The Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (ACCW) is recognizing four women from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with its annual laywoman volunteer awards.
The awards recognize the women’s involvement in their CCW groups, parishes and communities. The four women will be honored at the ACCW’s 91st annual convention April 19 at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville.
Karen Hodgman — St. Paul, Zumbrota
Hodgman has been active in her parish for more than 30 years, the last four of which she has served as president of the parish’s chapter of Council of Catholic Women. She generously contributes to events such as Madonna dinners, bake sales and bi-annual parish mission hospitality. She also has chaired the annual CCW salad luncheon for four years. Hodgman plays an active role on the parish’s Synod Evangelization Team and leads a small group.
From 1992 to 2017 she taught faith formation classes and led the parish’s youth group for at least five of those years. She serves as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and before the COVID-19 pandemic took Communion to residents of a nursing home. This year, she is wrapping up a three-year commitment to organizing volunteers for the parish’s annual fundraising dinner.
Hodgman seeks to enrich her own faith as well. She participated in the School of Discipleship via The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul and is currently a student in the class of St. Therese of Lisieux at the seminary’s Catechetical Institute. Hodgman has a weekly Holy Hour at the parish and has participated in, and led, Bible studies hosted by the parish. Additionally, she is part of the Seven Sisters Apostolate, which prays for the pastor of St. Paul parish.
Her commitment to service spills into the wider community. She shares her faith with those she encounters day-to-day, such as non-Catholic coworkers in her nursing job. For about 10 years she has served with the local Partners in Prevention organization, which helps youth make healthy decisions and provides school scholarships. Also, she has helped prepare and serve a meal at the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Rochester about four times per year since 2014. She also delivers leftover food, which would otherwise be discarded, from the nearby Mayo Clinic to the Dorthy Day house every Friday. She is involved with the local Toastmasters group to help others boost their confidence and speaking skills.
Her life of service is most pronounced within her own family. Hodgman cultivates her family’s hobby farm and selflessly serves her family members. She inspires her four children and three grandchildren to do the same.
Barbara Connolly — St. Genevieve, Centerville
Connolly knew of the CCW since early childhood, when she accompanied her mother to meetings. In the early 1970s, Barbara was elected secretary of the St. John the Baptist in Hugo chapter of the CCW — a role she maintained for 10 years. She continued to be involved with the CCW after St. John merged with St. Genevieve in Centerville, attending local, archdiocesan and national CCW conventions while raising four children.
After her husband, who served in the Air Force Reserves, died in 2006 due to an inoperable brain tumor, she became involved in the local Yellow Ribbon Network, which supports current and former military personnel and their families. She now serves as vice president of that organization, where she coordinates distribution of care packages to deployed personnel and helps their families with lawn mowing, appliances and household needs. She received the Good Neighbor of the Year award from the city of Hugo in 2017 to recognize her involvement with the organization.
For many years, she cleaned the altar and sacristy of St. John the Baptist, where she also taught religious education for 12 years. Now, at St. Genevieve, she is an active member of the parish funeral ministry and serves on committees for many other events including the rummage sale, fall festival, Lenten retreat, country store, Madonna luncheon, harvest fest, penny auction, Red Cross blood drives, holiday craft and bake sale, socks and mitten drive and the food shelf. She also helps organize Mary’s Way of the Cross, which presents the Stations of the Cross from Mary’s point of view during Lent.
She enjoys spending time with her 11 grandchildren.
Savern Guertin — Our Lady of the Prairie, Belle Plaine
Guertin is the mother of four children, grandmother of 18, great-grandmother of 36, and great-great-grandmother of six. Three of her children are in the Belle Plaine area and serve at Our Lady of the Prairie, following the footsteps of their mother, who has served there for longer than many parishioners can remember.
From 1975 to 2000, Guertin taught catechesis and faith formation at the parish. In 1991 she worked with another parishioner to restore the parish’s Catholic United Financial branch, at which she has served as president since 2013. The chapter has raised over $150,000 under her leadership, which went to the church and school. In addition, she organizes monthly Donut Sundays and other fundraising events for the parish and adjoining Catholic school, where she volunteered from 1975 to 2000. Currently, she is a member of the Seven Sisters Apostolate, which intercedes for the parish priest, and helps organize funeral lunches at the parish.
Guertin’s service is not confined to her parish. She volunteered at the HOPE Residence — a home for brain-injured adults — and, for many years, volunteered to deliver food to those in need for the Meals on Wheels program. She still sews lap quilts for veterans and helps at the local Veteran’s Auxiliary fish and steak fry, where she has completed 40 years as an American Legion Auxiliary Member. Before the pandemic, she was a regular volunteer at a local nursing home, where she would take residents to Mass.
Guertin served as the parish’s CCW secretary for many years and in 1984 was a member of the International Commission for the Southwest ACCW Deanery. She has a heart for hospitality, especially for international missionaries and guests, whom she has hosted since 1981. Most recently, in 2019, she hosted members of a Kitui delegation to the archdiocese. She has also hosted Totus Tuus missionaries, who taught a summer catechesis program at her parish twice, and she will host them again this year.
Guertin participates in monthly CCW meetings and helps with the chapter’s first weekend of the month CCW Treats and Fellowship after Masses. For many years, she cleaned the altar of Our Lady of the Prairie. When the CCW helps deep clean the parish’s kitchen, she not only helps — she brings her own bucket and rags.
At 90 years old, Guertin still loves working in her garden; it reminds her of her life on the family farm. One of her granddaughters now lives on the farm where she milked cows twice a day for over 50 years and raised her family with the love of her life.
Mary Ellen Peterson — St. Pius X, White Bear Lake
When Mary Peterson joined St. Pius X as a parishioner, she noticed a group of joy-filled women who often spent time together. After mustering up the courage to ask them who they were and why they were so joyful, they informed her that they were the CCW and encouraged her to join.
She took their advice, and Peterson has been an upstanding member of the St. Pius X CCW for over 30 years, serving as Service Commission Chair for six years.
Peterson serves as a sacristan, delivers meals to parishioners and attends at least one Holy Hour a week in the adoration chapel. She also chairs the New Parishioner Welcome Program, which organizes a biennial gathering for new parishioners, and is a member of the Building and Grounds Committee. She uses her expertise in gardening and flowers to beautify the church grounds and make centerpieces for events in the church and her community. Her career also revolved around service: Over the course of her 40-year career as a pharmacy clerk, she helped many people receive the medications they needed.
Peterson is part of a small group that was formed in response to Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s call for implementation of the Archdiocesan Synod. She also meets with a lectio divina group to discuss the weekly Sunday Mass readings.
Peterson has a strong devotion to Mary, which informs many of her activities. She leads a rosary before many funerals in the parish and volunteers to lead a monthly rosary at the local nursing home. She also brings the Eucharist to homebound parishioners.
She loves spending time with her two children and four adult grandchildren, whom she took care of when they were little.
