Earlier this month Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines Bishop Richard E. Pates named Alex Kautzky as the new Executive Director for the St. Thomas More Center (STMC) in Panora.

Kautzky has been involved with the center at Lake Panorama for the past four years. She served as an intern in early 2014 where she organized Catholic Youth Camp (CYC) retreats and then joined the staff later that year as the Program Director. She became the Director of Camps and Retreats in January of 2017 and has been responsible for all CYC programming, staff management, volunteer recruitment and campus management.

Kautzky tells Raccoon Valley Radio why she expressed interest in being the Executive Director. “There’s so much potential in the work that we do at summer camp. There’s something really special, especially in today’s day and age, where we take kids out of those things that are difficult for them or maybe those things that aren’t so easy at home. We get them away from technology and we bring them into nature. There’s something that’s just magical that happens when you do that. I want to make sure that this place is around for the next 25 years to do that.”

Kautzky will officially become the Executive Director on September 17th. To hear more about Kautzky and STMC, listen to today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.