A Knight helps Catholic students to see the stars

Intermountain Catholic

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Thomas Sevcik (right) assembles the Orion SkyQuest telescope he donated to the 14th annual Diocesan Science Fair. The telescope was awarded to Kennedy Pullan of Blessed Sacrament School, who won the Overall Astronomy Award.

SANDY – The universe is an awesome place, and Thomas Sevcik has undertaken a mission to encourage students to see the stars. For the past four years, Sevcik has donated a telescope to the student who wins the Overall Astronomy award at the annual Diocesan Science Fair.

This year the award went to Kennedy Pullan, a 7th-grader at Blessed Sacrament School in Sandy. For her project, ‘How does a telescope work?’, she created a telescope out of cardboard and lenses – something very similar to what Sevcik did when he was a kid.

"This girl has a high potential and to give her something to nurture her interest for astronomy was great," said Sevcik, who also was impressed by Pullan’s enthusiasm for astronomy.

Sevcik became interested in donating a telescope to students five years ago, when he attended the Diocesan Science Fair for the first time. "I watched the different science projects and I came to realize there wasn’t any scientific instrument that was being awarded," he said.

To encourage students to pursue the stars, he decided to donate a telescope each year. The Knights of Columbus Utah State sponsor the science fair, and Sevcik is a 4th Degree Knight and a member of St. Vincent de Paul Council 13297 in Holladay. He also is a parishioner at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Sandy and is writing a book about the history of the Knights of Columbus in Utah.

Most of the prizes for the science fair are donated by a council of Knights; only a few are given by individuals, said Chuck Dover, past state deputy for the Knights of Columbus. "Tom is one of those guys who wants to have that involvement because it means that much to him," Dover said, adding that Sevcik had some personal problems this year but still donated the telescope. "That says a lot about an individual and their commitment to a project and also their vision for youth and the future."

The science fair, held each year in February, is for 6th-, 7th- and 8th-grade students in diocesan schools.

At the beginning the telescopes that he donated were either too big or too heavy for students to use, so each year he has given a different model, Sevcik said. This year the prize was an Orion SkyQuest telescope, which weighs 17.5 pounds.

"This past science fair I found the perfect size for that particular group of students that they can actually carry outdoors so they don’t have to have someone else helping them," he said, adding that this allows students to have something that they can take outside every time they wish to see the stars and planets.