2024 Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Donor Dinner Award Recipients

The annual Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Evening is a celebratory dinner for all of the donors for the Sisters of Providence.

The dinner takes place to honor benefactors for their gifts of time, talent and resources, while also presenting the Queen Amelia, Sarah and Joseph Thralls, and the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Companion awards.

This year, approximately 300 benefactors and others joined the Sisters of Providence for a meal and award presentation. The theme for this year’s dinner was “Cultivating Sacred Ground.”

The Queen Amelia Award honors those who have significantly contributed financially to the Congregation and who have been influential in informing others of its life and mission. The award is named for Queen Amelia of France, wife of King Louise Philippe, who was a major benefactor for the Congregation in the mid-1800s. She also encouraged her husband and family to contribute to the Congregation, which at the time, was struggling financially.

The Queen Amelia Award was presented to the Kiefer Charitable Foundation, Jack and Barb Kiefer, who established the foundation. Their daughter, Kathleen Gollmont, now manages the foundation.

The Sarah and Joseph Thralls Award honors individuals, a family or a group that has made significant contributions of time, talent and expertise. It is named in honor of the family that offered hospitality by way of a cabin in a dense forest to Mother Theodore and her five companion sisters after they arrived at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1840 and continued to assist them as they adjusted to pioneer life in Indiana.

The Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Companions Award was established in honor of Sisters St. Vincent Ferrer, Basilide Seneschal, Olympiade Boyer, Mary Xavier Leree and Mary Liguori Tiercin, the five sister companions who supported Mother Theodore and remained by her side assisting her as needed while offering their own wisdom and perseverance to advance the mission of the Sisters of Providence.

The Sarah and Joseph Thralls Award was presented to Daniel Bluntzer while the Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Companions Awards were presented to Cindy McKay, Rod Willett, Rosalyn Rawley, The Providence Teen Ministries, Mel Wolff and former Sisters of Providence General Secretary Vicki Layton.

In addition, the Congregation also presented the Rooted in Providence Awards to the Kiefer Charitable Foundation, Sister Mary Morley and Ellen Morley Matthews from the Mary Catherine Morley SP Trust (established by Joseph M. and Florence M. Morley), The Mahaffey Family and the Kunkel Family.

Those who receive the Rooted in Providence Awards also have their names placed on the Rooted in Providence award plaque in Providence Hall. To date, more than 60 individuals, families, foundations and groups are named on the plaque.

Here are photos of the recipients of the 2024 awards.