FORT SMITH — Television viewers know Drew Michaels as chief meteorologist on Channel 40/29’s Super Doppler Weather Team, but at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith he and his wife Adrienne Burgoyne are best known as co-directors of the Catholic Campus Ministry.
The couple is taking over for Deacon Greg Pair and his wife Patty.
“I just feel that both of them have strong faith and are closer to the students’ ages,” said Greg Pair, who will stay active in CCM as a spiritual director. “They can make a better connection to the students than Patty and I can.”
Michaels and Burgoyne were drawn to campus ministry after serving as parish religious education teachers and high school Bible study leaders at Immaculate Conception Church.
“I got involved with CCM because you see and hear a lot of students who go to college and get lots of different ideas and just leave the Church,” Michaels said. “We’re in our late 20s, not much older than these guys. They’re our young leaders in the Church.”
Michaels, a native of Green Bay, Wis., graduated from Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb, Ill., in 2001 with a major in meteorology and a minor in journalism. He attended an on-campus Newman center and served as a lector, but wasn’t that involved with center activities while pursuing his degree.
Burgoyne, a Southside High School graduate, developed an interest in Catholicism while majoring in English at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
“I think it was just learning the history of literature and the history of the Church,” she said.
Moving back to Fort Smith after graduation, she met Michaels at a Jaycees meeting and, when she learned he was Catholic, asked him more about the Church. He became her RCIA sponsor, and, shortly after she was confirmed, they began dating. They got married at Immaculate Conception Church on Sept. 17, 2005.
Michaels said some students recognize him from his 40/29 evening news broadcasts, but that after they get to know him they begin to relate to him more on the basis of shared faith.
“Unless I’m asked, I don’t talk very much about the weather at CCM meetings,” he said. “But if people recognize me from church or the evening news, I can make that connection, and if it helps people come to Christ, I’ll use it.”
University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s Catholic Campus Ministry has some unique challenges.
“Commuter schools are tough for campus ministries,” Greg Pair said.
Students are often juggling college with jobs and long commutes, he said. The 20 students in the Fort Smith group don’t have regular access to a meeting place on campus.
This year, the Sisters of Mercy have offered the CCM a meeting room in their convent north of St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, which is two miles from campus.
During the school year, CCM will hold Thursday night Bible studies at the convent.
“To me, it seems when we get deep into Bible study, the students begin to understand what Church is about and start living their faith,” Pair said.
The organization is student-led, with two co-presidents and a representative on the student senate. Last year they held a well-attended Ash Wednesday service on campus and co-sponsored a campus visit by pro-life advocate and singer Gianna Jessen.
“We’re trying to establish better communication with students and families,” Burgoyne said.
She designed a My Space page for the group at www.myspace.com/ccmfortsmith with a calendar, slide show, blog, daily Bible verse and links to CCM members’ pages.
Pair said the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith CCM serves to all young adults in the area, including students at Carl Albert State College’s campuses in Sallisaw and Poteau, Okla., recent college graduates and young adults in the workforce.
