Tony Uebelhor Receives Distinguished Graduate Award At Precious Blood

Editor’s note: This speech was presented during Catholic Schools Week at Precious Blood School in Jasper.

Good morning. Welcome students, staff, parishioners and guests to our final celebration of Catholic Schools Week 2014. Since Precious Blood School opened in 1957, over 2,000 students have graduated from our school. This May, we will add another 26 people to that number. The challenge to all of our graduates when they leave this school is to go out into the world using the things they learned here to make the world a better place.

It is a great tradition at Precious Blood School to honor a Distinguished Graduate during Catholic Schools Week. For the past 18 years, Precious Blood School has honored a special person who has used the lessons they learned while attending our school to make a difference in the world. These distinguished men and women have had many different accomplishments.  Some have become priests, some are valued leaders of our community, and some have been members of our own Precious Blood staff.  Each of these individuals have set an example for every student here today in how to continue living by the values you have learned here at our school long after you leave. It is my hope that you will be inspired by these people to make your own difference in the world.

This year, we celebrate our Catholic Schools Week theme: "Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and Service." When the fifth graders attended Mass with Bishop Thompson on Wednesday, he told them the most important word in this theme.  Fifth graders, help me out with this - we celebrate our communities of faith, knowledge, AND service. We are not communities of faith alone, or two of the three words. We must be all three - communities of faith, knowledge, AND service.

As I reflected on Bishop Thompson's words, I felt very happy and excited about the person chosen as our 2014 Distinguished Graduate. This person is definitely someone committed to our community of faith, knowledge, AND service. 

Our Distinguished Graduate recipient left Precious Blood School in 1975 and soon became an important member of our parish and community of Jasper. He started his own family and had four children attend Precious Blood School, handing on the great tradition of Catholic education to the next generation. He is a very well known and well respected member of not only our local community, but in all of southern Indiana and beyond.

Our Distinguished Graduate understands that our community of faith and knowledge must include service. He has been involved in many important aspects of Precious Blood Parish, including the building expansion in 1998, the beginning of our Scrip program, and working on the quilt stand committee during our parish picnic. He participates in many community activities such as the Dubois County Right to Life, the Knights of Columbus, and serving as a board member of Families Through International Adoption. He has also applied his philosophy of service to his business which often hosts community outreach programs such as collections for the local food bank.

I am very honored this morning to present our 2014 Precious Blood School Distinguished Graduate Award to Mr. Tony Uebelhor.

This morning, one of our current students will be representing Precious Blood School to officially present this award.  At this time, will Miss Ava Uebelhor please come forward.