March 16, 2020

Dear St. Luke Catholic School Family,

With the closure of St. Luke Catholic school through Friday, April 3, 2020 and the Archdiocese of San Antonio postponing events for the next 45 days, we are postponing this year’s St. Luke Scholar Gala scheduled for Saturday, March 21, 2020. Your health and the safety of our entire St. Luke community is of utmost importance to us.

The committee will work with the Witte Museum to select an appropriate date in the future. Once we determine a date, we will let everyone know in advance. If you bought a table or individual tickets, we will still honor those purchases.

On behalf of the St. Luke Gala committee and St. Luke Catholic School, we thank you for your support.

If you have any questions, please let us know.
Thank you,
The 2020 Gala Committee
 

Join us for an elegant sit-down dinner, cocktails and dancing. All proceeds will benefit the St. Luke Catholic School Fr. Jim Barlow Scholarship Fund.
Individual Ticket Sales: $150.00 per person
Cocktails and Hors d'oeuvres 7:00 to 7:30 pm
Dinner, Awards Presentations and Live Music by Mix Tape 7:30 to 11:00 pm
Black Tie Optional

St. Luke Families:. Click to learn more.

Click for the 2020 Gala  Announcement Letter.

Click for the 2020 Gala Sponsorship Fact Sheet.

Click for the 2020 Gala Sponsorship/Individual Ticket Form.

Puchase tickets online or in the school office (skip the service fee!).

Thank you to our current sponsors and underwriters!

 Emerald Sponsors ($5,000)
Riojas Family

Pearl Sponsors ($2,300)
Community Family Medicine, PA
Cover Family
Chick-fil-A Bandera Rd.
Class of '80-Garcia
Gonzalez Family

Founders Table ($1,959)
Acosta Family on behalf of St. Luke Catholic School Faculty and Staff
Blankenship/Fuentez/Lozano/Neff/Tamez Families
Bowen/Macias/Ramirez Families
Bruce Family
Covey/Diaz/Garza/Valencia/Vidalez Families
Martinez Family
Saenz Family
St. Luke Catholic Church
St. Luke Catholic School

Underwriters
Busted Sandal Brewing Company
Malouff International Group and Keller Williams Heritage

Deacon Richard Gonzalez is the owner/operator of a Chick-fil-A franchise located at Bandera and 1604. 
He started working at Chick-fil-A at the age of 15 and became an owner at the age of 21.  It has been his first and only job. 
 
He and his wife Nora have been married for 31 years and have two beautiful children, Amanda and Andrew, who both graduated from St. Luke Catholic School.  Amanda continued on to Incarnate Word High School and then earned her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from UTSA.  She is now a 1^st grade teacher.  Andrew attended Central Catholic High School and attained his bachelor’s degree at St. Edwards University in Austin.  He now works for Wells Fargo Bank and is also head coach of the lacrosse team at Central Catholic.  Catholic education has been pivotal in his children’s success and Deacon Richard is a firm believer in the foundation that it provides for life.
 
Deacon Richard was ordained 5 years ago and is proud to serve the St. Luke community.  He was the first recipient from St. Luke of the Lumen Gentium Award from the Archdiocese of San Antonio.  The award is bestowed upon Catholic lay people from each parish who have demonstrated participation in the Church’s mission to bring Christ’s light to all. 
 
He was the chairman of the capital campaign that raised money to remodel the church and build our new gym.  He was also the liaison representing the church and school that oversaw construction.  Deacon Richard served as president of the C.Y.O. and was a founding member of The Men of Service.  He has been a director of an ACTS retreat, as well as serving on the parish’s ACTS Core Team.  It brings him much joy to support the school community, providing Chick-fil-A sandwiches to students for over 15 years and, as a deacon, delivering many homilies at school masses. 
 
The mission of a deacon is to serve those in need.  Deacon Richard carries out this mission in his ongoing service to St. Luke and his community.

Dr. Paul Saenz, a native of San Antonio, is the proud and grateful product of Catholic education.  It began at St. Mary Magdalen Grade School, continued to be fostered at Central Catholic High School and culminated with his matriculation and graduation from St. Mary’s University.  Dr. Saenz’ wife Becky also attended Catholic grade school and high school, so in anticipation of raising their three sons in the Catholic tradition they became members of St. Luke parish in 1992. During the course of their sons’ school years they would become very active parents. Dr. Saenz served as a coach for CYO sports and spearheaded a project that would improve the playgrounds and athletic fields. Later he would become strongly involved with the St. Luke Men’s ACTS community. Always maintaining a strong belief in the value and merits of Catholic education, Dr. Saenz and his wife served as the Chairpersons for the 2014 Khaki and Plaid Gala, an event that would raise over a half million dollars directed toward grade schools and high schools of the San Antonio archdiocese.  In recognition of his long standing dedication and efforts Dr. Saenz was recognized as the 2010 San Antonio Archdiocese Hall of Fame recipient.

Dr. Saenz remains committed and involved with his beloved alma maters Central Catholic High School and St. Mary’s University. At Central he served as Team Physician for 25 years and was a member of the School’s Board of Directors and Alumni Association.  At St. Mary’s he has been a long standing member of the Advisory Board for the School of Science, Engineering and Technology and is the Head Team Physician for Rattler Athletics. Dr. Saenz is the proud recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from each of these institutions. In 2015 he was enshrined into the National Hispanic Heritage Hall of Fame in recognition of outstanding achievements in the areas of education and athletics. Most recently Dr. Saenz received the 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, his former medical school, in recognition of his contributions and dedicated service to the Osteopathic profession. He stays formally involved in the education of future physicians and currently holds academic positions and appointments at several medical schools in the State of Texas.

Dr. Saenz is extremely proud of his appointment to the medical staff of the 1996 Olympic Games and serving as National Team Physician for the 2004 Olympic Pentathlon and 2012 USA Olympic Men’s Basketball Gold Medal winning team.  His “dream of a lifetime “opportunity occurred in 1998 when he became team physician for his hometown San Antonio Spurs. For 22 seasons Dr. Saenz has been an integral part of the team’s medical staff and their five NBA Championships.

Dr. and Mrs. Saenz consider themselves so fortunate and blessed with the successes of their sons Nicholas, Stephen and Jeff and are overjoyed with the recent arrival of their first grandchild.
 

Francis X. Galan, St. Luke’s Class of 1982, is currently an Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where he teaches courses in the history of Texas, Mexico, and Latin America, having previously been at UTSA and Our Lady of the Lake University. He received his Ph.D. in history from Southern Methodist University in 2006 after obtaining his M.A. in history at UTSA and B.A. in Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. He is also a graduate of Central Catholic High School (Class of 1986). Dr. Galan has published ten scholarly works on the history of early Texas and late colonial Mexico. His book, titled Los Adaes: The First Capital of Spanish Texas, will be published by Texas A&M University Press in Spring 2020. He is also Faculty Advisor of the History Club for which he has taken students to history conferences, visited historic sites, and joined in various projects serving the San Antonio community. He also has given many public talks for multiple historical and genealogical organizations in the area. Dr. Galan is married to Dr. Emma L. Mata-Galan and they have two children, Nicolas (St. Luke, Class of 2016) and Madison (current St. Luke, Class of 2020). He and his family have been St. Luke’s parishioners since the early 1970s and his four brothers all graduated from St. Luke (1977, 1979, 1983, & 1986) as well as a nephew (2001).


Rosa Ana Riojas, St. Luke Class of 1984, is currently an RN at Methodist Children’s Hospital in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. After attending Incarnate Word High School, Riojas obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Incarnate Word College. She has been employed at several children’s hospitals throughout her career, but has been with Methodist Children’s Hospital for 15 years. She has been recognized for her leadership in nursing with multiple awards, including the 2014 Clinical Excellence Award and several Daisy Awards, an award celebrating extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care in nursing. Riojas volunteers on professional committees, leads her unit as a charge RN and has trained many new nurses in her unit.

In her spare time, Riojas has volunteered for several medical mission trips, including two trips to Nigeria with Hospitals for Humanity to care for children recovering from cardiac surgery. In 2015, she traveled to Nepal to teach nurses about pediatric post-operative heart surgery recovery. Throughout her career, she has traveled multiple times to Oaxaca, Mexico with Los Quijotes, a volunteer organization of health care workers serving communities in need. She is planning additional service trips in the future.

Riojas has two children who received a Catholic education at Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus Christi, TX, and then at St. Gregory’s Catholic school in San Antonio. Her daughter, Maritza, Incarnate Word High School Class of 2012, received her nursing degree from Baptist School of Nursing in December 2019. Her son, Nickolaus, Central Catholic Class of 2015, attends Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi, TX.

Riojas is currently a parishioner at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. Her parents have been active parishioners at St. Luke and supporters of the school community for over 40 years. Her four brothers also attended St. Luke Catholic School (1982,1983, 1987,1990).