St. Bede Academy celebrates 41st Annual Auction event

St. Bede Academy’s 41st annual auction event, held Saturday, June 15, is being recorded as the second most successful auction event since its inception in 1984.

The auction was held in the Perino Science Center and welcomed 165 guests. The guests comprised of St. Bede’s top supporters, parents of current students, faculty and staff, the J.A. Happ Family Foundation and alumni from 34 classes spanning several decades.

The live auction event included 15 premiere packages featuring a variety of travel, entertainment and sports experiences that were up for bid that evening only. Those packages brought in a total of $98,892.

A silent auction also took place through a mobile bidding website. This capability allowed supporters to bid on items from anywhere around the world. The silent auction opened a week before the live auction event, which kick-started bidding of items. The silent auction brought in a total of $45,594.  

A highlight of the evening included a special recognition to Julia Baggesen-Yaklich, who served St. Bede as Director of Mission Advancement and Major Gifts before her retirement this past April. Julia’s successful 10-year career in the Development Department is highlighted with fundraising for the much-needed Academy renovations. To honor her legacy at St. Bede, she was gifted with a rendering of a tile that will be placed on St. Bede’s future donor wall recognizing all those who contributed to the renovations. Julia’s tile recognizes her gift of building lasting relationships with alumni and friends, contributing to the success of the Legacy Campaign.

Another highlight was that St. Bede exceeded its $177,000 Fund-A-Need goal to build ADA compliant restrooms in the Abbot Vincent Gymnasium. Two major gifts for the Fund-A-Need helped jump-start the funding of the project, including a $20,000 gift made by The Bedan Club and a $15,000 gift by Miller Group Charitable Trust. The crowd was led in singing the St. Bede fight song, which built excitement in the room before paddles were raised in support of the project. Levels of giving included $15,000, $10,000, $5,000, $2,500, $1,000, $500, $250 and $100. St. Bede spirit flags were given out to anyone who gave a gift of $500 or more to the Fund-A-Need. Construction of the restrooms are slated for this fall, which will allow the restroom project to be completed by basketball season.

At the auction, winners of three raffles were also announced. The Mega Raffle gave away $19,050 to four lucky winners. Won Kim was the first-place winner of $10,000; Mark & Lori Dudek were the second-place winners of $5,000 and Celeste Inman was the third-place winner of $2,000. $350 was given to each seller of the three winning tickets, as well. Anyone who sold or purchased five or more Mega Raffle tickets were also put in a separate seller’s drawing, for $1,000. That winner was Dr. James Vaiana.

The Golden Ticket raffle winner was Fr. Stephan Charles Page. The winner of the Golden Ticket gets to choose from 10 luxurious prizes. Dr. Ted Struck was the winner of the 52-Card Draw, which raffled off a weekend stay and golf experience at Rich Harvest Farms, generously donated by the Rich Harvest Foundation. The 52-card raffle brought in $17,500, which was generously matched by the Rich Harvest Foundation.

The annual auction is St. Bede’s largest fundraising event of the year. All the proceeds help balance the difference between tuition and the cost of education ensuring a Catholic education in the Benedictine tradition remains an option here in the Illinois Valley. Over its 41-year history, the auction has raised more than $7 million for the academy.

St. Bede Academy announces fourth quarter honor roll

Mr. Nick McLaughlin, principal of St. Bede Academy in Peru, has announced St. Bede’s honor roll for the fourth quarter of the 2023-2024 school year. 

Seniors: Aubree Acuncius, Alex Ankiewicz, Yigit Arslan, Johnna Bogatitus, Bella Boggio, Ali Bosnich, Macklin Brady, Maximus Bray, Ella Burris, Madelyne Dalton, Rubi De La Torre, Erin Dove, Tessa Dugosh, Ella Englehaupt, Evan Englehaupt, Aleah Espel, Daliayah Farris, Seth Ferrari, Milana Gayan, Molly Gonzales,  Isabella Hagenbuch, Gavin Hahn, Makenzie Hanson, Katelyn Harth, Mariella Hermes, Teagan Hewitt, Kylie Hill, Nathan Husser, Henry Mertel, Ariella Mudge, Ava Mueller, Kyra Newman, Khue Nguyen, Isabella Pinter,  Zachary Popurella, Logan Potthoff, Matteo Pullara, Anna Rudenko, Kaelyn Schwemlein, Sierah Shaver, Casey Shearer, Aubrey Siebert, Ryan Slingsby, Madison Stanbary, Reagan Stoudt, Amie Tomaszewski, Vy Tran, Luke Tunnell, Amanda Wojcik and Katherine Zeller.

Juniors: Teer Ao, Haiden Ator, Andrea Brandner,  Adriana Buchanan, Qiyu Chen, Ziheng Chen,  Garrett Connelly, Jordan Coventry, Trayger Davis, Alondra Delao, Lorelei Denny,  Madalyn Dittmar, Ashley Ehm, Bailey Engels, Yibo Fan, Grady Gillan, Phillip Gray, Mirella Haskell, Halden Hueneburg, Elizabeth Huffaker, Tyler Jordan, Yuno Kawai, Maci Kelly, Sadie Koehler, Jaxon Kozak, Lin Le, Violet Lopez, Haohongze Ma, Haiqing Mao, Greyson Marincic, Gavin Marquez, Jack Maschmann, Quinn McClain, Victoria Mendez, Jake Migliorini, Grace Millington, Adeline Mitchell,  Aidan Mullane, Kaden Nauman, Ryan Nawa, Kaden Newman, Huy Nguyen, Alivia Payne, Andre Pineda, Marco Rizzi,  Mason Ross, Emma Smudzinski, Zixuan Song, Alan Spencer, Nhi Ton, Mina Trandinh, Arthur van den Berg, Jazmin Vazquez-Barreras, Samantha Wagner, Tyler Walsh, Abraham Wiesbrock, Kefei Wu, Solomon Zhang and Jinhao Zhao.

Sophomores: Margaret Arkins, Ava Balestri, Genavyve Barnes, Landon Boggio, Lily Bosnich,  Noah Buck, August Burr, Drew Carboni, Chuanyang Chen, Anna Cyrocki, Emerald De La Torre, Jose De La Torre, Simona Desai, Haoxuan Du, Madeline Fabish, Gino Ferrari, Harrison Fess, Ashton Gonzales, Mae Hagenbuch, Brody Hahn, Weston Heersink, Aiden Hermes, Zachary Husser, Shuyu Jiang, Isaac Kang,  Breanna Martinez, Lili McClain, Ella Mudge, Phat Thanh Nguyen, Sophia Ni, Jillian Pinter, Trajan Raffety,  Xiangyi Ren, Carson Riva, Chipper Rossi, Sara Ruiz,  Alyssa Savitch, Emma Slingsby, Lillian Soliman, Ryan Soliman, Shujie Song, Devin Steil, Khoa Tran, Peiwen Wu, Xindi Wu, Yannis Yong, Kian Zeller, Sora Zepeda, Ruihan Zhang and Yijing Zhang.

Freshmen: Faith Ankiewicz, Yesenia Avila, Caleb Barto, Chloe Brandt, Sean Brayton, Brody Burris, Calen Cass, Geno Dinges, Maegan du Preez, Kate Duncan, Kyra Finley, Grace Gahan, Eden Galvan, Daniel Garcia, Cecilia Giacalone, Gavin Gillan, Raudel Hermosillo Jr., Brennen Hirst, Emma Huffaker, Yejun Jang, Lila Koehler, Ella Lamboley, Chenxuan Lin,  Landon Marquez, Lucy Maus, Emma Mavity, Stuart McGunnigal, Stephanie Ni, Niko Pappas-Anniballi, Chase Riva, Olivia Ross,  Ranbir Saini, Alaina Schulz, Nancy Shi, Ishvir Singh, Macy Strauch, Bryce Stuepfert, Lex Tillman, Judith Torres, Ariana Villava and Kerstin Williams. 

St. Bede hosts 50th annual Honors Banquet

PERU - St. Bede Academy hosted its 50th annual Honors Banquet on Wednesday, April 24. Students from all classes were presented athletic and academic excellence awards. The following are the award recipients for the 2023-24 school year:

Department Awards

English: Freshmen Ariana Villava; sophomores Chipper Rossi and Weston Heersink; juniors Gordon Chen and Arthur van den Berg and senior Makenzie Hanson

Mathematics: Freshmen Ranbir Saini; sophomore Noah Buck; junior Gordon Chen and senior Yigit Arslan

Science: Tyler Jordan (AP Chemistry), Amie Tomaszewski (Anatomy), Noah Buck (AP Computer Science Principles, Kylie Hill (AP Computer Science) and Gordon Chen (AP Physics)

History: Phillip Gray (AP U.S. History), Arthur van den Berg (U.S. History), Noah Buck (Honors World History) and Weston Heersink (World History)

Foreign Language: Kyra Finley (Spanish I), Genavyve Barnes (Spanish II), Violet Lopez (Spanish III) and Johnna Bogatitus (Spanish IV)

Fine Arts: Ella Englehaupt, Georgina Guo and Isabella Hagenbuch (Special Award in Theatre) and Henry Mertel (Fr. Joseph Heyd, OSB Award)

Distinguished Awards

Fr. Arthur Schmitt, OSB Service Award: Ali Bosnich

Scholar Athlete Award: Isabella Hagenbuch and Logan Potthoff

High School Heisman Award: Ali Bosnich and Zachary Popurella

IHSA All-State Academic Team Nominee: Isabella Hagenbuch and Logan Potthoff

Athlete of the Year Award: Ali Bosnich, Mariella Hermes and Ryan Slingsby

Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Award (HOBY): Lily Bosnich, Noah Buck, Mae Hagenbuch and Emma Slingsby

Illinois Principal’s Association John Ourth Student Recognition Award: Jeanna Ladzinski and Ryan Slingsby

Daughters of the American Revolution Award (DAR): Isabella Hagenbuch

Sons of the American Revolution Award (SAR): Logan Potthoff

College Board National Recognition Program: Ella Englehaupt, Evan Englehaupt, Greyson Marincic, Isabella Hagenbuch, Logan Potthoff and Gordon Chen

President’s Excellence in Education: Ella Englehaupt, Isabella Hagenbuch and Logan Potthoff  

Illinois State Scholars: Ali Bosnich, Ella Englehaupt, Isabella Hagenbuch, Zachary Popurella and Logan Potthoff    

St. Bede Academy International Scholar: Yigit Arslan

Scholastic Top 10 (In alphabetical order): Johnna Bogatitus, Ali Bosnich, Ella Englehaupt (Salutatorian), Evan Englehaupt, Georgina Guo, Isabella Hagenbuch (Valedictorian), Mariella Hermes, Kylie Hill, Zachary Popurella and Logan Potthoff

Academic Awards

Freshmen: Ranbir Saini and Bryce Stuepfert

Sophomores: Noah Buck, Lillian Soliman, Ryan Soliman and Yannis Yong

Junior: Abraham Wiesbrock

Senior: Isabella Hagenbuch

Citizenship Awards

Freshman: Ariana Villava

Sophomore: Emma Slingsby

Junior: Jake Migliorini

Senior: Isabella Hagenbuch

Senior of the Year

Ryan Slingsby

Freshmen field trip combines education, Christian mission and Catholic culture

On April 16, Fr. Dominic Garramone, OSB took the entire freshman class on a field trip that combined education, Christian mission and Catholic culture. He and junior religion teacher Eric Davy accompanied the freshmen to visit a soup kitchen, study stained glass at a 19th century church and attend noon Mass and devotions at another church in downtown Peoria.

The students traveled by two busses to Sophia’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen and food pantry run by a group of parishes known as the Heart of Peoria Catholic Community. The center is attached to St. Joseph Church, where the students met with Sophia’s Kitchen director Claire Crone (who just happens to be a Fr. Dom’s high school classmate!). She described the center’s ministry, which includes serving 400 meals a day Monday through Friday and providing food assistance for the weekends. Prior to the trip the freshmen collected eight large boxes of canned good and non-perishable food as their contribution to the ministry.

Macy Strauch said, “Learning about the soup kitchen on this trip gave me chills. Just with how many people they are helping out and how much they have changed their community.”

Fr. Dominic then took the students on a tour of the church, pointing out various features of the beautiful stained glass windows which came from a studio in Germany. Most of the windows depicted the life of Christ, so our young scholars were able to identify many of the images from their studies of the Bible. One of the unique features of the church is a window depicting Jesus as sowing the seed of the gospel. Closer examination reveals that the seeds are actually tiny crosses.

After a boxed Subway lunch, the students boarded the busses to travel to Sacred Heart Church across from the Peoria Civic Center. This parish, founded in 1878, was where Fr. Dominic attended grade school and he learned to serve mass in the church. Sacred Heart was recently renovated, and features exquisite mosaics and frescoes, including many images of saints from North and South America. The students attended noon mass, and stayed afterwards for the weekly special devotion to St. Anthony, which included a blessing with a relic of the saint.

Kerstin Williams appreciated an experience which made their classroom learning more relevant: “The trip was a great way to connect the topics we learned in class to the real world.”

Fr. Dominic said that he got such a good response from the students that he hopes to make the event an annual tradition.

If you would like to help fund next year’s freshman field trip, please contact Fr. Dominic or the Development Office.

St. Bede Academy announces third quarter honor roll

Mr. Nick McLaughlin, principal of St. Bede Academy in Peru, has announced St. Bede’s honor roll for the third quarter of the 2023-24 school year. 

Seniors: Aubree Acuncius, Alex Ankiewicz, Johnna Bogatitus, Bella Boggio, Ali Bosnich, Ella Burris, Summer Conlin, Madelyne Dalton, Rubi De La Torre, Erin Dove, Tessa Dugosh, Ella Englehaupt, Evan Englehaupt, Evan Entrican, Daliayah Farris, Seth Ferrari, Molly Gonzales,  Isabella Hagenbuch, Gavin Hahn, Makenzie Hanson, Katelyn Harth, Macy Hartt, Mariella Hermes, Teagan Hewitt, Kylie Hill, Jeanna Ladzinski, Henry Mertel, Ariella Mudge, Ava Mueller, Kyra Newman, Khue Nguyen, Kristina Penaverde, Zachary Popurella, Logan Potthoff, Anna Rudenko, Hunter Savage, Kaelyn Schwemlein, Sierah Shaver, Casey Shearer, Aubrey Siebert, Ryan Slingsby, Madison Stanbary, Reagan Stoudt, Marly Tillman, Vy Tran, Amanda Wojcik and Katherine Zeller.

Juniors: Teer Ao, Haiden Ator, Andrea Brandner,  Qiyu Chen, Ziheng Chen,  Garrett Connelly, Jordan Coventry, Trayger Davis, Alondra Delao, Lorelei Denny,  Madalyn Dittmar, Bailey Engels, Avery Entrican, Yibo Fan, Grady Gillan, Phillip Gray, Mirella Haskell, Halden Hueneburg, Elizabeth Huffaker, Tyler Jordan, Yuno Kawai, Maci Kelly, Sadie Koehler, Jaxon Kozak, Lin Le, Violet Lopez, Haohongze Ma, Haiqing Mao, Greyson Marincic, Jack Maschmann, Quinn McClain, Victoria Mendez, Jake Migliorini, Grace Millington, Adeline Mitchell, Mason Moreno, Aidan Mullane, Kaden Nauman, Ryan Nawa, Kaden Newman, Huy Nguyen, Alivia Payne,  Mason Ross, Emma Smudzinski, Zixuan Song, Alan Spencer, Nhi Ton, Mina Trandinh, Arthur van den Berg, Samantha Wagner, Tyler Walsh, Abraham Wiesbrock, Kefei Wu, Solomon Zhang, and Jinhao Zhao.

Sophomores: Margaret Arkins, Ava Balestri, Genavyve Barnes, Landon Boggio, Lily Bosnich, Johnnie Brown, Noah Buck, August Burr, Drew Carboni, Caden Carls, Chuanyang Chen, Anna Cyrocki, Emerald De La Torre, Jose De La Torre, Simona Desai, Haoxuan Du, Madeline Fabish, Gino Ferrari, Harrison Fess, Ashton Gonzales, Mae Hagenbuch, Brody Hahn, Weston Heersink, Aiden Hermes, Zachary Husser, Isaac Kang,  Breanna Martinez, Lili McClain, Ella Mudge, Sophia Ni, Jillian Pinter, Xiangyi Ren, Carson Riva, Chipper Rossi, Mark Rudenko, Alyssa Savitch, Emma Slingsby, Lillian Soliman, Ryan Soliman, Shujie Song, Devin Steil, Khoa Tran, Julian Villava,  Peiwen Wu, Xindi Wu, Hongsheng Yang, Yannis Yong, Kian Zeller, Sora Zepeda, Ruihan Zhang and Yijing Zhang.

Freshmen: Faith Ankiewicz, Yesenia Avila, Caleb Barto, Chloe Brandt, Sean Brayton, Brody Burris, Calen Cass, Geno Dinges, Maegan du Preez, Kate Duncan, Kyra Finley, Grace Gahan, Eden Galvan, Cecilia Giacalone, Gavin Gillan, Raudel Hermosillo Jr., Brennen Hirst, Emma Huffaker, Yejun Jang, Lila Koehler, Ella Lamboley, Chenxuan Lin,  Landon Marquez, Lucy Maus, Emma Mavity, Stuart McGunnigal, Stephanie Ni, Niko Pappas-Anniballi, Chase Riva, Olivia Ross,  Ranbir Saini, Alaina Schulz, Nancy Shi, Macy Strauch, Bryce Stuepfert, Lex Tillman, Alec Tomsha, Judith Torres, Maleigha Trench, Carter Vasquez, Ariana Villava and Kerstin Williams.