Breakfast to honor northern Utah benefactors

courtesy of CCS

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OGDEN — The 11th annual Catholic Community Services of Northern Utah Dream Builder’s Breakfast will celebrate “those who make a difference in the lives of hungry children in Northern Utah,” according to the invitation.

“It’s very important for us to be able to recognize individuals and companies who step up over and over to do amazing things for CCS and the community,” said Maresha G. Bosgieter, director of CCS of Northern Utah.

Because this is the only fundraising event that CCS Northern Utah has, “it’s instrumental in raising operating funds to help us feed over 93,000 individuals every year,” Bosgieter said.

Benedictine Sister Stephanie Mongeon will give the opening prayer, and she will bake one of her famous Bundt cakes to be auctioned off. Bishop Oscar A. Solis will help present the awards and also give the closing remarks.

The 2018 honorees are Robert Hunter, the Ogden Police Department and Michael Joseph.

Robert Hunter will be receiving the Humanitarian Award. He retired last year after 17 years as president and CEO of the United Way of Northern Utah and now directs the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service at Weber State University.

“Bob literally has touched every part of Weber County. … He has served on our Advisory Board for years because of our connection with United Way of Northern Utah,” Bosgieter said.

Hunter has also served as Ogden city manager, a Weber County commissioner and an adjunct professor for WSU for 30 years.

Through United Way of Northern Utah, Hunter “has been instrumental in helping with our backpack and turkey drives each year, and is still continuing to be a strong advocate for CCS in the community,” Bosgieter said.

Hunter has also been the master of ceremonies for the Dream Builder’s Breakfast for many years, “and hates that we wouldn’t allow him to still do it this year while he was being honored,” she added.

The Ogden Police Department will be honored with the Community Partner Award.

“The community resource officers from OPD have regularly attended Bridging the Gap distributions since we started the program,” said Bosgieter, referring to the program that every Friday distributes bags of healthy, easy-to-prepare meals to 4,000 elementary school students in the Ogden/Weber area to provide them with food through the weekend, when they do not receive the free and reduced lunches at school.

The positive interaction between the children and officers at the distribution sites has been beneficial for the students, she said.

The officers “are always willing to pitch in, whether it’s directing the kids in line, handing out food, or just giving fist-bumps ... and I’m amazed at the difference in their attitudes and trust with the officers just from this participation,” Bosgieter said.

Michael Joseph will be presented with the Philanthropist Award.

“Mike is an wonderful man who has always been willing to give of his time, talents and money,” Bosgieter said.

As chairman of the organization’s Advisory Board, Joseph helped with the transition through a time of change, including rebranding, developing the CCS Northern Utah website and focusing on development, Bosgieter said.

She added that Joseph has a strong passion for the Bridging the Gap program, “and recently stepped up with a generous pledge that is the next step in being able to add more schools.”

The Dream Builder’s breakfast is not only a chance to honor outstanding people and organizations in the community and hear from Bishop Solis, but “we also get an opportunity to share some of the wonderful accomplishments we have had over the past year,” Bosgieter said. “Most people don’t realize how great the need is in northern Utah, but we actually have a very high concentration of poverty.”

For example, in Davis County in 2016 there were almost 25,000 people living in poverty; 9 percent of those were children and 5 percent were people over the age of 65, according to the 2017-18 Annual Report on Poverty in Utah published by Community Action Partnership of Utah.

CCS of Northern Utah wouldn’t be able to do what they do “without everyone’s involvement, from volunteers to food to advocates and funds,” Bosgieter said.

Catholic Community Services began in 1945 in Salt Lake City; in 1982 they started offering services in northern Utah. CCS Northern Utah’s programs are the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank, which is the largest food bank in the region; and the Bridging the Gap program, which serves 4,000 children each month. In addition, there is the St. Martha’s Baby Project, which provides basic needs and counseling to 700 mothers each year, as well as giving a complete layette to low-income women with a newborn child.

WHAT: Dream Builder’s Breakfast

WHERE: Ogden Eccles Conference Center, 2415 Washington Blvd., Ogden

WHEN: Wednesday, May 2

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., the program is from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. RVSP to Durrell Annis, 801-428-1291 or dannis@ccsutah.org.