St. Marguerite School celebrates 10th annual gala

Courtesy photo/Daniel Pacheco Photography

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Fr. Kenneth Vialpando, pastor of St. Marguerite Parish, joins the fun at St. Marguerite Catholic School's 10th Annual Gala fundraiser on Feb. 10.

By Anne Stine

Special to the Intermountain Catholic

TOOELE —The Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez, CSB, Bishop emeritus of Las Cruces, N.M., was the keynote speaker at St. Marguerite Catholic School’s 10th annual Gala fundraiser on Feb. 10 in the extravagantly decorated parish hall.

The theme “Hope, Dream, Serve” was front and center for the event, which was supported by scores of local organizations and businesses, which donated dozens of baskets full of prizes for lucky ticketholder. The 130 attendees feasted on a sumptuous catered dinner and danced to the music of a local DJ. A silent auction also provided more financial donations to the school.

Bishop Ramirez spoke about a humble nun, Sister Blandele Segale, who arrived in the United States as a 3-year-old immigrant from Italy. Her family settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. When she grew up, she joined the Sisters of Charity and was assigned to Trinidad, Colo. She was a musician, teacher and engineer, and worked with all the people in that area. She even befriended Billy the Kid, and once, when one of his gang members was injured, she doctored him back to health. As the story goes, one time she was riding in a stagecoach when Billy the Kid and his gang rode up to rob it. She stuck her head out the window and yelled, “Billy, it’s me!” at which point he called off his men and left the scene. The book The Fastest Nun in the West was written about her.

Bishop Ramirez is working for the cause of Sr. Blandele’s beatification.

“You cannot invest too much in a child, and especially in Catholic schools,” Bishop Ramirez said during his keynote address. “What you do tonight and throughout the year – you cannot invest too much. … There is a supernatural element to Catholic education. You must fix a child’s eyes on heaven. Our aim in Catholic education, and in all the Church, is to produce saints. We also need to teach the children what it means to be truly human and focus on Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. How these children grow up and end up living their lives depends on the fundamentals that they are taught in Catholic school.”

The Holy Trinity is the model, he continued. “Catholic school has to be our community. We are all in this together and all bear responsibility for it. Catholic schools engender profound understanding of why we are on earth. Jesus is the reason for Catholic schools: to develop a Catholic worldview for our children. Catholics are everywhere in the world where people need help and all of us make a difference no matter how humble our efforts may seem. No matter how small, every one of our efforts is like the wings of a hummingbird. When enough of them flutter, the world feels the breeze.”

Anne Stine is a St. Marguerite parishioner.