WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |Three Honored With Iverson Freking Awards

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) – Three people received the annual Iverson Freking Ecumenical Recognition Awards Thursday – which are presented by the Bethany St. Joseph Corporation for "unselfish dedication to foster and promote ecumenical endeavors based on mutual respect of all faiths."

One of this year's recipients was Vince Hatt, who worked as director of La Crosse's Franciscan Spirituality Center for 18 years. Hatt also founded an organization called Pax Christi in 2008, which is described as a national Catholic movement promoting peace.

But Hatt says, while the Iverson Freking Award is faith based, neither the spirituality center of Pax Christi are meant solely for the religious.

"In terms of Pax Christi, we believe anybody can choose to be non-violent," Hatt said, "simply because they can see what violence has done to our world."

"At the spirituality center, we're open to everybody," he added. "We have a variety of programs. Some are spiritual programs, but we've also got physical programs like yoga."

This year's other two recipients were long time radio hosts Ed and Sally Sullivan.

The Sullivans have long been known as the hosts of radio programs "The Blarney Party" and "Blarney Country" since they first went on the air in 1983.  

But they also created a radio-thon fundraiser that has generated $1.6 million for Children's Miracle Network.

"That fundraiser was successful because we had a great team," said Ed Sullivan. "Everybody was great about giving money, whether it was people volunteering to donate proceeds from their local golf tournament, or from their bowling tournament."

"Little kids with canisters would come in and give us money," Sally Sullivan added. "We're just tremendously humbled and honored to receive this award."

"I don't want to sound like Aaron Rodgers or anybody like that but it was really a team effort," Ed said. "We were just the people that kept the ball rolling."