News & Notes Maddan’s Corner

news, notes, etc.

Bruce-Mahoney Tradition Reborn

The presidents and principals of Sacred Heart Cathedral and St. Ignatius agreed this fall to include girls volleyball and basketball in the annual Bruce-Mahoney contest, making it a best three-out-of-five affair. SHC President Melinda Lawlor Skrade, PhD, shown here with St. Ignatius Principal Michelle Nevin Levine, joined with SHC Principal Gary Cannon, EdD and SI President Edward A. Reese, SJ, to agree upon the update after almost two years of behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Bibliobicicleta: Dr. Alicia Tapia’s Traveling Library

SHC’s Director of Library Services Dr. Alicia Tapia was recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Total SF Podcast celebrating her efforts to share her love of books with residents of the Tenderloin. Dr. Tapia rides her customized mobile bicycle library to the Safe Passage Parklet in the Tenderloin every week, inviting folks to grab a book off the shelf. Reflecting on the neighborhood, Dr. Tapia says, “ … this is a beautiful, vibrant community with a rich history. There are tons of families and children here. Ironically enough, I feel the safest here, just because everyone is looking out for one another. Everyone says, ‘Hello’.”

MADDAN’S CORNER

This year, I have bookends — a freshman and a senior — siblings on opposite ends of high school, one figuring his way in, the other figuring her way out. Like the rest of the world, their lives were interrupted by the pandemic, teenage freedom and normalcy quarantined. When fall finally came, it didn’t feel like the sad ceasing of summer, but a welcomed start. It was a time to order books and backpacks and routinely head out the door. In the mornings, the sun flooded Market Street as we drove down it. The city had begun to percolate with cars, buses and bicyclists, and people walking dogs or strolling babies or running for coffee. At the intersection of Gough and Ellis, there was a familiar sea of green, students in SHC hoodies passing to class. It felt almost like normal, but everyone has changed, even if in the slightest of ways. And in the midst of that change, there was more. For freshmen, it was navigating the campus, remembering a locker combo or finding a new friend. For seniors, it was forecasting a future, applying to college and sitting for graduation portraits to capture a snapshot of who they were at that moment in time. Heather Maddan-Dowdell is a fifth generation San Franciscan. She met her husband, Dan, at a high school party. They have three children — Sicily ’22, Asher ’25, and Jackson (12).