Notre Dame's Rudy to give inspirational talk Oct. 7

By JoANN AMMANN Globe intern
September 7, 2006

This fall, the Siouxland area will have the opportunity to listen to Notre Dame's Rudy Ruettiger give his speech at the Orpheum in downtown Sioux City. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Church will be sponsoring this fundraising event.

Father Tony Opem is the pastor at Blessed Teresa Calcutta Church and he worked with the fundraising committee to organize the event.

"We are bringing Rudy in as a fundraiser for Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Parish, and also wanted to do something for Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools," said Father Opem. "Part of our net gain from the event will go to them in the spirit of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, sharing and helping others. We didn't want to keep it all ourselves."

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will be using a portion of the money for the church to reduce building debts. After realizing that building their own Catholic school in their neighborhood was probably never going to be an option, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta recognized the need to donate money to the Catholic school system in their neighboring diocese. Children from the parish of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta also attend schools in the Bishop Heelan Catholic School system.

"We've always been pro-Catholic school and for the last two years we have given Bishop Heelan Catholic School system a monetary gift. This time we wanted to do more," said Father Opem. "We want to see the school system continue and prosper. We think Catholic education is very important and it serves as check and balance with the public school system. It gives people choice."

The committee selected Rudy Ruettiger after looking at different speakers throughout the past year. Ruettiger was selected based on his messages he gives during his lectures.

"We all got kind of excited at Rudy's name. We started doing some investigation and we really liked his message and what he talks about," said Father Opem. "Basically, he says that with God and your own effort you can accomplish much. In other words, each person has gifts from God and if they use them, they can accomplish great things. We thought that was a very good message for everyone in the area."

Deb Beacom, member of the fundraising committee, is also looking forward to raising awareness as well as funds through the event.

"We want to raise awareness about blessed Mother Teresa as well as raise some funds to help our new parish, and also help BHCS," said Beacom. "We are going to give some of the tickets as a goodwill offering to Heelan and Briar Cliff football players and also to Boys and Girls Club, and Boys, Inc., some kids that would really benefit from hearing his inspirations."

Not only will the Rudy be the keynote speaker, several pieces of his Rudy memorabilia will be auctioned or raffled off at the event. Some of the items include autographed mini-footballs.

"In the packages we will be offering, there is a mini-autographed football, a jersey, and a helmet. There are five of those packages," said Beacom. "We haven't finalized what we will be doing with that. Also, there is going to be VIP tickets with backstage passes, allowing people to get to take pictures with Rudy along with a meet and greet."

The tickets sales will kick-off on Sept. 8 at Ticketmaster. The show will be Oct. 7, at 7 p.m., at the Orpheum Theater. Ticket prices begin at $25 and go to $100.

"It's going to be a great year for football, as well as for Notre Dame, and it's going to be a tie in with what Rudy has to offer," said Beacom. "When you look at what is going on in the world today with the crises not only in our own area but around the world, I think it will be a nice event to have people maybe get some inspiration to try to better themselves. Also, for them to be kind, giving, forgiving, and maybe to practice more of what God had in mind for us all along."