By Derek Teeter

Are you a young professional looking to support Catholic education but not sure how? A few years ago, my wife, Holly, and I were asking this question, and then we found the Catholic Education Foundation (CEF) Futures Committee. Now, we are the proud co-chairs of this group and are extremely excited about what it has accomplished.

The CEF Futures Committee is a group of young professionals roughly between the ages of 21-40 that supports the CEF mission of making Catholic education available to all who seek it, regardless of financial circumstances. We show our support by raising awareness of CEF and money to fund scholarships for CEF students. Members of the Futures Committee come from a variety of backgrounds and industries.

In the past three years, we have sponsored various events to accomplish these goals. We hosted a trivia night at a CEF school and a pumpkin patch event for CEF families. But our most recent and successful event has been the Futures Art Event held at the Boulevard Brewery. We have hosted the Art Event for the last three years, and it combines art by local artists and CEF scholarship recipients, delicious food, and unlimited Boulevard beer and wine. This year, the Art Event raised funds for 30 CEF scholarships, doing our part to support CEF’s scholarship program, which, overall, funds over 1,300 scholarships. These 1,300 scholarships support over 800 families spread across 21 different Catholic schools in urban and rural Northeast Kansas.  Every scholarship has a huge impact because 98% of CEF students graduate high school, compared to 70% of their peers. And 94% of CEF students go on to college, compared to only 33% of their peers.

There are almost 300 kids waiting for CEF scholarships right now. And we could use your help to get them a quality Catholic education. It is a relatively low time commitment that will allow you to meet other like-minded individuals and support underprivileged kids getting a Catholic education!