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The front of my program for the signature event for Catholic Schools.

When you report on a large-scale hours-long gathering like Night of Hope, some of the details are going to fall by the wayside when the article goes to print.

Fortunately, we have blog space to serve as a dumping ground. Here are some other tidbits about my reporting experience during the Night of Hope.

• I parked my car right about 6 p.m. when the Night of Hope got underway. Fortunately, Fr. Pete Rossa, pastor of Blessed John XXIII School in Scottsdale, was just arriving too so we walked to the hotel together. Neither of us could remember for sure if cocktail hour or the event started at 6 p.m. He said if we were late, so was another priest just ahead of us. And if we were late, that’d be a first for him attending a school event. That sounded  pretty impressive to me as busy as priests often are, that he still manages to be on time.
• Guests seemed impressed almost right off-the-bat once the program got underway. Sara Scheller’s introduction of the bishop was so professional and enunciated, it was hard to believe she’s only in fifth grade.
• I found it funny that Dr. Elinor Ford, given all of her credentials in Catholic education, told the crowd more than once, “If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe ___.” Once she filled in that blank with Pope Benedict XVI and again with The Catholic Sun. She went on to quote the most recent article promoting the event. Sometimes you wonder if people actually read what we write for the paper. Clearly Dr. Ford had. And a local parishioner read one of the articles promoting the event and called the Catholic Schools Office to donate $100 to the cause.
• Fr. Patrick Mowrer’s address, despite its serious nature of asking for money, earned a few laughs too. He began by talking about his time in the seminary and his excitement to take a ceramics class where he could finally “do something with his hands besides write a paper.” The Phoenix native began his priesthood in 1997 at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral,
  

  Fr. Patrick Mowrer

  but has been in Flagstaff for the last five years where he said he’s “6,000 feet closer to heaven than Phoenix.” The “you are loved priest” said he had religious women and staff since kindergarten who showed him God’s love and that today’s Catholic students are waiting for the same thing.  Then in true Fr. Mowrer fashion, he closed by saying, “It’s two minutes to nine…and you are loved.”

• Night of Hope wasn’t the only high-class affair going on at the Sheraton that evening. As one of the Catholic school parents escorted me back to my car, we noticed a few people carrying some Emmy-like awards. Turns out the Rocky Mountain Emmys were distributed that night for broadcasting excellence. The parent who escorted me to my car was so finely dressed for the Night of Hope that hotel staff tried to direct him toward the Emmy event upon his arrival. I guess there was no chance of me getting sent to the Emmy room since I was escorted in by a priest. Check out the Emmy winners and see if any of your favorite anchors or TV reporters made the list. A Phoenix station or company won more than 20 awards before I stopped counting.