Teacher Jeannie McCarroll and Volunteer Rex Barger to be Honoured on May 20, 2009

Waterloo Region - The Waterloo Catholic District School Board will present its 2009 Chair’s Award and Community Partner Award at the Board’s annual Staff Recognition Celebration – 6:30 p.m., Wednesday May 20, 2009 at St. Mary’s Church in Downtown Kitchener.

Jeannie McCarroll, Student Activity Director at St. Mary’s High School in Kitchener will receive the Chair’s Award. Rex Barger, long time (now retired) volunteer at the Mount Mary retreat centre in Ancaster will receive the Community Partner Award.

Jeannie is well-known in Waterloo Region’s Catholic schools as a leader on social justice issues and a passionate advocate for the role of the arts in education. Her nominators described her as “…a dazzling example of kind, caring Catholic giving…Her example of going above and beyond for the sake of the system, the school but more importantly the students would be a role model for all aspiring students”.

Like Elvis, Rex is one those rare individuals everyone knows by just one name. For more than 30 years he was a fixture of the Mount Mary retreat program – touching the lives of literally thousands of Grade 8 students. When asked what they remember about Mount Mary, most recall the deep sense of spirituality and the presence of Rex. As his nominator said: “Rex was for so many of our students the embodiment of “Faith in Action” and “Social Justice” as he tried to teach others to “Live Love – Love Life”.

Congratulations and thanks to both Jeannie and Rex for their tireless devotion to Waterloo Region’s Catholic students and to Catholic education in general.