model for the rest of us. The awards will be presented by Fr. Damian at Columb's Ceili on Saturday March 6th at the Embassy Suites.

Congratulations to those selected!!

Holy Thursday

On Holy Thursday we remember the Last Supper, the institution of the Eucharist, the start of the priesthood and how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

2009 Spirit of St Columbkille

On March 7th the parish celebrated our third Ceili. Besides the dinner and auction, Fr Damian presented two Spirit of St. Columbkille awards. The Spirit of St Columbkille awards are given to those who quietly demonstrate to the rest of us what it means to be a disciple. The first went to Barry and Gretchen Reid who have been active in the parish since they joined in 1977. The second award went to the John & Crystal Senger family who have taken very seriously the parish's mission to "GO and Make Disciples" as the now live in Kansas.