Trinity Heights plans 14th Annual Prayer and Celebration Day

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
June 9, 2005

Trinity Heights Queen of Peace in Sioux City will hold its 14th Annual Prayer and Celebration Day on June 26 with activities on the Trinity Heights campus and at the Sioux City Convention Center.

The Trinity Heights grounds and buildings will open at 10 a.m. on June 26. Anyone is invited to attend at any point during the day. All of the area priests, deacons and religious have been invited to any part of the day that they are able to attend.

"It is something that we started 14 years ago because we thought it was a way to offer a day for all of our friends that have helped us and worked on things with prayer in the afternoon and celebration with the banquet," said Beanie Cooper, executive director at Trinity Heights. "Everybody seemed to enjoy it. We have had as many as 1,000 and it will vary between 400 and 800 usually."

One aspect of the day will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Last Supper woodcarving created by Jerry Traufler of Le Mars. He and his wife, Arlene, will be on hand from noon until 3 p.m. in the Last Supper room in the St. Joseph Center for people to meet and visit with them.

Dale Lamphere, who sculpted the Queen of Peace statue, Sacred Heart of Jesus statue and other statues, will also be on the grounds during the day for anyone who would like to visit with him about his work.

At 3 p.m., there will be a eucharistic procession that will start at the St. Joseph Center and process out to the statue of Jesus. The spiritual committee, chaired by Larry Walsh, is in charge of the eucharistic procession.

The banquet will be held at the Sioux City Convention Center beginning at 5:30 p.m. Father LeRoy Seuntjens, pastor at St. Mary's in Hawarden, will give the invocation at the banquet.

"I'll give a review of what has been going on and what we are thinking about in the future," said Cooper. "I'll be talking about our senior housing project."

Dawn Kinsman will be the entertainment for the evening. She has performed at Catholic conferences all over the United States as well as in Rome at World Youth Day and has been featured on EWTN.

"We are good friends with the XECK, the editors of the Medjugorie Magazine, and they recommended Dawn," said Cooper.

Kinsman's passion for music and her faith is what fuels her boundless energy and keeps her inspired as she follows the path that has led her from Pierre, S.D. to performing all across the nation, in Canada and Italy.

She has a CD out titled "True Presence." Christ's real presence in the Eucharist is the theme of Kinsman's music and her life.

During the banquet, there will be a special honor for the Trauflers.

There will also be a display of Dale Lamphere's latest work of art, The Good Shepherd, a 20-foot sculpture that will be placed in a cemetery in Chicago. There will be pictures of that and clay figures of the Moses that is to be created for Trinity Heights.

"He is doing a six-foot bronze Moses for us," said Cooper. "It should be ready and in place on the Way of the Saints hopefully with a dedication in October. It will be Moses coming down the hill with the 10 commandments. Mr. Lamphere will give a talk about that."