Meet Members from the Communications Committee
Jim and Kim Haiar
Jim and Kim are both members of the Communications Committee. Kim is also a core chair for the Door to Door Campaign, Welcome Committee, Church Directory Committee and Social Justice Committee. The Haiar family has been members of St. Katharine Drexel Parish since its inception. Kim states, “We like being involved in the process of getting our new church up and running. It’s such a great opportunity to get to know others in the church and have a hand in building. We want to help create that sense of community within the church.”
When not volunteering for the church, Kim is a field representative with the Catholic Aid Association, selling life insurance and annuities. Jim is a Captain of the Sioux Falls Fire Department. Jim and Kim have 2 sons. Eric, 16, is a junior at O’Gorman High School. He plays bass guitar for St. Katharine Drexel Parish’s Well Known Stranger. He enjoys singing in O’Gorman’s Concert Choir and Ovation! and participating in school plays. Eric is completing his Eagle Scout project that benefits the St. Francis House on May 12th. Dan, 14, is an 8th grader at O’Gorman Junior High. He plays guitar and also enjoys singing in O’Gorman’s Choirs. His passion is wrestling, where he has been on the JV team for 2 years and is looking forward to trying out for the varsity team in high school.
Jim and Kim enjoy being involved in their children’s and community activities. Kim is currently the president of the O’Gorman Choir Boosters and the Sioux Falls Firefighters Auxiliary. She is also the President-elect for the NAIW Insurance Professionals of the Greater Sioux Falls and the Secretary/Treasurer for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors-Sioux Falls. Jim enjoys hunting with family and friends. In their spare time, they enjoy camping and riding motorcycle.
Jessie De Giorgio
Jessie De Giorgio is on the Communications Committee for St. Katharine Drexel Parish. She is in charge of the Communications Committee’s tri-fold at church, official photographer for events, and our historian. Jessie also stays busy being a lector, sacristan, greeter, gift bearer, and baker. Jessie is a Catholic Daughter with Mother Teresa Court for St. Michael-St. Katharine Drexel.
Jessie was a member of St. Michael Parish and has been a member of St. Katharine Drexel since its inception. Jessie states, “I love being involved and have found the parish to be a family environment and I get great pleasure out of being helpful. I like doing things at all times, so I love that we are asked to volunteer.”
When not volunteering for our parish, Jessie works for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network – The Lowrey Agency in Sioux Falls. Jessie is the Director of Client Relations, Senior Tech Coordinator, and Facilities Manager for the agency. She has worked there for 4 1⁄2 years.
Jessie moved here from northern New Jersey 5 years ago and invited her sister Catherine to live with her and now they are near their eldest sister Elvira and family. She was born in the Bronx, loves the Yankees, seafood, crunchy Italian bread, mountains, and the ocean. Jessie states, “Why am I here?” All joking aside, Jessie is passionate about gardening in her large garden. Jessie’s garden was on the Sioux Falls Garden Tour last year and she has registered to become a master gardener in 2007. She loves to cook, decorate, write, paint and take care of her miniature Dachshund, Vienna Rose who is 12 years old.
Regina Cobb
Regina Cobb is a member of the Communications Committee for St. Katharine Drexel. She also serves as a RCIA team member (she has been an RCIA sponsor for 4 years), a Eucharistic Minister, a Collection Counter and baker. Regina attends Mass daily, Apologetics class on Thursday mornings, and is discerning whether she should join the Third Order Carmelites at Broomtree. She and her family have been members of St. Katharine Drexel Parish since it started. Regina states, “I enjoy volunteering and knowing that I can make a difference even if it is limited. It gives me an uplifting in my soul serving both the committees and in the church.”
Regina is married to Richard who is currently a realtor with Home Team Real Estate. Richard also has a Property Management License. Richard retired last September from the US Navy after 20 years of service in various positions. The family moved here in 1999, after moving 9 times in the military. Regina and Richard have one son, Richard. He is in the 8th grade at O’Gorman Junior High and will be a freshman in high school next fall. He likes the atmosphere of religion in school. He helps in the nursery, is an usher, and also a Boy Scout.
Regina does not work outside the home since she has Multiple Sclerosis and other medical conditions. In Regina’s spare time she loves to read. She enjoys taking care of her family, their home, and pets. The family has 2 cats, 2 bearded dragons, a Dutch rabbit, and a Labrador retriever. Regina also enjoys going to lunch with a good friend a few times a month. Regina closes by stating, “I have met a lot of friends and acquaintances here at church and we are ecstatic about being able to freely be Catholic and have our son in the Sioux Falls Catholic School System.”
Teri Kattke
Meet Teri Kattke, who volunteered for the St. Katharine Drexel Parish Communications Committee so she “could get involved with people and activities at St. Katharine Drexel Parish. I felt this committee would be an opportunity to do something different – maybe get me out of my comfort zone a little!”
Teri is from Ramona, South Dakota. She taught math in Chamberlain for a year before moving to Sioux Falls twenty years ago. Teri works for Precision Computer Systems here in Sioux Falls, where she’s a Computer Programmer.
In her free time, Teri enjoys golfing, reading, working out, and movies. She also volunteered many of her spare hours during the month of May for the St. Katharine Drexel Parish Door-to-Door Evangelization Campaign, extending an invitation to families within our parish boundaries to come worship with us.
For Teri, being a member of St. Katharine Drexel Parish “means being a part of a small but growing and friendly community – where it is easy and enjoyable to become involved with many activities. You can get to know the other members of the parish much more easily than in a larger parish.”
Donna Cannon
Donna Cannon just had to land on St. Katharine Drexel Parish’s Communications Committee: She’s worked in the Communications Office of the Diocese of Sioux Falls for the past fifteen years! In fact, one of Donna’s major ministries is producing the weekly TV Mass. She also works on The Bishop’s Bulletin. And FYI – Donna is a good person to get to know: she’ll be one of the first to hear when we have a new bishop!
Building a new church is a family affair at the Cannon home. Donna’s husband Jim is on the St. Katharine Drexel Parish Construction Committee. Like Donna, his committee work is a perfect fit: he’s worked as a plumber for Frisbee’s Plumbing and Heating for over thirty years. Donna and Jim visited families within our parish boundaries on the Door-to-Door Evangelization Campaign last month, “spreading the good news” and “meeting even more fellow parishioners and prospective parishioners.” They also worked on set-up and clean-up for the First Annual St. Katharine Drexel Feast Day Celebration in March.
Donna and Jim Cannon have been married for thirty-one years. In their spare time they enjoy vegetable gardening and getting together with friends. They also enjoy spending time with their two children, Patrick and Tina, and one granddaughter, Caryn. Donna and Jim have been actively involved in the Cursillo community on local and regional levels for over twenty years. Donna also is a cantor at Mass and is a member of another St. Katharine Drexel Parish Worship Space Committee. Donna is one busy lady, but as she says, “the wonderful thing is I’m meeting some great people I’d otherwise not have had the opportunity to meet.”
Donna and Jim were charter members of St. Michael Parish. When the boundaries were drawn for a new parish, they “prayerfully discerned their changing to St. Katharine Drexel Parish” and are “excited to be part of this new, youthful parish.”
Jim and Susie Lammers
I asked Susie Lammers why she volunteered for the St. Katharine Drexel Parish Communications Committee: “Truthfully, I didn’t know I had volunteered for that committee, but when Kathy Anderson called for the first meeting, I couldn’t say no. What a blessing! I’ve really enjoyed the people and activities organized by the committee, and feel like it has really been a success.”
Susie has worked as an X-ray Technologist at Avera McKennan Hospital for the past thirteen years. Her husband Jim is a residential real estate appraiser. But farming is in their blood: Susie has a degree in Animal Science and worked on the family farm with the livestock/feedlot; Jim has a Master’s degree in Agronomy and farmed for eighteen years. And they’ve always lived out near the family farm.
Susie and Jim have two daughters, Jenn and Jess, and a yellow lab named Annie. Both Jenn and Jess just finished their first year of college, Jenn in Mankato, Minnesota, and Jess in Omaha, Nebraska. Both girls are studying nursing.
Susie and Jim love the outdoors and look forward to spending time together on walks, bike riding, hunting, and gardening. When their girls were at home, they also loved cheering them on at all their sports activities.
Both Susie and Jim were volunteers in the Door-to-Door Evangelization Campaign last month, and Susie was one of the organizers of the First Annual St. Katharine Drexel Feast Day celebration in March. For Susie and Jim, “getting to know more people by being involved has made St. Katharine Drexel Parish feel more like a warm and friendly faith family. We have such wonderful people here at St. Katharine Drexel, it makes us proud to say we’re part of the parish.”
