St. Vincent de Paul Village - Summer 2002

1. Village Breaks Ground on Villa Harvey Mandel
   By Staff Writer
2. Security Team Saves Lives
   By Staff Writer
3. HUD Secretary Tours St. Vincent’s
   By Martha Lepore
4. Children’s Benefit Honors Bill O’Reilly and Community Leaders
   By Martha Lepore
5. The Graduates’ Challenge: Stay Clean and Sober Every Day
   By Martha Lepore

Children’s Benefit Honors Bill O’Reilly
and Community Leaders
By Martha Lepore

   A television warrior, a storyteller, a radio mayor, and a tithing advocate were among the recipients of the annual awards presented at St. Vincent’s Children’s Charity Dinner in April at the downtown San Diego Hyatt Regency.

   Bill O’Reilly declared himself a warrior as he accepted the Father Joe’s Villages National Award. “Father Joe and many of you in this room are helpers,” he said. “I’m a warrior. I hold people responsible for what they say they are doing. St. Vincent’s sets out to help people, not just give them relief, but offer them a disciplined way to get out of poverty. I saw it happening when I first visited the Village in 1991.”

   A strong financial supporter of the Village, O’Reilly has interviewed Father Joe about programs at the Toussaint Teen Center and PromiseLand Ranch on his nationally syndicated Fox News Channel program, The O’Reilly Factor.

   Vincent and Judy Bartolotta, long-time supporters of Father Joe’s work, were presented with a Bishop Maher Award. Mr. Bartolotta is a past chairman of St. Vincent de Paul Village’s board of directors.

   In accepting his award, Bartolotta told the story of a father and daughter walking on a beach where thousands and thousands of starfish had washed up with the tide. “The little girl runs ahead of her father, picks up a starfish and throws it into the sea, again and again. The father calls her over and says, ‘Why are you doing this? There are thousands and thousands here and saving only one doesn’t make any difference.’ And she picks up a starfish, looks at it, and says, ‘But Dad, it makes a big difference to this one.’ And she threw it into the sea.”

   “That is really what St. Vincent’s and the [rehabilitation] work we do is all about. You can’t reach all of them, as much as we try, but for the ones we touch, it makes all the
difference in the world,” he said.

   Nicknamed the “radio mayor of San Diego,” Roger Hedgecock and his wife and business manager, Cindy, were presented the Pierre Toussaint Award in recognition of the millions of dollars raised for the Toussaint Teen Center during Hedgecock’s yearly radiothon.
“We’ve been touched through the years as the teens tell their stories on air,” he said. “Sometimes my jaw just drops when I hear what they have survived and yet, because of the program at the teen center, they have tremendous hope and optimism for their futures.”

   Also accepting a Bishop Maher Award, Msgr. Lloyd Bourgeois honored his father, saying, “My Dad, who had a lovely wife and 10 children, gave us the great example of putting aside the first 10 percent for the Lord because, he said, if you don’t put it aside, you’ll spend it on yourself.”

   Bourgeois took that example to his San Rafael parishioners in Rancho Bernardo 12 years ago and, with the permission of San Diego Bishop Robert Brom, the parish began setting aside 10 percent for the less privileged in the diocese. Since then, St. Vincent de Paul Village has been one of the recipients of the parish’s monthly charities.

   More than 250 supporters of children at Father Joe’s Villages enjoyed the gourmet meal, presentation of awards, and dancing to the melodies of Bill Green Music. The event was held in partnership with KSWB Cares for Kids Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and raised $125,000 for Village children’s programs.