Dear Eastside Catholic Community Members,

Stories are important. Since the beginning of time, stories have been central to relationships. Stories help us interpret and remember events. We engage each other with stories.

Storytelling is more than recounting our experiences or facts. Culture, ambition, goals and lessons are all part of what make stories so compelling. They resonate because we see ourselves in a story or, more importantly, who we’d like to be. Stories reflect the universal truths about us and our world and help shape our perspective or let others understand who we are and who we want to be.

With this in mind, I want to share a story with you about something that happened this last year at EC. In Spring 2022, a visitor found a Notre Dame University class ring on our campus. We reached out to our community and waited to see if anyone would claim it. No one did.

Our story could end there, but it doesn’t. Kay Nichols, our talented chief financial officer, remembered that Sally Sonnen (one of the friendly faces in our Attendance Office) had a daughter who attended Notre Dame and Sally’s husband Mitch is also an alum. Sally’s daughter turned over the information to her father.

Mitch posted the information on a Notre Dame networking site and the ring was eventually reunited with its owner. The ring owner’s father passed away in January and she had only worn it a couple of times before misplacing it, making the reunification even more special. It had been a tough year for the family with the loss of a sister as well, so recovering the ring was a true blessing for this individual.

As I think of this story, it reminds me of how small actions can create extraordinary blessings. How taking the time and effort to do something kind, even if it’s out of your way, can have an impact.

As we begin 2023, I hope this serves as an inspiration for the impact we all hope to have in the world. In this magazine, we share stories about our teachers, alumni and programs and the impact each has on making EC, and the world, a better place. These stories both bind us together and inspire us in our daily lives.

–Gil Picciotto President

Master of Librarianship, University of Washington; B.A. Western Washington University

Grew up in Skagit County outside the small logging community of Hamilton

Spent three years in the Army, mainly as a cannon crewman stationed in Germany

Likes short hikes in the Cascades, reading, baking cookies or pumpkin bread

Enjoys spending time with family