In the wake of corporate corruption in the early 2000s, Bob Zyskowski decided it was time to show the positive side of the business world.
He came up with the idea of honoring those who practice their faith in the marketplace with an awards program called Leading with Faith. Since 2002, The Catholic Spirit has chosen men and women from a pool of nominees each year to receive an award from the archbishop or bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
This year’s seven awardees were honored Aug. 11 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, with a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Bernard Hebda followed by a program and ice cream social outside on the Cathedral grounds.
“The idea of honoring business leaders came as a result of watching business people taking it on the chin with some of the scandals that were happening at the time; Enron is probably the poster child for that,” said Zyskowski, who served as associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit at that time and has since retired. “And, I thought that there were a lot of good business people doing really good things in the community and for the community, and for their employees, and that we should be able to lift up to our readers those people who are expressing their Christianity in the workplace.”
The first awards luncheon took place Sept. 16, 2002, at the Town and Country Club in St. Paul with 10 honorees. Including this year’s winners, a total of 202 business leaders have been honored with the award. In formulating the program and awards luncheon, Zyskowski worked with Mary Jo Sherwood, The Catholic Spirit’s marketing director at the time, and the newspaper’s board of directors.
Zyskowski said he did not necessarily envision the program lasting this long, but he is not surprised that worthy candidates are still being nominated by friends, co-workers, family members and priests. Over the years, people working in nonprofits, large corporations and small businesses have received their awards at a luncheon. Zyskowski remembers one auto repair owner whose business was located in a small town with an address that he had trouble finding on a map.
Bringing people like that from the outer reaches of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and into the spotlight has been one of the many rewards for Zyskowski during the years he oversaw the program with great help from Mary Gibbs, his longtime assistant at The Catholic Spirit, also now retired. Zyskowski recalls watching the luncheon outgrow smaller facilities and having to find larger venues, a problem he felt was good to have.
Another highlight was bringing on board a talented and highly-regarded emcee for the awards luncheon — Tom Hauser, a political reporter for KSTP TV, who has supplied a high level of professionalism, along with a dash of humor. A former intern for The Catholic Spirit’s predecessor newspaper, Hauser started emceeing the Leading with Faith program in its early years, and he continued all the way through the most recent Leading with Faith luncheon in 2019 (last year’s event was postponed until this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
“He’s such a great, veteran news person … so comfortable in front of a microphone,” Zyskowski said. “And, you know, I replaced Tom when I first moved to Minnesota. I took his desk (at the then-Catholic Bulletin), and so he had to go get a real job because he had been an intern for — I don’t know — five or six years, I think. He was just always so gracious with his time (in serving as emcee at the luncheon), and just so professional in how he operated — and just a fun, fun human being.”
Most honorees brought to the luncheon family, friends, co-workers and even priests from their parishes, some of whom have been nominators. Vicki Iacarella, a 2019 winner, called her award “clearly the most significant event of my professional career.” She said it “has strengthened my desire to lead with faith and to encourage others to do the same.”
Iacarella, a creative director at Target Corp. in downtown Minneapolis, tries to strike a balance between talking about her faith in the workplace and simply living it, with more of an emphasis on the latter. She said leading with faith is all the more important in today’s culture, where the moral compass can appear to be lost amid the tensions and political divide that have created, in some cases, open hostility and even violence. In Iacarella’s mind, having the annual gathering of like-minded business leaders who acknowledge each other’s efforts to bring faith to their workplace is especially encouraging and can counterbalance the cultural tensions felt by all.
“I think it (Leading with Faith program) helps bring visibility to faith and work, and the connection between faith and work and how important it is, and even more so with what’s been going on in the world,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about that. You can’t separate your faith from your work life. And, I think that happens a lot. We compartmentalize. But, I think this (program) brings visibility to the idea that they are one and the same.”
Now in its 19th year, the Leading with Faith program is preparing for a new chapter. Starting next year, it will transition from the oversight of The Catholic Spirit and will be run by the St. Joseph Guild, whose director, Roger Vasko, received a Leading with Faith Award in 2004. Vasko was part of the largest group of winners the program has seen — 17 (including a set of three brothers nominated together).
One thing that has sustained the program for nearly two decades is awardees’ efforts to nominate others they know who lead with faith. Many have continued to attend the awards luncheons, and some have helped with nominee selection and event planning.
One of them is Linda Harmon, who won the award in 2014, and right away turned around to offer her time and talents to keep the program going. She has sponsored tables at subsequent awards luncheons, served on the selection committee for two years, and coordinated nominations for people in her parish, St. John the Baptist, including one of this year’s winners, Stephanie Waite, an executive assistant at Medtronic. Waite will be the ninth member of St. John the Baptist to receive the award.
“To recognize people who are bringing Christ to the workplace is important for people to see,” said Harmon, a financial adviser who owns and operates her own business. “I’m passionate about it (and) it’s right here on my keyboard. Bev Aplikowski, who was a Leading with Faith winner, gave this to me probably eight or nine years ago. It’s a bookmark. It says: ‘When God gets a grip on our lives, nothing remains untouched.’”
Another winner who continues to give back is Joe Kueppers, who won in 2007 and currently serves on the selection committee. At the time, he was an attorney with his own law practice. Now, he is the chancellor for civil affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“The candidates are getting better and better, just amazing people in the community that are being nominated for the awards,” he said. “And, it’s a tough decision. The committee puts in a lot of time and effort into … determining the winners. So, it’s been an honor to have won it back in 2007 and then work on the nominating (selection) committee in recent years. It’s a great inspiration to me and my faith because these people are so devout, so inspiring as Catholics in the community. We’re really blessed to have these people in our community, and it’s great that we’re honoring them because they certainly deserve some recognition.”
Zyskowski no longer has a hands-on role in Leading with Faith, but he continues to follow the program from his home near Green Bay, Wisconsin, and he stays in touch with those who have been a part of it.
“It’s a great feeling to know that it’s continuing, and it made me remember some of those folks who I interviewed for some of the stories, and some of the speeches that folks gave after they received their awards that were just so touching,” he said. “I still keep in contact with Mary Ann Kuharski (a 2008 winner from Prolife Across America). I still send a check to Prolife Across America because she was one of those really, really great people who we were able to honor. And, that warms my heart.”
He added: “These are people who were doing really good things, and we were able to shine a spotlight on them for at least a little while. And, that makes it all worthwhile.”
