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AFTER COURTING IN THE 1950S, “FRIENDS”
REUNITE AT HOLY TRINITY
 She
cheered, pepping the crowd at a football game, supporting him, the
tackler. After the game, they rode bicycles to Ashburns on Knox
Street to share a soda pop. The time was 1953.
“We were never ‘dating,’ just ‘going steady.’
We would ride to each other’s houses, go swimming everyday
at the Highland Park pool. We also went to dances together,”
Sheila Madigan Levatino said of her days at Holy Trinity Catholic
School.
“Sometimes we would take the streetcars Downtown, or go to
the Palace, the Majestic, or the Tower,” said Anthony Levatino,
recalling that era. “A lot of those movie theaters aren’t
here anymore.”
Anthony Levatino and Sheila Madigan met each other in the early
1950s at Holy Trinity Catholic School. They saw each other at the
playground and had the same lunch time at the school cafeteria.
They spent their childhood days together, attending dances, swimming,
riding bicycles all over town, or doing homework at the each other’s
homes. They saw each other at school, in the neighborhood, and at
the church.
The outings together continued until their first years in high school,
when they went their separate ways. Madigan attended Ursuline Academy
and Levatino went to Jesuit Preparatory School, then located on
Oak Lawn Avenue just across the street from the HTCS campus.
By college, they went their separate ways, she at Incarnate Word
in San Antonio and later a Masters in Theology from Southern Methodist
University; and he a Bachelors degree from Texas Tech. They each
married and Madigan had three boys and one girl, while Levatino
had three boys. Later, both were divorced.
Ultimately, the two returned individually to Holy Trinity Catholic
Church to continue a long family tradition of attendance at the
central Dallas parish. Levatino’s family has been parishioners
for 27 years; Madigan’s family has been there for 21 years.
In 1993 they reunited at Holy Trinity and married each other.
“Holy Trinity in the ‘olden days’ was a home,
church and a school. Growing up, there were only three percent Catholics
in Dallas, and we were part of the parish because of strict boundaries,”
said Sheila Madigan Levatino, who is now a marriage and family therapist
at the Pastoral Counseling and Education Center.
“Now, families come from many parts of the Dallas area just
to send their children to Holy Trinity Catholic School,” said
Sheila Madigan Levatino.
Anthony Levatino, now retired, worked for 30 years as a commercial
banker, said that Holy Trinity was a state of being in life, not
just a church or a school.
Today, Holy Trinity Catholic School is the oldest continuous operating
Catholic elementary school in Dallas with families from 52 different
zip codes sending their children to the school for pre-school through
eighth grade. In October, the school celebrated its 90th anniversary;
the church celebrates its 100th anniversary next year. But the school’s
annual budget is $1 million, and tuition income only covers 75 percent
of that. While the parish provides some tuition assistance, a financial
gap remains. The options to close that gap include increasing tuition,
increasing enrollment, or increasing fundraising.
The Levatinos felt that there was more they could do to help the
school and the church. Anthony Levatino already volunteers with
the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and serves as the president of
the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and as the managing director
of the St. Vincent Center. Then, in early 2004, Anthony Levatino
and Sheila Madigan Levatino co-volunteered to lead a new organization
to help meet the financial needs of Holy Trinity Catholic School.
Sheila is chairperson of the 501(c)(3) non-profit called Friends
of Holy Trinity Catholic School, and Anthony Levatino is the president.
The new organization was up and running by March.
They represent two of 350 members the organization has already
signed up, all of whom are interested in helping HTCS with financial
needs of the school by generating contributions to build an annual
fund, a scholarship fund, an endowment fund, activate alumni support,
generate support from surrounding community, and promote fun social
events.
“We are working toward an endowment and enough money for scholarships
to help out everyone, not just a couple of families a year,”
Anthony Levatino said. “Holy Trinity is a great community
with good families and relationships with people from all over;
the school means more to me than high school and college did because
of the great friends and family.”
The Friends of Holy Trinity Catholic School reached 350 members
and has given more than $45,425 of membership income to the school plus established an endowment account at the Catholic Foundation with $13,000 invested making the combined total of $58,425 in just over two years. The 90th anniversary of the school took place in October
and 750 alumni, parents, former teachers, students and members of
the community gathered for the event.
For more information or to become a member of the Friends of Holy
Trinity Catholic School, please visit, www.FriendsofHTCS.org
Contact: Melani Guerra
469-767-7788
melg0630@hotmail.com
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