Michael Morrisey is the executive director of the Catholic Education Foundation. You can reach him at (913) 647-0383 or send an email to him at: mmorrisey@archkck.org.
by Michael Morrisey
Happy New Year!
As the new year begins, I have three questions for you!
Did you stay up and watch the crystal ball drop on New Year’s Eve?
I did! While it dropped, I reminisced about our CEF year in review highlights:
- In February, our CEF Futures (young professionals) sold out their Art Event well in advance and raised enough dollars to sponsor 30 scholarships!
- During the 2014-15 school year, CEF helped 1,363 children living in poverty attend 20 of our archdiocesan Catholic schools!
- The CEF Guardian Angel Fund provided emergency tuition assistance for 21 students!
- For the current school year, the CEF Board of 31 approved a record scholarship distribution of $1,315,995!
- On Oct. 24, a record 1,511 attended the annual CEF Gaudeamus dinner!
- In December, we had a wonderful dinner with Archbishop Naumann and parents from some of our CEF schools. They confirmed for us that a Catholic education for their children is a character-building spiritual gift that will just keep on giving!
2015 was quite a year for the orange, gold and teal! Move over, Ryan Seacrest!
Have you made your New Year resolution(s) for 2016?
I have made my resolutions (plural means many for this guy) and I will share just a few with you.
- On the personal front, I am resolving to be healthier (whatever that means).
- As a CEF office, we are resolved to find ways to increase awareness of our mission to help more children in need attend our Catholic schools. In addition, we will exceed our budget goals to allow more children a Catholic education opportunity.
Will you make a resolution to help our CEF kids? My answer is yes!
CEF has had many successes, and things are going well for our foundation. However, there is still much work to do. Way back when, we used the analogy that providing scholarships for all children in need was like trying to boil the ocean. Idealistically, we are trying to make that happen, but realistically, it will never happen.
Based on reality, there is always going to be a need. We said that we are boiling the ocean of need one scholarship at a time. If the averages stay the same, CEF will help well over 1,400 kids attend our Catholic schools this year. However, our principals have identified another 395 children that want to attend our schools, but do not have that opportunity because sustainable resources are not available.
On behalf of our CEF families, we can’t THANK YOU enough for your support — past, present and future. Your continued caring about our CEF kids is much appreciated!
Next year, as we watch the ball drop, our hopes are that those 395 kids have been given a chance for a quality Catholic education!
