The John Warman Youth Leadership Award, named for the long-time Music Director of the Parish recognizes high school students who demonstrate leadership by sharing their gifts with the parish community.

This year’s award is given to Lou Costantino, who has served Our Lady of Victory as an altar server and school choir member, sharing his musical talent by playing the piano with our Music Director, Denny Layendecker, at the 10:30 Mass. He even composes his own songs! He has done a lot of Community service, too, helping to feed the homeless at N Street Village and working as a counselor-in-training at Camp St. Charles. Thank you, Lou!

The Sandy Cahill Award for Untiring Service is named for a long-time Parishioner who brought Communion to the sick and homebound of our Parish and to patients at Sibley and Georgetown hospitals for over 40 years until she was well into her 90s.

It’s appropriate that the first Sandy Cahill award should go to Joe O’Leary, a
man who has also brought Communion to the sick at Sibley hospital and worked tirelessly each and every Monday afternoon beginning 45 years ago, counting and depositing the parish’s weekly collections. This continuing commitment was in addition to serving for 11 years as the Chair of the Parish finance committee. Joe, this is well-deserved. Thank you for your years of service!

The Pastor’s Award is given to a person or persons who, in the judgment of the Pastor, have assisted the Parish in an exceptional and exemplary manner.

This year, we have three recipients:

To Vincent Browning, who saved the day on several occasions with his responsiveness and generosity in fixing the Parish HVAC and hot water systems. For years, the priests in the rectory were freezing in winter and melting in summer until Vincent lent his company’s expertise to resolve the HVAC problem. In addition, he somehow silenced the loud noises coming from the HVAC system, quieting the vocal unhappiness of our neighbors. Thank you, Vincent.

To Brian and Michelle Vassallo, who are members of the School community but live too far away to be Parishioners. Nonetheless, after providing their design and architectural services to our efforts to modernize the Parish infrastructure, they donated their project management expertise on the Rectory renovations, even to the point of twice arriving at the construction site in the back of the Rectory when disaster struck—when the construction company hit our gas line, then several days later, just for good measure, they hit the water line. Michelle and Brian, thank you for all you’ve done—and do—for your “other” Parish.

The Father Yingling Award for Parish Leadership, named for the first pastor of our parish, is a special award given this year to two parishioners who have demonstrated exceptional leadership of the Parish—leadership critical to bringing Our Lady of Victory Parish through the past two years. Today we have two recipients of this award.

The first recipient is Sheila Martinez, honored today for her work as the
unofficial acting administrator of our Parish for several months and as Advisor-in-Chief to Fr. Andy, our Pastor, when he first arrived—extra duties she assumed at the same time that she was leading our wonderful, award-winning school through the challenges posed by the pandemic. Thank you, Sheila!

The second recipient is Dan Kerns, recognized today for restarting the lay
leadership in the Parish, ensuring that the Parish’s needs were well-understood by those selecting the new pastor, and then organizing the Advisory Parish Council so that it was ready to assist Fr. Andy upon his arrival, in July 2021. Dan has been an enormous help to Fr. Andy from Day 1. Thank you, Dan!