01/07/08
Two Receive Highest Honor from Sisters of Charity
by Donata Glassmeyer

Elizabeth Ann Seton award recipients Dot Keininger (left) and Xuan Van Nguyen (right). Sister Barbara Hagedorn (center), President of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, presented the awards.

Delhi Township – The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati awarded the 2008 Elizabeth Seton Award to two individuals who have served the Sisters for many years. The Congregation’s highest honor was bestowed on Gertrude (Dot) Keininger and Xuan Van Nguyen on Sunday, Jan. 6 in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at the Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse, Delhi Township, during the celebration of the Mass.

Gertrude (Dot) Keininger has enjoyed 60 years of service at Seton High School in Cincinnati. She was the physical education teacher and the moderator of the Girls’ Athletic Association (GAA) beginning in 1947. After earning a masters degree in counseling, she became the director of Guidance in the early days of high school counseling development. When she retired from the faculty of Seton, she began serving as a dedicated volunteer in the Development office, which she continues to this day. The nomination committee notes, “In whatever capacity she served, Dot was always a teacher and a mentor, stressing good sportsmanship and fair play. She is part of the ‘Seton family’ that is so important to creating a loving, caring, and challenging environment for young women which holds students to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility, forming them into mature adults.”

Xuan Van Nguyen participated in the orphan airlift in South Vietnam in 1974-75, along with Sister of Charity Kateri Maureen Koverman, and Catholic Relief Services international adoption endeavor. Years later Xuan provided counsel and assistance in two reunions held at the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse for Vietnamese orphans who were adopted by U.S. families. According to the Sisters who nominated her for the award, “Xuan consistently demonstrates in her quiet, unassuming, professional way the virtues of humility, charity and simplicity.” Xuan served for more than thirty years at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. She presently cares for aging Sisters at Mother Margaret Hall nursing facility. Her nomination committee said, “Xuan’s Christ-like manner of ministering finds no patient too sick, no task too lowly, and no situation too challenging as she cares for the Sisters.”

 

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