The Bishop Leibold Annual Fund
Bishop Leibold School has proudly served our area communities since 1974 and we also celebrate our predecessor schools at St. Henry and Our Lady of Good Hope. Our main pillars, Focus on Faith, Inspiring Growth, and providing a True Family Experience guide us in all that we do. We are proud of our many accomplishments and grateful for the generous support throughout the years from our parishioners, graduates, families and friends.
Thank you in advance for considering a commitment to the Annual Fund for Bishop Leibold School.
Dr. Theodore J. Wallace
Proud Principal, Bishop Leibold School
Vocations in Action
Mrs. Jill Coudron
The Gifts I Was Given at Bishop Leibold School
I came to Bishop Leibold School to teach first grade in 1984. From the moment I began, I felt the joy of working with the children, parents, and staff. I had the privilege of spending my life teaching hundreds of children, celebrating their families, and being a part of the Bishop Leibold family. Here are some gifts I received:
1. The Gift of Children
God bestowed on me a love for children that I was able to put to work at Bishop Leibold. Teaching was my calling, and I loved my years at Bishop Leibold, being able to carry out God’s plan for my life in such a wonderful school.
2. Support and Love.
What a special place our school was! Our classes were big in the beginning –30 or more –but everyone worked together to help and support each other. We worked hard every day bringing all we could to help our children learn and grow. The environment was one that supported the teacher to be the best we could be. We were a family.
3. Integrating God and our Catholic Faith
A large part of our teaching and learning supported our love of God and family. It was in not only our religion lessons but in our music, art, science as well as reading and writing. I always felt that it was part of God’s plan for me to be at a Catholic school like Bishop Leibold. I could bring God’s love to the children about God’s love in all areas of our days together. Our focus was always one of leading children to the Lord.
4. Integration of families in our learning.
During my years in both first grade and kindergarten, I was blessed with so much support from parents and grandparents helping in my classroom. We even had “adopted grandmas and grandpas” who enhanced our days and programs. Many parents became lifelong friends because of being helpers in their children’s classroom. One of my greatest joys were the celebrations of families: Grandparents Day, Dad’s Night, Mom’s Night, Growing Celebration, Halloween Hoedown, Getting-to-Know-You picnics, and so many more. The parents, teachers and children celebrated God’s gift of families together.
5. Fulfilling the mission to help one another and reach out to those in need
There were many activities children participated in to feed the hungry, help the homeless, take care of the sick and show love and kindness in our daily lives.
Life after Retirement
Because I want to keep alive the joys of my teaching at BLS, I continue to find ways to serve my school. I have taught Bible Stories, helped with music for kindergarten school programs, and now am helping 4th and 5th grade teachers each week.
Joseph Allaire
Hello! To you all you do not know me, my name is Joe Allaire and I attended Bishop Leibold from kindergarten through graduating 8th grade in 2015. Following BLS, I attended Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School in Dayton and went on to enter formation for the priesthood with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. I recently graduated with my Bachelor of Philosophy from Bishop Simon Brute College Seminary, located in Indianapolis, Indiana and will begin studies at Cincinnati's Mount Saint Mary's School of Theology this August. If all continues well, I will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese in 2027.
People often hear me say, " The first time I heard God calling me to the priesthood was in Mrs. Martin's Sixth Grade religion classroom." And I say that for a reason. When I was in the class, I was asked to write a Vocation's Essay that would change my life. It caused me to consider what God willed for my life and not simply what I wanted to do with it. Such a shift in perspective caused me to evaluate many of my dreams and aspirations and ask some big questions for a sixth grader. Not only did we write the essay, but we discussed this topic with our parents and the class. Looking back on it today, I realize how much of a blessing it was to be able to talk about these subjects at school and have faithful teachers answer the questions I had. It was there that the first fruits of the vocation God had planted in me became visible and it would not have been possible without that religion class at BLS with Mrs. Martin.
-Joe
Elizabeth Jasek
I am very grateful for the Catholic education I received at Bishop Leibold! As I reflect back, here are some of the things that particularly jump out to me as playing an influential role in my growth in faith and in discernment of my vocation. The priority placed on attending weekly Mass as a community -- this helped to impress upon me that the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life. I was encouraged by my teachers to be an active participant in the Mass through my second grade teacher Mrs. Jeanmougin having us write down what we learned from the homily after Mass and through being a cantor, lector, or altar server. The many years of being in choir especially helped me to learn that Our Lord desired me to praise Him specifically in song with the voice He had given me, which led me to seek out continuing to grow in my musical gifts and use them in the liturgy in high school and college. I also remember the care and preparation that my third grade teachers put into preparing our class to lead a rosary for the May crowning as teaching me reverence for Mary and the power of the Rosary.
Additionally, the emphasis on prayer for and reflection on vocations. Writing vocation essays for an Archdiocesan competition for multiple years helped me to come to see marriage as a true vocation (I remember being very struck by learning how the call of a married couple is to reveal the self-giving love that Christ has for His Church) and to think more about what it might be like to be a religious sister. I especially remember Fr. Tim Fahey (another BLS grad) visiting my 6th grade classroom as a seminarian at the time and his witness of being so young and joyfully wanting to give his whole life to Jesus really impacting me. Exchanging a cross between classrooms to pray for vocations also left an impression. This helped to lay a foundation that I should consider that Our Lord may be calling me to the religious life, which I plan to discern further through entering a year of postulancy this fall with the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Elizabeth Jasek
ND Class of 2023
Science Preprofessional Major
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