Leaha McCrite and Ken Johnson will be honored at St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities gala on April 16

By Natalie Hoefer

Each spring, St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities (SECC) of New Albany hosts the Giving Hope-Changing Lives gala, the organization’s largest fundraising event.

Registration for this year’s gala, which will be held on the evening of April 16 at The Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky., ends on March 31. Through talks and testimonials, the event celebrates the organization’s achievements in helping serve mothers and children in need.

It also includes a live auction. Among this year’s items are several vacation packages, including a week’s stay at a cabin in Maggie Valley, N.C., and one week’s stay at the Sandy Curls Cottage in Blue Mountain Beach, Fla. Other items include a guitar autographed by Dolly Parton, a jewelry piece from Koerber’s Jewelry, and more.

An online, pre-gala auction will open for bidding at 8 a.m. on March 31 at one.bidpal.net/stegala2026.

The gala also provides an opportunity to present the organization’s highest honor: the Spirit of Hope Award. This year’s recipients are Leaha McCrite and Ken Johnson.

“Both have been valued members of the St. Elizabeth Advisory Council for 16 years,” says SECC agency director Mark Casper.

“Not only was St. Elizabeth blessed to have Leaha as part of our Leadership Team, she made the agency better and her impact will be felt for years.”

Casper lauds Johnson for his 14 years on the council’s Executive Committee, “including two terms as chair for a record five years. Ken has a leadership style that is supportive at all times.”

Below, McCrite and Johnson reflect on the time serving on the Advisory Council and share their thoughts on the good works of St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities.

‘I was all in’

McCrite has always felt strongly about serving the local community. It’s a value she attributes to her late father.

“My dad was a significant supporter of New Albany and Floyd County,” she says. “He was on the Floyd County Council for years and years. He taught me that serving one’s community is a responsibility we should all do, that the community needs support. It needs people to be engaged in helping.”

So, while raising her and her husband Pat’s three children and working for McCrite Milling & Construction Company, Inc., which the couple started in 1997, she found time to volunteer, including helping the SECC Advisory Council’s Events Committee.

Fast forward to 2010. McCrite was transitioning off the pastoral council of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in New Albany and still helping with SECC events when she was invited to join the Advisory Council. She said yes—and has continued that yes for 16 years.

“St. Elizabeth’s just checked every box I was into serving,” says McCrite. “I think they’re an absolute necessity in this community—they do so many things.

“Once I got in and realized what’s going on in our community, how they help and what their mission means to this community, I was all in. And I stayed because I love it.”

Her biggest contribution on the council has been chairing the Events Committee, which organizes SECC’s two main fundraising events each year—the gala in the spring and a reverse raffle in the fall.

“If you have ever been to a St. Elizabeth’s event and you sense the style and attention to detail, you have just experienced the ‘Leaha McCrite effect,’ ” says Casper. “As our Events Committee chair, she is super creative and resourceful in pulling the literally hundreds of details together.”

Both events have “grown so much” in the last 16 years, “and I’m real proud of that,” McCrite says.

Casper agrees, noting that, “For the last several years, St. Elizabeth has set records for funds raised for both our gala and reverse raffle.”

While McCrite believes in the duty of service, Casper notes that she “brings not only a very caring heart, but a passion for helping those in need.”

A story she shares encapsulates Casper’s sentiment. It involves a witness talk given at the annual gala many years ago by a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer back when SECC coordinated the association’s program for Floyd and Washington counties.

“The speaker was talking about a little girl they were driving to her next foster home,” McCrite recalls. “She asked the CASA helper, ‘Will they have food there?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll support this forever.’ ”

Her “forever” support won’t necessarily include serving on the advisory council. Her fourth four-year term is ending soon, and she considers what she might do with her time if she transitions off the council.

“I will definitely go watch my grandbabies play ball,” she says of her seven grandchildren, all of whom live nearby.

She would also devote more time to caring for her 93-year-old mother. And as she and Pat approach their 46th wedding anniversary in April, she admits she would like to spend time traveling with him.

McCrite’s plans would keep her busy—but such is her norm.

“Mom always says I’m not happy unless my hair is on fire,” she admits. “My dad was like that, so the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

She says her 16 years serving on the Advisory Council have given her “hope, pleasure and joy to see that we’re helping these people.”

As for receiving the Spirit of Hope Award, McCrite is honored. But she sees Casper and the staff of St. Elizabeth Catholic Charities as “the real ‘Spirits of Hope.’

“They work tirelessly and graciously day in and day out. Their commitment and empathy are just above and beyond.”

A ‘small piece in something much greater’

When Ken Johnson was invited to serve on SECC’s advisory council in 2010, he decided to do some research. What he learned led to an enthusiastic “yes.”

“What’s impressed me going forward is how the organization evolved based on the needs of the community,” he says. “As the needs of mothers change, our services meet that [need]. When Marie’s Blessings [distribution program] needed a home, we stepped up. When demographics changed and our schools needed counseling for students, we stepped up to provide counselors.”

Casper credits Johnson with playing a pivotal role in SECC receiving accreditation from the Council of Accreditation as a social services agency.

“The first year we applied [in 2012], we achieved accreditation, and they had nothing but great things to say,” says Johnson.

The status is good for four years. With Johnson’s help, SECC has continued to receive accreditation each time it sought renewal.

“It’s not a rubber stamp,” he notes. “It’s a phenomenal amount of work. But accreditation shows how good we are at what we do.”

As part of the initial application process in 2012, Johnson became the first chair of the Advisory Council’s new Performance Quality Improvement (PQI) Committee.

“It’s something unique to [SECC],” he says. “The goal is not to find what you’re good at, but what you can improve on.”

For each of the agency’s eight programs, metrics are determined “based on best standards across states in other organizations and looking at state and federal requirements,” Johnson explains.

Each committee member is assigned a program to monitor PQI action steps based on the metrics.

The process “makes sure we provide the best opportunities for staff to do their job as well as best outcomes for clients,” says Johnson. “And by tracking how many we served and rating their satisfaction, it gives us good demographics and information when we apply for grants, so they know they’re not just funding a budget but a program that has a good outcome.”

Casper calls Johnson’s role with accreditation and PQI “crucial.” He says the retiree’s 30-plus years in hospital administration and 22 years in the U.S. Army Reserves provided “great operational and leadership experience at a time when St. Elizabeth was experiencing great growth.”

Casper adds that, while “Ken’s process-oriented leadership remains key to our success to this day, he always remained the staff’s biggest cheerleader.”

After 16 years, Johnson is retiring from SECC’s Advisory Council this year. His plans for his free time are simple: “Mostly just loaf and read,” he says with a chuckle.

He also plans to continue serving at the Kentucky Center for the Arts as an usher with Jean, his wife of 43 years.

“We’ve been doing that for about 10 years,” says Johnson. “We’ve seen Broadway shows, operas, ballets—we recently saw ‘Sawn Lake.’ It’s a lot of fun.”

He and Jean also enjoy spending time with family. Two of their three adult children and three of their five grandchildren live close by, and they travel “about every three months” to Atlanta to visit their third child’s family.

When Johnson considers receiving the Spirit of Hope Award, his thoughts turn to the past.

“As a council member once told me, we all stand on the shoulders of those who come before us, and I think that’s pretty apropos for this group,” he says. “I have known most of the Spirit of Hope winners, and they are fantastic. I can’t say enough good about them.”

Reflecting on his years serving on SECC’s advisory council, Johnson says it’s a blessing to think “I made some small difference either in the situation or lives of those we serve.

“I’m not a direct care provider, but if I can provide just a little support, it makes me feel successful in helping the organization. I’m one small piece in something much greater.”
 

(The Giving Hope-Changing Lives Gala will be held on April 16 at the Galt House Hotel, 140 N. Fourth St., in Louisville, Ky. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner, presentations and a live auction at 7 p.m. Registration to attend is required by March 31. To register, call 812-949-7305 or email info@stecharities.org. An online, pre-gala auction will open for bidding on March 31 at bidpal.net/stegala2026.) †