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| August 2004 |
| Keeping memories alive through gifts
that help students |
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Bette Kathol knows the value of a Catholic
education.
The soon-to-be 70-year old grew up in Dell Rapids, attending
St. Mary Elementary and High School there and then studied nursing
with the Presentation sisters.
Her 16 siblings were Catholic educated as well at St. Mary.
“We are very committed, devoted to Catholic Education,
the whole family,” she said. Members of her family who
still live in Dell Rapids, continue to send their children to
St. Mary. “Catholic education is important to us.”
Kathol married a graduate of St. Joseph Cathedral School. That
was Mike Naughton. He, likewise, had brothers and sisters who
were all Catholic educated.
Kathol feels so strongly about the value of education that she
is doing something to make sure it continues.
Kathol, who now lives in Omaha, established the Leo and Ida
Hansen Endowment through the Catholic Foundation for Eastern
South Dakota to honor her parents and to provide scholarships
for children attending St. Mary School in Dell Rapids. This
is the second year scholarships have been awarded in Dell Rapids.
Kathol has already seen how her endowment is making a difference
for the recipients. The student who received one of the first
gifts lost her mother to death in the last year. The student
is the oldest of six children. “You talk about need,”
Kathol said, “She needed that. She probably needs a whole
lot more.”
“I think there is a big difference,” between Catholic
and public education, Kathol said. She wants to help keep that
difference intact.
Kathol is about to make another gift of an endowment in honor
of her late husband’s parents, Ed and Nellie Naughton,
to benefit St. Joseph Cathedral School students. “Before
my husband died, he was going to do something for his parents,
to memorialize at the Cathedral,” she said.
Mike Naughton passed away before he could act on his plan. “That
was always his desire to do something in the name of his parents,”
she added.
Kathol is making her latest gift to the Catholic Foundation
even though Cathedral school no longer has a high school. The
endowment Kathol has established at St. Joseph Cathedral is
intende to benefit all children.
“Now if they need something for the library, the money
should be used there, or if they need new computers...,”
they can do that, she said.
The other point Kathol eagerly makes about establishing an endowment,
rather than simply making a gift is the idea that an endowment
will live in perpetuity. “That caught my eye and that
we could do,” she said.
Kathol hopes the endowment gifts might some day make the difference
for a student by “keeping someone from going astray in
life and making them a worthwhile citizen,” she said.
You can find out more about setting up an endowment, making
a gift to your home parish or other diocesan or parish ministries
by contacting The Catholic Foundation for Eastern South Dakota,
523 North Duluth Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD 57104, at 605-988-3788
or at www.sfcatholic.org.
All information shared will be held in the strictest confidence. |
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