NWester: Support for Catholic education alive, well in Ellis County

By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post

It would have been understandable if Mason Ruder was getting a little tired by the end of the evening on the last Saturday of April.

It had been a long night. A long weekend. A long month. A long year.

But his demeanor and the smile on his face said it all. The hard work for this project was worth a million bucks.

To raise $1 million was the goal that Thomas More Prep-Marian Junior-Senior High School had set for its annual Auction for Christian Education, which was celebrating its 50th year in 2024.

It will be another few weeks before the final numbers are in for ACE, to which it is most commonly referred. Last year’s auction set a new record of $897,700, and the Advancement Office hopes to do so again this year.

“We are so blessed by the generosity of our alumni and community members. Even people who didn’t go to school here are some of our biggest supporters,” Ruder said. “People who don’t live here are big donors. ACE is a cross-country thing.”

This was the first go-around of planning the huge annual event for Ruder, a 2010 TMP-Marian graduate.

By the time Ruder was hired as advancement director for Hays Catholic Schools in December 2022, plans for ACE 2023 had virtually been completed.

He got a taste of what was to come at last year’s ACE and the ensuing plans for the 50th, and he admits it wouldn’t happen without the work of a lot of people—mostly volunteers.

The all-hands-on-deck mentality was essential this year because Ruder’s year-and-a-half tenure in his position is the longest for current employees in TMP-M’s Foundation office.

Ruder gave special kudos to Mary Lang and Kathy Kaseforth, former employees of the school’s alumni association for 25-plus years, and Wanda Billinger, long-time alumni director, who had been planning for the 50th ACE for several years.

Lang and Kaseforth returned to the school several times throughout the year, especially in the final days leading up to ACE 2024, to help out wherever was needed. And Billinger frequents the school all year long.

“With our new crew, we are only as successful as we are because of all the work and foundation that those that went before us,” Ruder said. “To be able to carry on from what we learned from the generation that has taken care of us for so long is a privilege.”

Purpose of establishing ACE

ACE began back in 1975 in an effort to establish a financial foundation for Catholic education in Hays and Ellis County.

St. Joseph Military had changed to Thomas More Prep just five years earlier. Then in 1981, TMP’s all-boys school combined with nearby all-girls Marian High School to form TMP-Marian High School.

The community’s Catholic grade school moved from the St. Joseph location in 1998. Holy Family Elementary was established near Immaculate Heart of Mary Church for elementary students from preschool through sixth grade.

TMP-M started a junior high for seventh- and eighth-graders in 2012, and sixth-graders were moved to the junior high from Holy Family this past fall. Hays Catholic Schools now provides a seamless transition from preschool through 12th grade.

Generous support of the auction—and Hays Catholic Schools—has grown steadily over the years. Following that seemingly meager first-year fundraiser of $22,000, ACE surpassed $100,000 in 1997. Less than 10 years later, it hit the $200,000 mark and broke the record almost every year after that.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, the auction went online and made $711,576—almost as much as the year before. It has surpassed its previous year’s amount every year since.

The first 49 years raised almost $13 million.

ACE icons past and present

Local philanthropist Don Bickle made a habit of purchasing a dinner years ago that eventually turned into a multi-course, black-tie dinner and usually went for thousands of dollars.

Bickle, 96, wasn’t able to make this year’s ACE, but he was there in spirit as the ACE committee last year named that particular item the “Don Bickle Black-Tie Dinner.”

“That dinner will always be known as Don Bickle’s,” Billinger said. “He always had so much fun with it, so we wanted to honor him by naming it in his honor. He has been so generous to our school.”

Billinger herself is an ACE icon, having been involved with the auction for 35-plus years. She personally solicits hundreds of gifts for ACE each year.

“Wanda lives and breathes ACE and TMP-Marian,” Ruder said.

Father Earl Befort has been involved with the school since he began teacher there shortly after being ordained a Capuchin priest in 1969.

Fr. Earl, a native of Ellis County, served as president of the TMP-M alumni association for several years and is still its current chaplain. He is believed to be the only person who has attended all 50 ACEs and is amazed at the continuous generosity of alumni and other community members.

“The amount of money given now is huge, especially considering that first year,” Fr. Earl said, referencing ACE 1975’s net gain of $22,010. “It’s just grown and grown and grown. The enthusiasm of our townspeople and our alums is such a blessing. They give so generously.”

Coincidentally, one of the popular items on the silent auction each year is a Fr. Earl bobblehead. One year, a TMP-M family donated a box of the popular priest's bobbleheads.

Fr. Earl got a chuckle out of the idea and always obliges whenever the purchaser approaches him to autograph the bobblehead.

Lots of unique items

In addition to silent and live auctions, people await the drawing of several raffles throughout the night.

One popular large-ticket item is a vehicle donated each year by Dick and Kay Werth from Auto World Used Cars.

Another popular item is Pennies for ACE, where donors match a penny for every dollar raised (excluding oral auction160).

And then there is Item 160 itself, which always targets a specific school need. This year’s funds for that item are earmarked for a financial foundation for the future of Catholic education.

The ACE committee added several items, especially for the 50th year.

The nearly 500 attendees received special wine glasses with “Golden Anniversary ACE 2024” imprinted on them.

A wall just outside the gymnasium featured copies of all 50 program covers. Many enjoyed looking for a particular ACE year and talking about the variety of themes over the decades that culminated with the black and gold 50-year cover with the saying, “Cheers to the Next 50 Years!”

Each year’s program cover also included the amount earned that year.

One special item this year was a live painting.

Lakin Denny from Colby, a student at Kansas State University, spent two hours painting at Friday evening’s preview party and all throughout the dinner and auction on Saturday to finish an oil painting of Mother Mary.

“I kind of planned and built an estimate of how long a painting and the prep work would take me,” she said. “I had never done one ‘live’ before. I really enjoyed it.”

Denny finished the painting just as her item number came up for auction.

Travis Rozean, whose son Landon knows Denny through their connection at the St. Isidore Catholic Campus Center at K-State, won the bid of $1,375 for the oil painting.

“Bidding on the painting was a great opportunity to support TMP,” Rozean said, “as well as the connection with our kids through St. Isidore’s.”

Item 160 still open for donations

Anyone wishing to contribute to Item 160 can still contact the school at 785-625-6577. All donations of $50 or more will have their name placed on a Golden Legacy plaque to be hung in the school.

The Walter and Marie Dechant family kicked off Item 160 this year with a donation of $102,500. The Leo J. And Albina Dreiling Trust contributed a dollar-for-dollar matching fund for up to $250,000, so that item alone had reached more than $500,000 before the auction even began.

“TMP alumni are some of the most loyal people I’ve ever seen,” Ruder said. “We are definitely blessed.”