Catherine Mini Hetrick, Bus Ad ’86
Winfield, Ill.
Cathy says she believes everyone has the opportunity to Be The Difference through service to others, 鈥渨hether that means bringing fresh water and medical supplies to rural areas in Africa or cleaning a park in your town.鈥�
Cathy has done both, and much more, during the last two decades of lending her skills and energy to a variety of nonprofit organizations. Her 11-year involvement with the Rotary Club of Wheaton, Ill., has connected Cathy with many of her service pursuits. She has traveled to rural Kenya to promote HIV testing, to Uganda as part of a project to upgrade schools, donate textbooks and provide hospitals and health centers with medical equipment, and to the Dominican Republic to participate in a building project at an orphanage school and to furnish a home at an orphanage.
Much closer to home, Cathy and her fellow Rotarians have partnered with their local park district to create a community playground to accommodate disabled children, raised funds to deploy a small army of food trucks to deliver food to needy families, provided scholarships for college and vocational students, delivered meals to homebound seniors and more.
Her focus at Marquette was academics and cheerleading for the men鈥檚 basketball team; her favorite college memories are of traveling with the team, working with the Marquette Athletics Department and meeting interesting alumni she might not have otherwise met. 鈥淚 even did a public service announcement with Milwaukee Bucks player Bob Lanier,鈥� she recalls.
Cathy has lived out the Marquette mission of excellence, faith, leadership and service in her ministry work on behalf of her church, in leadership positions within her Rotary Club and as a board director for Court Appointed Special Advocates of DuPage County (CASA DuPage), which advocates for children who have been adjudicated as abused and neglected.
The surprising news of her alumni award spurred Cathy to reflect on her service and how supportive her husband, Peter, Sp 鈥�85, has been in her endeavors.
Fun fact: Cathy would love to have dinner with Mother Teresa, 鈥渢he epitome of service.鈥� She narrowly missed Mother Teresa鈥檚 visit to Marquette to accept the P猫re Marquette Discovery Award.
