High school recipients of the 2025 Servant Leadership Award were recognized at the Basilica in Danville for their faith-based witness and service.The Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Danville recently presented their annual Servant Leadership Awards to recognize the ministry/service and the faith-based witness of high school students through the Diocese.
Presented on October 26 at the Basilica of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Servant Leadership Awards were bestowed upon 18 outstanding high school juniors and seniors who are joyful witnesses, compassionate proclaimers and enthusiastic builders of the Kingdom of God. The focus of the award is on teens who remain active in their faith and parish beyond Confirmation, and who actively serve in their parish, school and community.
Receiving the award during the ceremony were: Derek Brink, Natalie Deschane, Catherine Flannery, John Friedenberg, Maggi Gownley, Michael Grandzol, Alanna Grove, Lillian Lynch, Braydon Maddon, Carter Malesic, Madelyn Miller, Marshall Mirarchi, Alexander Murren, Makenzi Pfirman, Francesca Resuta, Bradley Staner, Caleb White and Matthew White.
Over the past 23 years, the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius have honored more than 1,400 teens in the Dioceses of Bridgeport, Charleston, Chicago, Gary, Harrisburg, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Scranton, Syracuse and Trenton with the Servant Leadership Award.
Each teen was given the opportunity to select one person as a mentor who has encouraged them to generously use their time and talents as a follower of Jesus. The mentors included parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, youth ministers, Scout leaders, Sisters and priests. Mentors recognized by the teens have made a difference in their lives by modeling servant leadership as a way of life in their family, parish, and community.
The Sisters also honored six adults with the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award in the Ministries of Evangelization, Education, Elder Care, Justice and Peace, Care for the Elderly, Care for Wounded Families and Care for Creation. Father Jankola was a priest from the Diocese of Scranton who was instrumental in recognizing the need for religious Sisters to educate children and founded the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 1909.
The following 2025 Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Awards were presented:
Recipients of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Awards for 2025 are pictured with Sister Barbara Sable, SS.C.M, General Superior, far right. From left are Joanne Castner, Sister Mary Charlotte Kirst, RGS, accepting for Sister Stella Mangona, RGS, Tiffany Tanner, Margaret Hunter, Joreen Kelly and Sister Carol Ann Terlicher, SS.C.M.Sister Stella Mangona, RGS, received the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Evangelization. Throughout her life of ministry and service, Sister Stella has served as a Program Director at several shelters for battered women, as a marriage and family and individual counselor, and as a counselor for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Her training and degrees as a paralegal, a pastoral counselor and an addiction specialist have enabled her to reach out to others to bring them the Good News which is Jesus, and to bring the gift of hope and healing to those who have endured atrocities disregarding their dignity as a person. There are no bounds to Sister Stella’s enthusiasm and desire to improve the life of the world and each individual she meets.
Joreen Kelly was the recipient of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Education. Kelly has served for over 50 years in parishes in the Diocese of Harrisburg as a music teacher, choir director, organist, pianist and soloist. She has been not only an inspiring teacher but someone who is able to tap talents and empower others to be active participants in the liturgy, school functions and choirs. She has participated in numerous liturgical workshops to continue educating herself and shared that knowledge and the joy of music with others.
Tiffany Tanner was the recipient of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Care for the Elderly. Tanner started her career at Maria Joseph Manor in 2002 in admissions and is now the Community Liaison, serving residents in every level of care. She treats everyone with dignity and kindness, creating an environment where every individual feels valued and heard and offers a warm, welcoming presence to residents and their families and visitors at Maria Joseph Continuum of Care. She is friendly, easy to talk to, and encourages the weariest.
Joanne Castner was the recipient of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Care for Justice and Peace. Castner worked as a school counselor, an individual and family therapist and a hospice volunteer providing help and support to many in a variety of settings. Her work in drug and alcohol abuse and child abuse has made our families and communities safer and healthier places to live and work. Her passion to help those with no voice or no home has more recently brought her to advocate for refugees and immigrants, and she now shares in helping others better understand the worldwide implications of immigration to the United States.
Margaret Hunter was the recipient of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Care for Wounded Families. Hunter has trained countless employees to personally place others – the customers – first at Hunter’s Ice Cream Store. She leads by serving, by making each person feel recognized. Countless customers can recall stories of how she touched their lives through a visit to Hunter’s Ice Cream Store. While many learn about discipleship in the Church pews, she is a perfect example of ministering without ordination or consecration.
Sister Carol Ann Terlicher, SS.C.M. was the recipient of the Father Matthew Jankola Lifetime Servant Leadership Award for Care for Creation. Long before environmental justice was in the news, she has been a promoter of the care and preservation of God’s gifts of creation. She lives a lifestyle that is simpler, healthier and less dependent on material resources, modeling a renewed sense of the sacredness of everyday things we use and too often take for granted. She works to become an agent through which God can protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.
Learn more about the ministry of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius at www.sscm.org.
(Article and photos courtesy of Sister Barbara Sable, SS.C.M., General Superior.)
By Sister Barbara Sable, SS.C.M, Special to The Witness
