The Saint Benedict Education Foundation hosted its eighth annual Celebrate Spring Dinner on April 6 at Rizzo’s Banquet Hall in Crabtree.

For those gathered, though, there was much more to celebrate than just sunshine, flowers and balmy breezes.

Foundation president Father Benoit Allogia said that, in the past year, the foundation based at Saint Vincent College in Unity raised close to $200,000 in scholarship funds for monks and nuns from around the globe studying at Sant’ Anselmo, the international Benedictine university in Rome.

Funds come from the dinner and the annual Sunset at the Barn summer evening at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve in Unity, along with other events and private donations.

Orlie Ferretti of Greensburg was presented with the Saint Benedict Foundation Medal, given annually to a supporter in recognition of their dedication to the foundation’s mission.

Foundation board chairman Harry Haslam and his wife, Kimi Haslam, traveled from their home in Bluffton, S.C., for the event.

Carmen Eisaman was in charge of planning.

Seen: Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, Brother Norman Hipps, Monsignor Bill Rathgeb, Carl Eisaman, Richard and Joanna Stillwagon, Terry Graft and Linda Brown, Nat and Melanie Pantalone, Mike and Karen Stewart and special guest and principal celebrant and homilist for Mass preceding dinner Abbot Primate Gregory Polan of the Benedictine Confederation.

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