St. Mary-of-the-Woods College communications manager
“We are not called upon to do all the good possible, but only that which we can do.”
Those are the words of St. Mother Theodore Guerin, Indiana’s first saint and founder of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College. As Veronica “Roni” O’Connor reflected on everything her team of more than 25 St. Mary alums accomplished with students at St. Roch Catholic School during the college’s week of service, April 12-18, this quote resonated with her.
“All we accomplished this week happened because I have been truly blessed to surround myself with like minds and hearts, in my Woods community and my church community alike,” said O’Connor, who serves on the college’s alumni board. “This was the most perfect celebration of how we are all connected in the messages of service to others; there are so many ways to serve.”
As a St. Roch parishioner, O’Connor knew that bringing the service project to St. Roch was a great idea. She approached Principal Joe Hansen, her cousin, and he turned her one-day suggestion into a weeklong plan.
Alums served lunch in the cafeteria, said the morning and afternoon prayers over the intercom and informed students about St. Guerin and the college.
O’Connor and her cousin, Amy Miles Wilson, St. Roch’s fifth-grade teacher and this year’s recipient of the St. Theodora Excellence in Education Award – the highest honor for Catholic education in the Indianapolis Archdiocese – worked as a team with all the students.
But the week wouldn’t have been complete without a field trip to what they had heard so much about – St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
The week of service concluded with an all-school Mass at St. Roch and the presentation of scholarships to Anna Madden and Maddie Brehob, both 2011 graduates of St. Roch and 2015 graduates of Roncalli. Madden and Brehob will be awarded $46,000 and $36,000, respectively, over four years to St. Mary.
St. Mary alums also participated in service projects at St. Joan of Arc School, Joy’s House in Broad Ripple and Marquette Manor.