Catholic School Students, Alumni Earn Youth Resources Honors

Students and alumni from Diocese of Evansville Catholic school earned honors during the April 19 Youth Resources of Southwestern Indiana Hall of Fame Celebration. The organization, which is celebrating 30 years of youth-leadership programming, hosted the event at Evansville’s Holiday Inn Airport on U.S. 41 North.

Reitz Memorial High School Senior Joey Gerteisen received the Robert “Scooter” Tiemann Servant Leader Award from Youth Resources, and fellow Memorial Senior Kaylee Barton received the Nancy Sieben Koehler Mental Attitude Award from the organization.

Youth Resources surprised Reitz Memorial graduate and 14 News Sunrise anchor Erin Meyer with an Outstanding Alumni Award. Meyer attended with a videographer to cover the event, but soon was on stage receiving her award.

Another part of the program included recognition of school groups and others who received Make a Difference Grants from Youth Resources, and the organization had representatives of three grant recipients make brief presentations on their grant-funded projects.

Saint Wendel School fourth-graders Ty Mauck and Ethan Stofleth told attendees about their project to benefit 15-20 members of the U.S. Military. The students sent the soldiers letters and cards throughout the year, and they assembled and distributed care packages at Christmas and Easter. Saint Wendel also hosted a Veterans Day reception to honor all U.S. military personnel, past and present.

Other Diocese of Evansville Catholic parishes and schools also received Make A Another group selected to present came from Reitz High School, and the students discussed their work to benefit clients of the Albian Fellows Bacon Center, which focuses on assisting abuse victims in a variety of ways. Reitz Senior Abby Mueller showed digital examples of pages from the job-search handbook she created for clients of the center, which provides a number of resources for them to assist in applying and interviewing for new jobs.

Youth Resources named Mueller as its Youth of the Year for her work on the project.

Difference Grants from Youth Resources, including Resurrection School; St. Joseph School in Vanderburgh County; St. Philip School in Posey County; Resurrection School in Evansville; and St. Benedict Cathedral TeenPower Club.