Knight donates award to new chaplain scholarship fund

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Ricky Fonseca receives the 2011 Chairman's Award from David White, chairman of the board of IASIS Healthcare, at the banquet in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22. Courtesy photo/IASIS Healthcare

SALT LAKE CITY — Enrique "Ricky" Fonseca, a member of the Knights of Columbus Bishop Hunt Council 5214 in Kearns, won the 2011 Chairman’s Award from Salt Lake Regional Medical Center for his outstanding commitment to community service.

Fonseca has worked for the medical center for 25 years. He is a cook, and on the nomination form for the award, under ‘professional credentials,’ was written "a genuinely nice person." He also was described as "upbeat and engaged. There are not many employees as loyal as Ricky."

Fonseca was one of 20 Chairman’s Award winners nationwide from IASIS Healthcare Hospitals.

As part of the award, IASIS Healthcare donated $1,000 to the charity of each winner’s choice. Fonseca, who has been a member of the Knights of Columbus for 12 years, chose the Knights’ Father McGivney Military Chaplain’s Fund.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson proposed establishing the fund at the Knights’ annual convention in March. Currently there are about 265 Catholic chaplains ministering to 1.5 million personnel in all branches of the United States military. They serve on military installations in 29 countries.

To help increase the number of military chaplains, the scholarship fund will pay half the cost of training a seminarian, with the other half coming from a diocese, said Chuck Dover, Vice Supreme Master over the John H. Reddin Province, which includes Utah. Once the seminarian becomes a priest and serves a tour of duty as a chaplain, he would then serve the diocese that helped pay his tuition.

Dover, who also is a past state deputy for the Utah Knights of Columbus, has been asked to raise $4,000 from the state for the scholarship fund.

"That is what I am currently raising money for, that is what Ricky gave his $1,000 to," Dover said. "His was the very first [donation] from the state of Utah, and the largest contribution from the state of Utah."

Through the Knights Council, Fonseca also volunteers at fundraisers that benefit various causes.

"When I know I am making a difference and am considering someone else’s needs above my own, I feel a sense of peace, joy and hope," said Fonseca, who joined the Knights of Columbus in 1999 and in 2001 joined the 4th Degree.

Fonseca and other award recipients were honored at an awards banquet in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 22.