Strong support brings success to campaign

By Kenny Keane, Globe staff reporter
Posted November 21, 2002

For a campaign to be successful, there must be strong supporters. This was no different for the Centennial Campaign for Excellence held throughout the Sioux City Diocese.

In the case of the centennial campaign, what made the difference was the successful efforts of several supportive pastors and lay leaders.

"With patience, a positive attitude, a need and if you get the right people, it'll make things go," said Father LeRoy Seuntjens, pastor of St. Mary Church in Hawarden. "We still have Catholic people here who care about the church, and in spite of the rough times, I think they certainly came through in this area for this campaign."

The rough times, as Father Seuntjens pointed out, include the scandals within the clergy in the United States, which he said had some people wondering, "Is money going to go to support them or pay for those bills or those suits?" He also mentioned that with every campaign, many people believe it's due to a poor economy, but at this time that way of thinking rings true since the economy is not the most positive.

"Yet, it surprised a lot of us the way people responded," he said. "I think people responded because they figured, 'We are Catholic. This is our church, and in spite of where we might be, we're going to dig down and show we're Catholic.'"

One lay person in particular who showed her support as a Catholic was Betty Kaschmitter, who not only serves as secretary at Sacred Heart Church in Spencer but also acted in the same capacity at her parish for the centennial campaign.

"I was the secretary who handled the recording and paperwork," she said. "I sent in results, and I also helped line up some of the workers. Any info that came from the diocese, I implemented all of that."

Kaschmitter said the organization of the campaign made things easy, and as a result, she said it was not a time-consuming task.

"It was worthwhile and rewarding. We were really pleased," she said. "When I was calling for volunteers, the response was very good. Most of the people who I called said yes, that they would be glad to help."

Included in the quality organization of this project were very good materials, which aided in the success of the campaign, according to Msgr. Roger Augustine, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Moville. He also noted that the leadership for this type of effort needs to be primarily with the pastor.

"Probably the most important thing was the pastor working with the people, and that's what I did quite a bit," he said. "The people of Immaculate Conception, the workers, were very enthusiastic to achieve the goal. We achieved it and did very well. Once we explained to everyone what the needs were, they seemed to be very receptive."

The parishes that were most receptive were those with very supportive pastors, according to Jim Steier, president of The Steier Group, the development firm that managed the campaign.

"The support of the pastors in a diocesan campaign is one of the most critical factors for the entire effort," Steier said. "In those parishes where the pastors really stepped up to the plate, really expressed their enthusiasm for the campaign and its goals, that is where we experienced the greatest amount of success."

Father Seuntjens said that his parish was also very successful, thanks in large part to good advance gifts of around $60,000 from some big givers. He said the parish goal was about $83,000, and they came up with over $100,000. He said the key was choosing the leaders.

"We had two chairpersons who went to Sioux City for a meeting and saw the bishop's video and came back very positive," he said. "We chose other captains who went to the training session in Granville, and a couple of them said, 'I think it's doable.'

"First of all, the reaction was $83,000 going out of the parish to something like this is never brick and mortar that we're going to see here. We thought this was a tremendous amount after they had taken the advance gifts. It was the enthusiasm and the positive attitude of those people, plus the bishop's video and I think my own support - those three things were key in the success of this campaign here in the midst of some things that were not necessarily supportive of it."

Those non-supportive aspects are what Father Seuntjens referred to earlier with the clergy and economy. Msgr. Augustine agreed that the campaign came at a difficult time, but he said that no one knows when the best time is for a good campaign.

Despite the timing, Msgr. Augustine said he was pleased with the response to the campaign.

"I would say that generally speaking, we had very close to 80-85 percent of our parishioners in some way or another who responded," he said. "They just figured, well this is something we need to do as a church. It's just a realization that this is the need right here and now, and let's take care of it. We can't wait."