Volunteers are backbone of Bishop's Dinner

By JAMIE MCCLURE, Globe Intern
August 23, 2007

Many Bishop's Dinner Committee members are busy stuffing envelopes with invitations to the 11th Annual Bishop's Dinner scheduled for Oct. 21.

The committee has stuffed 1,200 invitations so far, but they are hoping for 1,400, the same number as last year - or even more.

"The Bishop's Dinner Committee starts planning the next dinner directly after one is over," said Kristie Arlt, the director of communications for the Diocese of Sioux City. "The committee met this year for the first time in May, but they have had this year's date, speaker and chair-couple chosen since the Bishop's Dinner was over last year. We want to secure those three things right away."

Once the date, speaker and chair-couple are chosen, the committee covers all the other aspects of the event and makes certain they are thoroughly planned. That planning ranges from arranging decorations to coming up with a program, tasting food to make sure there is a great menu and also what to say as they greet people to make sure they are comfortable that evening.

There are 18 members on the Bishop's Dinner Committee, and there have been between 15 and 18 in past years.

"I enjoy working with the committee members," said Tom Snyder, a four-year member of the Bishop's Dinner Committee. "We all have the same goals in mind and I've really enjoyed listening to the committee's ideas. It's been fun for me to be involved in the energy level and what we all believe in, which is how important Catholic education is and supporting our schools."

Many committee members agree that their common goal is to celebrate Catholic education, and they try to encourage people in Sioux City as well as outside the city to attend the dinner. The event is organized and put together to support and fund Catholic Schools.

"The committee wants to see as much money go to the schools to support them as possible," said Arlt. "They also think very highly of the bishop and want to do a good job for him, but above all they are talking in every meeting about how to organize the best event possible and how to be conservative in their spending to keep money in the schools."

The speaker for the night will be Soledad O'Brien, an award-winning CNN journalist. She is a special correspondent for CNN: Special Investigations Unit and she reports hour-long documentaries throughout the year. She also files in-depth series on the most important ongoing and breaking news stories for all major CNN programs.

"I think Soledad will be a great speaker and she is a great supporter of Catholic education," said Dawn Prosser, a six-year member of the committee. "Being involved on this committee has helped me to relay information out to the public about this event. We have always had great leadership and working with Kristie has been great because she has organized big events before and having that good leadership from the Diocesan Office of Sioux City has helped to make this event successful for as many years as we have."

The dinner last year raised nearly $161,000, which was donated and distributed to Catholic schools. The dinner supports more than 6,000 students who attend Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Sioux City.

"The night of the dinner, I look forward to the wonderful turnout and seeing how many people are willing to support our diocesan parochial schools," said Snyder.

He would also love to see the excitement that is generated that night.

"I also look forward to the speaker, the awards and I am hopeful that people who haven't had the opportunity to go to this event before, will walk away and say 'wow, this is a really nice and they did a great job putting this event together.'"

In order for the committee to work together so well, Snyder said it takes people who we are willing to volunteer their time and talents.

"As a committee, we want to stress that it does take funds and work to make Catholic education a reality, not just in Iowa but everywhere around the world," said Prosser. "We have also received gracious support from all the bishops we have worked with, especially Bishop Nickless."

The night of the Bishop's Dinner, the social hour will begin at 4:30 p.m. with dinner served at 5:30 p.m. and the speaker presentation at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale for $125 per person with $85 of each ticket going to Catholic schools within the Diocese of Sioux City. For more information, contact the Diocese of Sioux City at (712) 255-7933.

"In all the years I have worked with other committees, I have never worked with a committee this dedicated to an event," said Arlt. "They are passionate and hard working and it's impressive to see them work so hard. It has inspired me and I think they are a great group of people."