2010 Catholic Schools Week Supplement

Guardian Angel Guild raises funds to help students with learning disabilities

During the Guardian Angel Guild’s 50th anniversary luncheon on Sept. 24 in Indianapolis, guild president Ginny Maher thanks guild members for their dedication and tireless efforts to raise funds to help the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education’s resource programs serve students with learning disabilities. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Guardian angels are a continual source of help for God’s people.

“The whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains. “ … From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession” (#334-#336).

For half a century, Catholic education in the archdiocese has benefited from the charitable work of a dedicated group of guardian angels who tirelessly raise funds for resource programs and resource teachers at schools and St. Mary’s Child Center in Indianapolis.

Since 1959, members of the Guardian Angel Guild in Indianapolis have helped God’s children with developmental disabilities to reach their educational potential at Catholic schools and look forward to a better future.

Guardian Angel Guild members and guests celebrated the organization’s 50th anniversary on Sept. 24 during a luncheon in Indianapolis. The theme was “Celebrating Yesteryear, Envisioning Tomorrow.”

Guild president Ginny Maher, a member of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish in Indianapolis, said the volunteer organization began “when a group of mothers put their concerns and vision into action” to ensure that students with learning disabilities receive the resources they need at Catholic schools.

Maher said five decades of guild fundraisers have benefited hundreds, if not thousands, of students with special needs.

During 2009, she said, the guild distributed more than $32,000 to archdiocesan schools to support resource programs, students and instructors.

Looking to the future, Maher said the guild hopes to serve more students, financially support more resource programs in schools and establish an endowment for future needs.

“We continue our mission to help children with developmental disabilities to reach their potential,” she said, “through testing and support to succeed in every aspect of their educational endeavors.”

During his keynote speech, Evansville Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger—a former archdiocesan vicar general, chancellor and superintendent of schools—thanked the guild members for helping Catholic school students with learning disabilities.

“The Guardian Angel Guild had a key role, and still does have a key role, of providing that kind of assistance to our Catholic schools,” Bishop Gettelfinger said. “There is no way to even describe what kind of an effect you have had on these young people for a lifetime.”

He praised the guild members for “the effort that all of you make on an annual basis to raise funds then generously contribute to help young people” with special needs to be able to receive a Catholic education.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the Guardian Angel Guild’s financial support dating back five decades enabled Catholic schools and St. Mary’s Child Center to serve students with learning disabilities, he said, even before federal and state disability laws required public schools to provide special education coursework.

During the early years, Guardian Angel Guild members also helped tutor students that needed help with mathematics and reading skills at some of the Catholic high schools and grade schools in Indianapolis. Now there is a resource room or special education teacher at each Catholic school in the Indianapolis area.

Guild members said it has been a pleasure to help the archdiocese serve parents who want a Catholic education for their children with learning disabilities.

Maher said the guild continues to help pay for diagnostic evaluations, special equipment, technology, educational materials and extra training for teachers to better serve students.

“We also help with the archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education’s SPRED program [Special Religious Development for children and adults with special needs],” she said, as well as

“instructional materials for students with language challenges, autism, Asperger’s syndrome and dyslexia to pinpoint what they need and then provide the equipment that would best assist them.

“It’s such a good feeling to think that we are maybe making a difference in a child’s life,” Maher said, “by offering something that they need.” †