What a week it has been here at BK!  There have been several wonderful examples in our community of our BK Way culture in action.  Please allow me to highlight a few:

–       The Bishop Kelly Foundation’s Winner’s Choice Dinner and Auction saw a record 612 people attend, with everyone having a fun time and raising a record amount for the Foundation.  Check out the photos from the evening here.  The principal goal of the Foundation is to provide funding — for scholarships, operations, and capital improvements — that will keep Bishop Kelly’s standards and quality at the highest level.  This past Saturday evening will enable them to do just that for our school.  It was a tremendous showing of the BK Way elements of Generosity and Community.  Many thanks and much appreciation to the BK Foundation’s Executive Director, Rita Franklin, and Jeannie Kranz, her incredible assistant; auction chairs Mike and Mary Adcox and James and Angie Harrison, and many volunteers – Terri Black, Vicki Daly, Joan Melvin, Kristin Baumgardner, Terri Manning, Sonya Hart, Kirstin Heffner, & Tereasa Guy Engelhardt, all of whom worked for months planning the details of the event, helped set up the Grove, and worked the event; to the Foundation Board members, led by chairman Tim LaMott, who worked the various committees and supported the event; to our many donors in the community who gave the wonderful auction items that helped generate the proceeds from the event;  to the students who worked the dinner, especially our incredible speaker Bailey Russell; and, to the people in our community – parents, alumni, community members, companies, BK faculty and staff – who bought tickets for the event and bid on the auction items to help us raise money for scholarships and operations at the school.

–       Monday and Tuesday of this week we had our annual Challenge Days, where our freshman and new sophomores and juniors spent the day learning to “be the change they wish to see”.  It was a powerful experience for all attendees and a great example of building A Safe and Caring Place at BK.  Much appreciation to Wes Worrell, who organizes the program, to our 60 Challengers who set a shining example of the BK Way and work the days; to the over 55 adults (faculty, staff, parents and community members) who volunteer their time to help facilitate, and to Jon and Jenn from Be the Change who led the days.  It was a life changing experience for all who attended and the commitment from all to carry the feelings and learnings from the days into our school for the remainder of their time at BK was impressive and important.  We need to work everyday as a community to make BK “a safe, caring and compassionate place where all students, staff and parents feel welcomed and valued”.

–       We are in the second week of our “one-to-one” technology pilot, led by Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs, Tammy Emerich,  where faculty members Chad Barker, Marta Watson and Larry Crump are working with their students on how best to use technology to help the learning environment.  It is a fabulous example of the BK Way principle of Academic Excellence.  The learnings from this pilot will help us determine the best way to move forward in our goal to “support and challenge each student to their very best and achieve personal excellence”.

–       Finally, the BK Food Drive, led by campus ministry, is in full  motion and our students and faculty are continuing to demonstrate incredible Generosity in how they “give generously of their time, talents and treasure to their fellow man”.  Stay tuned for the final number of items for the local area parish food banks and which class wins the drive!

In closing, I am inspired every day by the commitment of our community to live our BK Way principles in their words and actions!  I feel so thankful and blessed to be able to serve as president of this wonderful school.  This will be my last post before Thanksgiving and I wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!