The National Fraternal Congress of America (NFCA) is proud to recognize the following individuals as Fraternal MVPs (Most Valuable Participants) for the week of February 12, 2007. Fraternal MVPs are “Fraternalists-in-Action” who volunteer their time, energy and compassion to strengthen their communities through participation in local lodge activities and other charitable endeavors.

Thomas (Tom) Stuebben

Catholic Life Insurance

Northeast San Antonio Branch #120

San Antonio, Texas

Tom Stuebben was destined to be a Catholic Life Insurance member from the moment he was born. Both his Mom and Dad were members as were his older brothers, George and Larry. More importantly, his mother was one of Catholic Life’s first female sales representatives. Besides instilling financial responsibility into her boys, Clara Stuebben taught them compassion for others less fortunate and trained them to be active members of the Church.

As the only brother who did not enter the priesthood, Tom has far surpassed his mother’s wishes. He has lent his time and talents as a parochial school board president and as a Scoutmaster. Currently, he serves as President of the Northeast San Antonio Branch of Catholic Life Insurance. His Branch regularly adopts a seminarian and takes him under their wing, getting to know him and helping support him financially.

Tom also serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors of St. Joseph’s Credit Union, the oldest Catholic credit union in the United States. He is also an active member and former officer in the St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Benevolent Association, a German men’s society affiliated with St. Joseph’s Church. He also is an officer of the Belgian-American Club. All these organizations give back to the community in many ways.

Before his retirement from Pilgrims Cleaners, Tom regularly sponsored food and clothing drives for the needy, offering the stores as drop off points. Today, he regularly goes by the different cleaner locations, picks up clothes that have been left behind, and takes them to the St. Peter’s-St Joseph’s Home Thrift Shop, the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Madonna Center.

Tom and his wife, Mary Jane, have six children.

Elaine Benda

Western Fraternal Life Association

Lodge #67

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Elaine Benda is a lifelong member of Western Fraternal Life Association (WFLA). Her parents and sister also are lifelong members; in fact, all of her grandparents and great-grandparents were WFLA members as well. WFLA was founded by Czech immigrants in America, and Elaine is very active in the Czech-American community. Elaine is preserving the heritage and traditions that her ancestors brought to this country, honoring them by continuing the traditions that were so dear to their hearts. As part of a 100% WFLA family, Elaine has been volunteering her whole life; as a matter of fact, she attended her first WFLA meeting when she was only a month old.

Elaine is the director of the Oklahoma Czech Dancers and Czech School, which she created. This is a group of young people, ages three to adult, who preserve their Czech and Slovak heritage through music and dancing. Elaine researches authentic folk dances and songs from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, as well as songs and dances with American-Czech origin. The group performs annually at the Oklahoma Czech Festival, as well as at various civic and cultural events throughout the nation. In addition to music and dance, the group also studies history, culture, language and current events in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. When the Czech Republic was hit by devastating floods a few years ago, the Czech Dancers raised money to assist them.

Elaine is very active in the Oklahoma Czech Festival, held the first Saturday of October every year. She directs the younger dancers and participates herself in the Beseda performance. She is the program director of the festival and assists with the Czech royalty pageant. The Oklahoma Czech Festival is one of the largest festivals in the state, with attendance averaging around 50,000. In addition to this, Elaine works year-round volunteering for Yukon Czech Hall. Her local WFLA Lodge partners with the local Sokol lodge (Elaine is a member of both) in operating the Yukon Czech Hall (YCH), which is the center of Czech-American activities in the Oklahoma City/Yukon metropolitan area. YCH holds a dance every Saturday night year-round with a live band playing polkas, waltzes and other Czech and Czech-American dances. Dances are always open to the public, and Elaine views this as a wonderful way to promote a number of important community issues, including education of the Czech heritage, a fun way to exercise and be physically fit, and a good place for families and young people to go and socialize. Elaine is on the dance committee and serves as treasurer for YCH. She is the historian for her Sokol Lodge and is an active member in her WFLA Lodge #67. She is serving as a trustee on WFLA’s newly formed 501(c)(3) National Educational and Charitable Foundation. The current focus of the foundation will be to expand the scholarship program, and in the future, to make donations to other charities through member contributions. Elaine finds time for all this while being employed as a Senior Attorney for the Social Security Administration.

Helen Klein

Gleaner Life Insurance Society

Center Township #111

Lakeville, Indiana

Helen is always eager to help with the activities of Center Township Arbor #111. Often, she opens her home to the arbor for meetings and dinners. Helen assists with facilitating bingo, sponsored by Center Township Arbor, at the Wakarusa Nursing Home. She also spearheaded her arbor’s project of sending patriotic balls with encouraging messages, written by members, to servicemen and women. She will send the patriotic balls to her grandson who is serving in Japan. In addition to serving Chester Arbor, Helen attends the Gleaner Indiana State Association meetings and finds ways to be involved through her state association.

Helen actively serves her church through a variety of activities. In April 2005 alone, she devoted 99 hours of community service to Zion and St. John’s sister churches. She assists with funeral dinners often involving five hours of preparation, serving and clean-up time. Helen also can be found helping with the church’s bake sale and barbecue fundraisers.

Carrying on the work of her late husband, Jay, Helen continues to help the Lions Club with various projects. Among other programs, she works with the Lions Club’s program to provide the gift of better sight to people in third-world countries through collecting and donating used eyeglasses. Along with her husband, Helen was instrumental in the development of Miller’s Merry Manor, a nursing facility in her hometown. After many years, she still plays bingo with and visits with residents.

Through her role as President and founding member of the Wakarusa Historical Museum and Society, Inc., Helen has devoted many hours to the operation and upkeep of the museum. Along with offering many tours of the grounds and exhibits throughout the year, Helen is responsible for procuring, cataloguing, and rotating the displays at the museum. She also is eager to share her knowledge and insight of starting a historical museum with other communities and continues to receive speaking requests.

Helen says “that in order to ensure the future, one must make children feel special and involve them today.” Through the Wakarusa Historical Museum, she has offered a glimpse into the past and a direction for the future to many school children. Helen has devoted countless hours to offering tours of the museum and grounds. Last year, she gave tours to over 1,000 school children from Indiana and Michigan, just during the week of the Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival. A few weeks later, she gave tours to another 900 school children and school staff. Helen also reads to young children at local day care and preschool facilities. To bring the tales she reads to life, she often dresses in historical clothing.

Rita M. Goth

Loyal Christian Benefit Association (LCBA)

Branch #892

New Philadelphia, Ohio

Since September of 2001, Rita has served as President of LCBA Branch #892. In this role, she has helped plan many fundraisers. A special project that involved all Branch #892 members, the Youth Ministry Group and the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) was the donation of needed personal items for U.S. Troops in Iraq.

Other fundraising activities include the branch’s contributions to their parish school, Youth Ministry Program, parish festival, celebrations of clergy anniversaries and parish-related projects. Each year, Branch #892 also financially contributes to several community organizations, including Dress-A-Child, Share-A-Christmas, Birthright Program, Harbor House Haven for Domestic Abuse, Tuscarawas County Council of Churches and the Red Cross.

At the Branch’s anniversary dinner, special recognition was given to its 80- and 90-year-old members who have given their time, energy and interest in helping to keep the branch active. In the past year, honor was paid to two longtime members who were instrumental in starting the Starlight School for the mentally challenged. Both of these members had daughters who qualified for special education.

As Branch President, Rita always tries to come up with new activities for her members. Her parish food pantry always welcomes donations, so branch members usually donate cash or food items. Rita recently joined a committee in which she helped provide the evening meal for their newly opened homeless shelter. Rita’s Branch also gives a financial contribution to its Parish Youth Ministry group to help finance several young people to attend a summer workshop at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

Describing her role, Rita said, “Throughout all this volunteer work, I feel I am fulfilling Jesus’ saying, ‘What you do for the least of my brethren, you do unto Me.’”

The NFCA salutes these outstanding Fraternalists-in-Action for their dedication, kindness and generosity. They embody the heart of fraternalism through their volunteer efforts and commitment to their communities.


To view previous weeks' MVPs, click here.