Full formation the focus for Ark City’s Sacred Heart

Catholic education is an all-inclusive pursuit, reflects Fr. Sam Brand, pastor at Arkansas City’s Sacred Heart parish and school. “Forming a young person involves incorporating the total person,” he said. “It’s intellectual, physical, moral, and spiritual, so they have that understanding and balance that prepares them to tackle not only the things of the world – their own goals and challenges – but, above all, to serve God.”

According to Fr. Brand, the school – which educates students aged preschool through the fifth grade – is well respected throughout Ark City for turning out students known for academic excellence and strong character. That can prompt some unexpected benefactors. 

“It’s impressive to consider the support the school has received from our parish and beyond,” he said. “We have received amazing gifts from people outside of the parish, including from some who are not Catholic. They believe in the kind of virtues that we want to instill in our students, and they like that we focus and emphasize – first and foremost – being a good servant of God before being a good doctor, lawyer, athlete, farmer, or anything else.”

“When our students finish the fifth grade, most of them go on to public middle school, where they are known for being great people,” said Sacred Heart Principal Kellie Hull. “The way they conduct themselves, study, and engage their new school community shows they are leaders. 

“We don’t try to keep up with the latest educational fads, because that is not our strength,” she adds. “We are trying to form young people to be good, healthy, and joyful servants for their families, neighbors, and God.

Many hats

Hailing from Northeast Kansas, Hull was never a Sacred Heart student, but since her children, Jake, Lindsay, and Erin all attended the school, her connections with it are many: parent, volunteer, PTO president, school secretary, lunch lady, librarian, and teacher. Erin has also taught there.

“I have held nearly every role aside from custodian,” she said, chuckling that her stint as secretary, lunch lady, and librarian combined the three roles.

Her professional experience also included a dozen years away from Sacred Heart, when she taught at Holy Name Catholic School in Winfield. Great as that was, when Hull accepted the principal position at Sacred Heart beginning with the 2024-25 school year, a certain word came to mind. 

“It was a homecoming,” she said. 

She appreciates seeing the same faces in the hallways and classrooms as she sees in the pews at Mass, and not only students. “God has given me a connection to our parents,” Hull said. “I know their questions, how to communicate with them, and how to help them in their parental journeys. I understand the big picture of where they are coming from, and where they are going.”

That Sacred Heart, and the town in which it is located, became her long-term home might have surprised Hull before her family settled there. They had lived in Corpus Christi, Texas; as well as Key West, Florida; and even had a stint overseas in Sigonella, Sicily. When her husband, Tim, retired from the military and pursued a career in the civilian sector that landed their young family in Ark City, at first, she was uncertain. 

“It’s a community of about 12,000 people and I thought, ‘Whoa, this is small,’” Hull said.

But almost immediately, she says, Ark City residents superseded any impressions about the quantity of its people with ones about their quality, especially those at Sacred Heart.

“Interacting with these people, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be home,” she said. “This is where we raised our children. Two of them were born here, they all went to school here. So it is home.”

It is also where Hull became Catholic. She grew up in a family without any formal religious observance and attended public schools, but still lived with an abstract belief in a creator. “I always had a God-shaped hole in my heart and knew he existed,” Hull said. “I yearned to know more.” 

Although many people played small parts to advance her knowledge, she says marrying into a Catholic family – in which she observed the devotion of her parents-in-law and began attending Sunday Mass – seemed to clarify her spiritual home, which she officially joined in 2001. 

“I always went to Mass and knew I was still missing something important,” she said. “God always seemed to be telling me, ‘You know this is what you’re supposed to do.’ I would see things in the bulletin about RCIA, and say, ‘No, I don’t think so. I’m too busy.’ But I continued to hear his gentle voice and feel his hand on my shoulder. Finally, one day I said, ‘Okay,’ and called the church office.

“I sit in those pews of our beautiful church, look at those stained glass windows with the names of parishioners beneath them and just feel the presence of generations of the good people who worshiped there,” she added. “There’s that sense of history, foundation, and welcome. Almost immediately, we felt we belonged. We have been all over the world, but this felt like home very quickly, and it became our central place.”

Joyful service

That Sacred Heart is a central place for many of its 390 families is apparent by the extent to which they invest themselves in the parish and school, Fr. Brand reflects. “There is a generous spirit that makes present the Kingdom of God,” he said. “We see God working through people in many ways.”

“I cannot say enough about the families that choose to be part of our greater Sacred Heart family,” Hull said. “The energy and joyful service are very apparent: They’re doing fundraisers, helping with the book fair, revamping the library, cooking pancakes, building a fence for the playground, and volunteering in so many beautiful ways that can go unnoticed – but which build the culture that we want.”

That culture also serves as leaven in Ark City, they note, pointing to the parish’s prominent role in major community events such as the local Arkalalah Festival in Ocotober. Sacred Heart holds to a tradition of constructing a prominent – often prizewinning – float for that event’s parade. Then, November brings Sacred Heart’s annual turkey dinner. 

“It was the first thing I heard about when I got here,” Hull said.

Volunteers cook more than 2,000 meals with turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving standards in their homes and bring them to the Sacred Heart gym, which overflows with people from the area. 

“It’s part of that history for which we are known,” Fr. Brand said.

The following month features the parish’s Dec. 12 celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “This year, we had a re-enactment of Our Lady and St. Juan Diego, followed by dancers in beautiful costumes, as well as special pastries and hot chocolate,” Hull said. “Our greater school family had a great big party.”

Hull and Fr. Brand note that the parish’s Guadalupe celebration has figured prominently for a couple of decades as the parish and school’s Hispanic population has grown. It is one more example of how Sacred Heart seeks to foster a sense of belonging. “Compared with some, I have only been here a little while, but I feel a little spark, and see everyone moving and working in the same direction for the betterment and longevity of our school,” she said. “It’s about the growth of our children, and so that they feel loved and valued, and their parents feel that this is a good and safe place. It’s exciting to be part of that.”

“I have the greatest job in the world,” Fr. Brand concludes. “I get to serve God in absolutely everything I do. My favorite part may be seeing a child’s eyes widen when I respond to their questions about God, Jesus, and the Church. Realizing they’re hearing some of these things for the first time – what a rush.”