CHARITY AND DEVELOPMENT APPEAL 2010

Andrew Junker/CATHOLIC SUN

Julie and Patrick Nackard, the 2010 CDA co-chairs, say they want more Catholics to know how important it is to participate in the annual appeal.

New co-chairs hope to increase CDA awareness among families

Julie Nackard has always had a passion for volunteer work.

As a student at Northern Arizona University, her desire to help those stricken by a devastating disease led her to organize a dance marathon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the school.

In her quest to acquire soft drinks for the 1977 MDA event, she contacted the Nackard Company, a wholesale beverage distributor in Flagstaff.

Patrick, who worked for his father’s company, was sent to deliver the product to the campus.

Patrick took one look at Julie and asked her out on the spot. The rest, as they say, is history. The couple married in 1982 and have two college-age children of their own now. Their children — Palmer, 21, and Monzie, 19 — are both studying at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted chose the Nackards to be co-chairs of the 2010 Charity and Development Appeal because of their devotion to Catholic education and their ties to many parishes in the diocese.

“They have a great knowledge of the whole diocese, especially our rural areas, because of their business and because of their great relationship with so many of our priests around the diocese,” Bishop Olmsted said at a Jan. 15 luncheon at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.

“They’re aware of what a lot of people feel in small parishes because of their business in rural areas, so I think they will support them through the CDA and encourage them to support our entire community,” Bishop Olmsted said.

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Since its launching in 1970, the CDA has been the major fundraiser for the Diocese of Phoenix, supporting the work of more than 70 charitable organizations that feed, house, clothe, counsel and give comfort to the poor. Funds collected in the appeal also support seminarians as well as Catholic schools.

In 2009, a year beset by economic woes, the CDA still managed to raise over $9.2 million, falling just 4.7 percent from the previous year.

Patrick said he and his wife hope to increase awareness of the critically important work that the CDA does. They’d also like to increase the number of people who give to the annual appeal.

“Only about a third of families gave last year,” Patrick said. “We need the other two-thirds.” The couple’s goal, he said, is not to get people to give more — it’s to get more people to give.

“When we did see the actual numbers — it’s a 30 percent giving level — we were shocked,” Julie said. “That seems so little. So Patrick’s idea was to get more givers.”

In order to do that, the Nackards said, it’s going to take a grassroots campaign, educating others about the crucial work of the CDA.

“I spoke with one mom who gives to a children’s hospital, but not the CDA. She didn’t really understand what the CDA was,” Julie said.

“This is the one campaign that funds social service ministries, parishes, schools and seminarians throughout the entire diocese,” Patrick said.

“If you give to one thing, it should be the CDA because that’s going to help people throughout the diocese,” Julie added.

The Nackard family has many connections around the diocese, not just because of their myriad business contacts, but also due to the fact that they maintain homes in both Phoenix and Flagstaff.

Their beverage business is based in Flagstaff where they are parishioners at San Francisco de Asís Parish. Both Palmer and Monzie attended the nearby Catholic school, and the couple were determined that they should attend Catholic high schools as well.

That’s when they decided Julie would establish a second home for the family near Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix. On the advice of friends, the Nackards decided it was best that Monzie, then a fifth-grader, and Palmer, a seventh-grader, made friends with classmates who would join them in Catholic high school.

Palmer went on to attend Brophy College Preparatory, graduating in 2007. He’s just finished a semester abroad in Bonn, Germany, and is now studying business at Loyola Marymont University. Monzie graduated from Xavier College Preparatory in 2009 and has joined her brother at LMU where she’s studying studio art.

Both Patrick and Julie are members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Julie, who became a Catholic in 1990, has worked in the RCIA program and as a volunteer at her children’s schools.

Patrick is a third-generation Arizonan who was born in Williams, attended a Catholic military school in California, and was later a boarding student at Brophy. He said he cherishes his Catholic faith.

“It’s a foundation of how you live your life,” Patrick said. “It’s a refuge. When all else fails, the Church is always there.”