Ty Warner - You Can't Fake Being a Good Guy

On Friday June 10, 2015, after many months of deliberation in an America that has been programed to boil furiously over whenever a successful person is deemed to be more equal than . . .anyone, the United States Seventh District Court of Appeals ruled that Ty Warner's punishment and sentence was just.

That was a shock to me.  Given our spiritus mundi (can I still say that?),  I expected the reverse, because I have gotten to know Ty Warner a little bit and that little bit leads me to believe that he is a good guy and this is no time for good guys - to paraphrase Cormac McCarthy. Creeps prosper, but good guys seem to take it in the neck.  The Sharptons, The Trumps, The Clintons, The Ayers and the self-made creeps like Dan Savage,Bill Cosby and Rachel Dolezal flourish in the age of Harrison Bergeron.

Every news outlet reporting on this fact strains mightily to get a hissy-slap at the billionaire anyway and that is only to be expected. You see, Ty Warner built his empire. Ty Warner is a man whom the legal cozeners, the academic milquetoasts and media purse puppies want punished, because he built his success.  Can't have that getting around. We are living in a time predicted by writer Kurt Vonnegut decades ago.  In his story Harrison Bergeron everyone must be equal -whatever.        

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. 

The Handicapper General is coming, unless good guys ( gender neutral, mind) take stock.

Ty Warner has spent a great deal of time here at Leo High School, as part of his probation to be sure, but having a wonderful time of it. I am an old timey English teacher who learned his trade by watching and emulating my betters.  How I engaged my students was how I was assessed, by Father Bob Erickson, Father Jim Fanale, Father Ken Yarno, Nick Novich, Jim Frogge, Dave Raiche, Sister Hellen Kavanaugh and Rich Zinnani.  They told me and taught me that teaching kids required much more than book learnin' - did I like being with people who wanted to learn something; not just people to talk at.  My great mentors taught me that I could not fake it. " Hickey, you can't pretend to be a good guy,"

You is, or you ain't. Only a good guy can be an effective teacher and the State don't issue Type-301 Good Guy Certification.

Ty Warner would have made a superb class-room teacher.

He is patient, witty, prepared, engaged and engaging with willful, occasionally obstreperous and easily bored young men who might not ever become billionaires.  They might not. Ty Warner offers them an up-close and personal opportunity to learn from a man who is a billionaire.

All of Ty Warner's billions of dollars can not make him a good guy, nor can he leave that in his Will.

He earned that sobriquet, just as he did his fortune, on his own.  Ty Warner treats people, who can do absolutely nothing for him, like they are the most important and interesting people on earth.  You can not fake that.

I am very happy that at least one good guy survived our Harrison Bergeron culture and society. Thanks be to God.

If God Were a Soft-hearted Slob . . .Oh, That's Right He Is. . .Seventh Promise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

                                         

                                        “Tepid souls shall become fervent.” 

I go to Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church Street in Washington Heights just east of Morgan Park in Chicago.  The Mass is traditional and unself-absorbed and sung in English.  The Saying of the Memorare after the Nicene Creed was and is a huge selling point in my attendence at Sacred Heart - that and the people who attend.

It is a kid friendly place of worship free the more pious scolds who skunk-eye and 'hush and shush' families with little kids (infants -toddlers) who interrupt the sanctity of the liturgy, while celebrating the sanctity of Life. Little guys screw around and Mass can be brutal. Among the faithful in the pews there is nothing but simple dignity and smiling tolerance for the little guys.

Sacred Heart parishioners are salt of the earth blue-collar working women and men. A State of Grace after Mass includes a dose of pride knowing that you have been numbered among these people. No hand tossing Hosanna-types of the Church of Happy Horse-#$%^.   People who know hard work, hard times and hard prayer have a dignified

Sacred Heart worship is Divine -thanks to the likes of Father Gallagher, Father Vanecko and etc. Gallagher and Vanecko are brilliant and succinct homilists.  They do not need to hear the sound of their voices.  Mass is never like attending a Wagner Festival.  Thanks be to God.  The church building is understated beauty.

The French immigrants who paid for and built Sacred Heart at the turn of 19th Century did a great job on the stained glass windows that feature St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Christ. My favorite is Olde # 7  “Tepid souls shall become fervent.”

I am about as lukewarm/tepid/less than hot a soul ,as God ever cranked out. Mind you; nothing wrong with the parts and labor going into the making, but really poor maintenance by the owner.

If God were more of shiftless, lazy, excuse-laden slob, He'd allow me to be and act more like Joe Epstein, Skinny Sheahan, or Dan McGrath.  They are a Trinity of nice guys who toil at it.  God does too.  I do not.

I like to think that with a little more prayer and great deal more effort the Sacred Heart will deliver. Fervent beats tepid hollow.

ComEd and ReMix Chicago Offer Leo Men a Look Life in the Arts

A drone operated by two young artists greeted the van load of Leo High School students, who woke up early on Saturday, got gussied up, and boarded a van commanded by Coach Debo and History teacher Bill Tomaka and drove to the Pilsen neighborhood.  At LaCuna Lofts located at 2150 S. Canalport ( just off the street from Cermack Road), Com Ed sponsored a day-long program that featured REMIX.

The Remix Project was created in order to help level the playing field for young people from disadvantaged, marginalized and under served communities. Our programs and services serve youth who are trying to enter into the creative industries or further their formal education; The REMIX Project provides top-notch alternative, creative, educational programs, facilitators and facilities. Our mission is to help refine the raw talents of young people from across the GTA in order to help them find success as participants define it and on their own terms.

This program started in Toronto,Canada and recently found a home at Lacuna Lofts, with the backing of Joe Cacciatore, son of a great Chicago philanthropist.

Leo High School was invited to share the talents of our students with the artists and directors of REMIX.

We have a some very talented gents. One in particular happens to be less than an engaged academic gent, but actively pursues his musical interests and inclinations.  Two attendees from Leo are remarkable vocalists and the other five young men work in church choirs, act as sound technicians for DJs and MCs in their neighborhoods, or dabble in techno-artistry.

As Coach Debo wheeled the Leo van into the lot a drone hopvered over the vehicle and buzzed the gents as they alighted from Old Number 7 ( my morning pick-up vehicke for the last three years).

ComEd representatives greeted the gents, who were the first to arrive for the day's events and the Leo Lions mingled with grace and dignity. Click on the link for the day's events from Hashtag ComEd.  The photos here are my own.

Thank you to all of the folks at ComEd, REMIX and LaCuna Lofts!

This about sums it up!

 This last great shot is via ComEd

Baby Got Back! Leo High School Ads on CTA Bus Fleet

Leo High School has once again purchased signage for the back end of the CTA Bus Fleet.  You can get a generous eyeful of Leo High School information while cruising your way through Chicago traffic on smartly targeted routes - 79th Street; Western Avenue; Dr. Martin Luther King Drive; Hyde Park Routes; 111th and 115th Street Routes.

Leo High School is a school of opportunity.  Since 1926, Leo High School has been the choice of working families for sons who want to succeed beyond imaginary and genuine social and economic barriers.

Leo Men are in front ranks of business, religious, legal, civic, military, skilled trades and public service professionals, because their common core Catholic value education challenged them exceed expectations.

Read up, Chicago and drive with couretsy.

I reconnect with some Funny Little People at the Downtown St. Paddy's Day Parade

You will always run into funny people at public events . " Funny How?  Like a clown?  "  Sometimes.  Funny can be  like the inebriated goof who had begun his day with big brimmin' cup full of Happy Cossack Vodka and wanted to know what "Bik Showders Fun us a Boud?"  and shortly careened away prior to an answer.

Funny.  I imagine the balance of his Saturday, which no doubt ended before noon parade step-off, was equally hilarious and joyful for himself and those folks he gladdened the day.

Then there were funny trades men and rivals from Catholic Schools north, south and west.  There are no Catholic High Schools within Lake Michigan.  

Shortly before the Leo Contingent of the Big Shoulders Fund Marchers stepped north on Columbus Drive, I noticed the Stockyard Kilty Band.  This year we mourned the loss of Leo Man Dave McKinney '46 was a founding member of the bag-pipe band.  I mentioned to our guys that a Leo Man was instrumental in the training of generations of pipers.  and into the mix of black and gold tartans strolled two of the Funny Little People.  

When I was baby teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL, I played banjo and guitar with the Sons of Reilly's Daughter as part of MadCaps - an annual November All-School Fund-raiser that helped keep the revenue up and tuition down and doors wide open.  We were a hit - playing Irish songs, Italian songs, Polish Songs, Hillbilly songs and telling dirty jokes within the parameters of good taste and Catholic dignity . . .most of the time.  However, the show stopper was an anonymouspair of hilariously costumed characters who busted in on our show and danced up a storm.  They were known only as the Little People and they were funny.  It turned out that the Funny Little People persons were one of my students and the little sister of our band Director Kevin McNuty.  Sarah McNulty and Dave Gregoire made a modest industry from a great concept.

In 1976, Dave Gregoire and Sarah McNulty came up with an act for a local fund-raiser. They were inspired by Dave’s original 1st place Halloween costume. A few years later, Dave and Sarah were stitching together sophisticated characters who could lip-sync, show off their dance moves, and make people laugh at nightclubs, sporting events and a few private parties. Eventually, Dave and Sarah quit their day jobs, and by the mid ‘80’s hired about 10 more performers, mostly relatives and friends.

These are some funny people in the best of possible definitions.  Here is Big Shoulders Fund's James O" Connor meets the founder and the creative force behind the Funny Little People.

Leo President Dan McGrath is a fabulous wit and a gentleman Ryan " Hilarity!" Hodo in the grey Hodo Bros.Hoodie and Nick "Funny Attendance" Hyland to McGrath's right are part of the Canaryville Round Table/

These guys present what passes for wit on Sangamon

None of them think I'm Funny . . . well, 'funny lookin'!'

Leo High School Rookie Teacher/Coach Kimberly Hickey 5'/100lbs of Heart

Lisa Black of the Chicago Tribune visited Leo High School before the Christmas break and witnessed what I have been blessed to see every day - a school that matters to the students it serves.  Leo High School's eighty plus years of service to Church, city and country matters, because the focus is always on the young men who come here to learn.

Leo has been home to legendary teachers like Brothers Finch, O'Keefe, Birmingham and Coogan of the Irish Christian Brothers ( 1926-1990) and lay men and women like Jimmy Arenberg, Bill Hession, Bob Foster, Bob Swazt, Tom Joyce, George Cummings, Nancy Finn, Jay Standring, Jack Fitzgerald, Tom O'Malley,  Aurora Latifi and Mike Holmes.  There are hundreds of others, but I feel safe in saying the people listed are legends. A legend is someone who comes to work for the sake of other people.

Lisa Black spent a great deal of time in the halls of Leo where the unfiltered opinion of young men rings the truth of the old school's motto - Facta Non Verba.  Leo High School, from days of Bob Foster's leadership, never puts on a dog and pony show for visitors, much less for the probitive eyes and clear hearing of a professional news reporter.  In the words of President Dan McGrath, "Leo is what it is."  Leo is a home thick with family.  Dan is the Patriarch, Mike Holmes the protective older brother, Aurora Latifi the matriarchal Lion Queen, Board Member and boxing Coach Mike Joyce The Consigliere and Leo's Director of Development, the proud but crazy uncle who sleeps on the fold-out couch.  Well, I do get here early.   Our students spend the happiest hours of their days here at school.  I open the doors for many of them hours before the start of the class day.

Into this close-knit family stepped a pretty little girl at the end of last July.  Kimberly Hickey is all of 5' tall and weighs-in at a romping stomping 100 lbs,  after a George Foreman All You Can Eat breakfast. Miss Hickey teaches math and coaches boxing with Mike Joyce.  Read Lisa Black's story about a legend in the works.

Lisa Black's wonderful story of Leo's Miss Hickey will appear in the Chicago SundayTribune print edition in the Chicagoland section ( Dec. 29,2013).

I Am in a Wonderful Frame of Mind . . . For What It's Worth!

God is a good guy, to me anyway.

My son is taking his trade exam after a two year apprenticeship. My older daughter and her fiance closed on a house nearby. My youngest daughter is studying and working at Western Michigan.  Leo High School is gearing up at the school for today's Soul Bowl with Hales Franciscan and a continuation of a perfect season at both varsity and JV levels.



 I have Chet Baker playing and singing in the background.  My only worry concerns my lovely lady friend who is visiting family in New Orleans as a tropical storm is twisting near Big Easy.  God's a good guy.

This week at Leo High School I watched two young women really make an impact upon the tough but eminently fragile young men they teach.  Both women, a science and a math teacher, are at ease with their disciplines and the young bundle of hormones in front of them.  Our science teacher, a veteran of Maria High School, gives a vocabulary word of the day unrelated to biology, or chemistry.  You should hear 15, 16 and 17 year old African American,Mexican and Irish tough guys employ the new found words and their proper meanings in the hallowed halls long ago patrolled by quick belting Irish Christian Brothers - ' Mr. Hickey's evanescent hair reminds me of Fall!'  Friday's word flibbertigibbet dominated both lunch hours.

The young teacher, who bears my last name, teaches geometry like she has been in the trade for years and she is Mike Joyce's assistant boxing coach armed with ND Bengal Bouts seasoning the young lady handles her mitts well after school. In the classroom, the boys are learning because their teacher treats them like men.

Our guys come to school early and stay late.  We are making a difference and that makes me very proud.

Yep, God is a good guy who helps us work incrementally.  I can not wait to get over to Hales Franciscan for the Soul Bowl.  I know my great frame of mind is only going to improve. God gave us Chet Baker, after all.

My Take Aways from President's Syria Lecture and Dinner in Heart of Italy

I spent a wonderful day with my President - of Leo High School - visiting St. Cajetan 8th grade boys about the Leo Opportunity ( affordable tuition and transportation)  and later tramping through a parade ground of school buses at Midwest Transit Equipment in Kankakee, IL.  Thanks to the generous outpouring of treasure from Leo Alumni and friends into the Leo Express to Opportunity campaign headed by Leo grad Sam Leno '63, my President had a blank check for the campaign account.  We bought two vehicles - a 72 passenger school bus and a 28 passenger activity bus.

My President was like an Arab and our Midwest Transit  sales manager was most receptive to Leo's needs and knocked off $ 4,500 from the total. cost.  My President acted.

The bus and the activity vehicle are now being painted to attest to Leo High School ownership.  Once out of the sub-Saharan sun and into the AC of my Malibu we celebrated with a couple of bottles of water. I dropped my President off at St. Cajetan's to retrieve his car and then went back to Leo High School to retrieve my cell phone ( left on the desk when I went for a much needed haircut prior to the St. Cajetan's visit - in the heat and humidity what passes for my hair adds nothing much to my manly bearing) and inform a lovely woman that our evening's assignation had moved from Taylor Street to the Heart of Italy - "We are eating at Bacchanalia!!!!  Park on Oakley over by Ald. Moreno's offices and see you at 6PM, Love!"

I know that squeals of delight had more to do with the splendid bill of fare there than anticipation of this freshly shorn widow-man.

The food at every restaurant in Heart of Italy sparks manly tears of joy, but Bacchanalia Ristorante's is especially compelling. We shared ( well, sort of) baked artichoke and parted ways at main course. I taking the road most travelled - *Porterhouse Vesuvio (Charbroiled, Topped with our Signature Vesuvio Sauce & Potatoes) and she with Veal Cutlet Milanese (A crisp Veal Cutlet platter).  Again we spooned in alliance over a platter of the House flagship side - Sautéed Spinach (Spinach Sautéed in Garlic and Spices).  We both hefted home sizeable portions of the delicacies.  My leftovers never seem to live through the night as my 23 year old Son gets home from work shortly after my retirement.  A good meal is not a gorging, but an event marked by talk and punctuated by forkfuls.

Conversation sparkled throughout the shared meal, touching upon the Leo vehicle purchases and the upcoming Leo/Lake Forest Academy Football, abusive male cads and bounders, sacred and choral music, jazz, The Humpday Camel commercial and Syria.

Syria is no place for Americans, no place for indigenous Christians, a horrible place for Jews and what might be the  Arab Spanish Civil War  for another global war. President Obama is finally being understood as the career anointed appointee that is his CV.  The poor man is was and ever shall be in over his head and pay-grade; unless, of course, you are All In With Obama*.

Following the lush meal that only Americans can enjoy, we sat on the benches of Oakley Street and chatted before I accompanied my lovely table mate to her car.  She headed north on Western Ave. to the Congress Expressway and I south to Morgan Park.  I cranked the AC and left the radio on to the President's Syria speech.  I listened attentively and here is what I took away.

President Obama has yet to master History "In World War I, American GIs were among the many thousands killed by deadly gas in the trenches of Europe."

The collective reference, G. I.s, did not come into common parlance  until the 1940's, as American troops were commonly termed Doughboys in WWI. The self-styled rhetorical wonder of a President engaged once again in misrepresenting historical fact., not unlike his gaffe of praising the Navy Corpsemen who saved their Leaterneck brethren in WWII. well, that rhetorical nit picked, The President droned on in syrupy humanitarian tone, crafted no doubt by Samantha Powers, until he poisoned his waterhole with this hypocrital flourish -

" The purpose of this (rhetorical?)  strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use.

That’s my judgment as Commander-in-Chief. But I’m also the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress. I believe our democracy is stronger when the President acts with the support of Congress."   

( emphases my own) Really?  Like HHS mandates, EPA weapons, IRS shenanigans?

Back to the issue - President Obama drew a red-line ( several) against Assad, people were horribly gassed, Congress was tossed the ball, the Administration twisted the need like a Hanover pretzel, 70 % of the public are against any intervention tiny pin-prick or not and Vlad Putin caught John Kerry's Inner Biden.  Now, Putin has brokered a deal what to do . . .""I have, therefore, asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. "

Postpone the vote that world demands, for a strike against whom and what?

I took away much more wholesome goodness from the Heart of Italy neighborhood than in all of the empty calories of The President.  My dinner companion took home spinach and veal and I most of the porterhouse, spuds and the sinful artichoke hearts and garlic sauce, from Bachanalia Ristorante. 

From the Syrian Speech?  Much less.


* 

Leo High School is Lourdes? No, but it will do: The Miles Turner Miracle

Miles Turner, Leo 2013 went to prom last night.

 

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

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Miles Turner's heroic battle against five bullets is nothing short of miraculous.  Miracles are scoffed at, just as they were in secularist France in the mid-18th Century when a peasant girl brought miraculous water to millions of physically afflicted people at Lourdes.

Cardinal George is in Lourdes.  Cardinal George is a very significant presence at Leo High School in the Gresham neighborhood.

It always seems that whenever Cardinal George is out of Chicago on the business of the three million Catholics of this city, the moral and political pygmies take the opportunity to insult, offend, or disrupt the work of the Archbishop of Chicago.  Once Francis Cardinal George boarded the plane for the sacred shrine in France, the Tribune's pencil-necked Progressive sucker-puncher Eric Zorn rolled out a series of insulting, flawed and cowardly screeds leveled at the Cardinal's objection to Mayor Rahm's punitive tax on church institutional water.   At the same time before the City Club of Chicago, Emanuel's City Council Floor Leader Alderman Pat O'Connor went all Vidkun Quisling on the Faith of His Fathers.

Mayor's floor leader blasts Catholic Church over water squabble
5/3/2013 7:30:00 PM
By FRAN SPIELMAN -Chicago Sun Times
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Council floor leader lashed out at the Catholic Church on Wednesday for rejecting the mayor's compromise offer on water fees for nonprofits even after, the alderman claimed, failing to clean its own house on the priest sex abuse scandal."They're clearly not owning up to the fact that there are people out there damaged by the church and they're talking about free water. Really?" said Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th).
Describing himself as "a Catholic, not a happy one these days," O'Connor said, "The church has so many internal problems, they ought to satisfy their own problems and they ought to address the things that are in the paper every day and stop talking about free water. Quit saying that they handled things right in the past or . . . or, even worse, saying mistakes were made in the past, but they're not correcting those mistakes."
Earlier this week, Cardinal Francis George jumped into the controversy caused by Emanuel's decision to cut off the free water spigot to struggling churches and nonprofits that provide a safety net of social services to needy Chicagoans.
The cardinal appeared at a news conference called by an "inter-faith coalition" of religious leaders to reject the mayor's offer to restore the free water perk to groups with assets under $1 million.
The cardinal called the lake a "gift from God" and said maybe "we should start charging the city for water" - not the other way around.

Water - a source of revenue for spendthrift city.  Water - a sign of the miraculous.

It all depends on which side of history, one takes the vantage point to see something.

Miles is afflicted with bullets from a gang-bangers gun; Cardinal George is afflicted not only with the intrusion of cancer, but a cultural and political class of  bigots who hide behind the same altar of science as secular inquistors who challenged the faith of the French peasant girl Bernadette's faith and blocked the miraculous waters of Lourdes . . .for a time, anyway.

 A Medical Bureau was established in 1882 to test the authenticity of the cures. The doctors include unbelievers as well as believers and any doctor is welcome to take part in the examination of the alleged cures. As many as 500 medical men of all faiths or no faith have taken advantage of the invitation each year. Many books and movies tell the story of Lourdes. Even Hollywood made a movie of this remarkable event in the 1940's entitled "The Song of Bernadette" which won six academy awards.

Today, Hollywood gives religion and the Catholic faith in particular very short shrift. Miracles are now called health policy by the secular Believe Nothings. Miles Turner stood again because his family believe.

Miles Turner was prayed for not only by his wonderful parents and family, but also the Cardinal and the extended Leo High School family.  Alumni called about Miles everyday and asked how they might help the family.  Most importantly, Miles was lifted out of his many recovery beds by skilled physicians, technicians, therapists, teachers and Dan McGrath, President of Leo High School and football coach and surrogate father of hundreds Mike Holmes.

Dan and Mike stood with Miles and his family nearly everyday from the time the young man was shot. I have never been more proud of human beings.

Dan and Mike joined the Turner family is moistening Miles' lips and throat with ice and later water.  Miles could not take liquids for months.  Christ's words from the cross, "I thirst!" were remembered. Miles was slaked with words of comfort and encouragement from the lips of Leo teachers Kristine Meany, Katy Hyland, Aurora Latifi and Bob Schablaske who tutored Miles when his strength returned.  Water and wisdom were not denied.

Cardinal George is in Lourdes, Miles went to prom and will graduate with his class.  The newspapers and TV stations that feature the Miles Turner miracle, will also mock the Cardinal and the very faith that is core of Leo High School.  It is good that those media outlets are awed by this story of personal
struggle, but is also sad that they will not consider the waters of miraculous faith that make the struggle worth the while.

The water tax is merely a punitive measure to force people of faith to go against their beliefs and become out-spoken critics, like Alderman Pat O'Connor, of the religion, the schools, the associations and institutions that made his 'personal struggle' a vacuum-packed biography and a lucrative life.

If Cardinal George had only been compelled to agree that abortion is health care and gay marriage religious liberty, churches could have all the water they could want -untaxed.

Had Miles Turner indicated with his suffering eyes the words "I Thirst" to Rahm Emanuel, or his City Council Floor Leader Pat O'Connor, his lips would have remained mighty dry.

As it is, Leo is not Lourdes, but it sure as hell will do.

Beverly Review Features -The Leo High School Advantage

Leo High School 1926 ..............Leo 2013 and Pete Doyle is still here!

Leo High School has always been a school of opportunity for young men seeking a Catholic secondary education that prepares them to succeed. Each Catholic school has its own mystique, or as it is known in the Catholic faith, its own charism.

Leo is not another St. Ignatius, or De LaSalle.  Leo High School has a place for every young man who wants to succeed through a Catholic education.

Leo's students have always come from working class neighborhoods and will continue to do so.  The four story brick building dedicated by Cardinal Mundelein in 1926 and opened on September 9th of that year is solid and so is the learning environment.  There are issues like improving the school's plumbing arteries and the fact that the school is land-locked by the proximity of residential properties, bit nearly as much as it had been.  Leo has been expanding the campus work begun by President Emeritus Bob Foster in 1997 and continued by President Dan McGrath with the help of the 17th Ward's Ald. Thomas with land acquisitions from Morgan to Green Street.

• Leo is making transportation available to students.
• Leo is making parental participation a path to easing the tuition burden.
• Leo is making news -positive and inspirational news stories - about how Leo students and faculty impact the broader community.  There is a Leo good news story in the Chicago and National media nearly every week.(just from the past month)

The greatest challenge has been enrollment and ever soaring costs of tuition.  To that end, Cardinal George Leo High School's Advisory Board, the Big Shoulders Fund, Archdiocese Superintendent Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey, Leo benefactors and private foundations determined to make a Leo education affordable to working families, while maintaining a rigorous college prep curriculum.
Leo Men: Francis Cardinal George 2012 and Jackie Schaller '43

Today, The Beverly Review announced these steps in a lovely article by Caroline Connors.

School administrators hope the new tuition program will draw in working-class kids from neighborhoods like Beverly/Morgan Park and Mt. Greenwood, in addition to South Side neighborhoods that are not as stable. Over the past couple of years, a handful of white and Hispanic students have enrolled at Leo, and school officials said they would like the school to remain racially integrated.

“There are no metal detectors or cops here—we don’t need them—and no graffiti on the building,” McGrath said. “The Leo name is respected, and we provide a safe, nurturing learning environment where everyone gets along. It’s not so much a school as a family where we love each other and believe in each other.”

With an active alumni association that is thousands strong, Leo provides its students with a network of caring individuals . . .

On Friday, the Leo Alumni Association will induct this years class of Hall of Fame Inductees, honor its Man of the Year, Mark Lee and other Leo Men who keep this great school true to mission.

Leo remains a school of opportunity.  Opportunity must be grabbed.  Visit Leo High School experience the Leo Advantage.

Thank you Caroline Connors and the Beverly Review!