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By Eric Connolly
More than 300 people attended the sixth
annual Son Light gala, benefitting youth
and young adult ministry and Legendary
Lodge.
In a change from past years, the celebration
the evening of Friday, Oct. 7, at the
Helena Civic Center was not preceded by
a prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Helena.
People at the gala heard a message
from Bishop George Leo Thomas, a message
that Glenda Seipp of the diocesan
Stewardship Services office described as
“powerful” and “spot on.”
Son Light featured two rounds of silent
auctions, with items and services that included
themed gift baskets, handmade
quilts and vacation getaways. A live auction
brought bids on original artwork and
pottery, Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
tickets, a weekend at Legendary Lodge, a
dinner with Bishop Thomas and an 18-foot,
cedar canoe made by hand.
“It feels like we’ve hit a stride,” Seipp
said. “Our returns on the auction are now
at $28,000, which is substantially higher
than in the past.” In preliminary estimates,
Son Light generated a total of about
$120,000.
Ashleigh Buckner, formerly a Catholic
Youth Coalition Board member from Bozeman
and now a student at the University of
Montana in Missoula, was the youth
speaker at the event. She told of her personal
experience in the diocesan youth
ministry coordinated by Doug Tooke of the
chancery staff.
Buckner said that “working with Doug
and the board really pushed me to learn and
proclaim my faith, to be a leader to those
around me and those in my parish, and to
be a leader and follower that God calls us
to be, to be a disciple.”
She added that “as Doug continually
emphasized on the CYC Board, the leadership
and work is useless unless it’s taken
back to the home parishes, so I did it. I
went back and I helped out with the middle
school faith formation programs and also
the confirmation programs.”
A consistent highlight of Son Light is
the raffle, which this year offered a 2011
Subaru Legacy as the grand prize. The car
went to the Coulter-Huston family from St.
Richard Parish in Columbia Falls. Mary
Huston was on hand to accept the prize, the
first time in six years that the winner was
at the gala. Huston said her family had purchased
just one raffle ticket.
Krister Kroll of Helena won the raffle’s
second prize: $1,000 in cash.
The raffle generated $55,000 for the
fundraiser, with around $11,000 going directly
back to parishes of the diocese, Seipp
said. The 2,200 tickets sold this year
brought an increase of almost $10,000 over
last year’s raffle sales, Seipp said.
The evening’s speakers threaded their
comments with references to the true purpose
of Son Light, a purpose Seipp summarized
this way: “Son Light is to build
community around youth and young adult
ministry and Legendary Lodge.”
Buckner spoke of the power of community
in changing the lives of young people.
“Without the support of my family, my
parish, the diocese or you here tonight, I
would not know the love of Christ that I do
today,” she said.
“There are so many opportunities for
youth to know what it means to be Catholic
and what it means to have other friends
who are Catholic, too, and to realize you
are not the only one.”
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 10, October 21, 2011.
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