by Michael Morrisey

In our world today, there is a fine line that each of us walks when it comes to having pride and being prideful. You are now asking yourselves, “What in the world is he talking about?”

I will explain — but first, I want each of you to know that I totally get that you don’t need me to be proud of you.

On Oct. 24 of this year, an amazing phenomenon happened. No, we did not walk on Mars. No, the Chicago Cubs did not win a World Series. And no, I am not sporting a full head of hair.

At the Catholic Education Foundation’s annual Gaudeamus dinner, we were inundated with a record crowd of 1,511. These individuals showed up to celebrate Catholic education, to honor this year’s Angels Among Us honorees and to recognize our Catholic school educators.

A pledged amount of $1,161,220 from 619 gifts went into the record books. Those dollars will be used to help sustain and provide approximately 1,100 scholarships for current CEF kids living in poverty. In addition, we continue to work hard to bridge the gap to enable 395 more kids who need scholarship help to get that same opportunity.

At our Gaudeamus dinner, there was a sense of pride in our honorees, our School of Excellence (Resurrection Catholic School at the Cathedral in Kansas City, Kansas), our Catholic school educators, our student speaker, Topeka’s Mater Dei drumline, the Ascension choir, our soloist and our 218 volunteers.

I could tell from my conversations with attendees that they felt a connection to the CEF mission and, more specifically, a connection to our scholarship families. They were feeling a sense of pride from this involvement. They were feeling personal gratification from giving these children the opportunity through a Catholic school education to eradicate the cycle of poverty they are currently experiencing.

In a nutshell, they felt good about helping others, and there is nothing wrong with that sense of pride!

And now it is my turn to be proud of you. I can’t tell you how proud I am of all the supporters of the Catholic Education Foundation. You can’t see me, but my buttons are popping.

Further, I am more than proud of the CEF board of directors, past and present. These ladies and gentlemen are the reason that CEF is the organization it is today, as we reach a milestone this year of providing over 10,000 scholarships for children in need.

Every one of you should feel pride for your part in helping CEF give these kids a life-changing Catholic education!

Thank you so much for caring about our CEF kids!