Shrove Tuesday marked the end of the SQPN Giving Campaign. After a successful podcast marathon on Sunday that raised $4,000, SQPN was still about $3,000 short of reaching the goal of $100,000 to fund the organization’s Catholic media projects in 2011.

However, on the very last day, the gap was closed and SQPN finished its Giving Campaign on a total of $100,526. Many thanks to the 500+ people that participated in the Giving Campaign with a small or large donation, and thanks to everyone who has been praying for SQPN’s mission in Catholic media!

The board is confident that with careful planning the result of the Giving Campaign will be enough to continue the work SQPN has been developing over the past five years. However, continued support by the SQPN audience remains vital to the scope of the work the non-profit organization can realize.

More information on how you can help SQPN can be found by clicking on ‘donate’ in the menubar on the website.

Kathleen Setina-Herbert is one of the new writers for SQPN.com. In this article she presents herself.

By way of introduction, let me first say I was raised a Catholic. Baptized when I was eight weeks old; or so they tell me. I have no recollection of it. One of my first “Catholic” memories was when I was six years old, trying on my navy blue school uniform (white blouse, navy knee-high socks and dress shoes, plus a navy beanie hat for attending Mass). That was when females covered their heads before entering Church, but because that dates me, let’s move on…

I spent five years, off and on, attending parochial schools. If you’re looking to me for stories about being terrorized by nuns carrying rulers, priests doing untoward things to my person or having the fear of God put into me that haunts me to this day, please look elsewhere. My education was excellent, and apart from the usual ‘my teacher doesn’t like me’ complaint every so often, I look back with basically good thoughts about my Catholic education and upbringing.

In my family, Sunday Mass was a given. We went to confession, knelt to receive Communion at the Communion Rail, but we stopped short of praying together. My parents didn’t take it to the extreme. When I was 12 years old, a priest actually came to my home to give me what is now called Anointing of the Sick. I remember the Sick Call Crucifix which, as an adult, now hangs in my bedroom. The point I’m trying to make is that Catholicism was embedded into my psyche. Not overly done, yet it was a presence in my life.

But then something happened. My husband and I were married in the Catholic Church, my children were baptized in the Church, but somewhere along the way, between the time I was married and when my children started attending a parochial school themselves, I stopped going to Mass. When they graduated, I stopped going to Church again. For years, in fact, I barely thought of God at all.

I admit that, every so often, Sr. Georgiana’s words came back to me when least expected: “When you hear an ambulance siren, say a Hail Mary for the person who is sick.” “Never pass a Church without stopping in for a moment to say a prayer.” And the most dreaded of all, “Jesus always sees what you do.”

Fast forward to a few years ago. Something was nudging me to get my prayer life back on track, and so I did an internet search for how exactly to go about that. While downloading a favorite tune via iTunes, I venture out and see Podcast categories. There are Catholic podcasts? Prayer and Liturgy, Saints, Catholic kids, Women, the Catholic Family, Cooking and everything inbetween.

Search Engines. Gotta love ‘em. Catholic Blogs. What the heck is a blog, much less a Catholic one? Learn how to make rosaries; download the instructions here.

As it happens, one thing leads to another, and I found Catholic New Media. My iPod and iTouch are loaded with not only podcasts, but apps for podcasts. The transformation is taking place not only around me on the internet, but inside of me as I discover how much I can learn from the work being done by Catholic bloggers and production companies. There is never a better time to be a Catholic.

I would like to share with you in coming months some of my favorites. Whether you’re a Cradle Catholic (lukewarm or not), someone who might be toying with the idea of Catholicism and if it’s for you, where to look for the answers you might be looking for or just curious about what might be out there, check back here for more. Yes, I kept God waiting to hear from me all those years. I promise not to do the same to you.

On Sunday, March 6, podcasters and viewers from around the world joined in a 12 hour live podcast marathon to raise funds for the Catholic media work of the Star Quest Production Network. SQPN is a non-profit organization that is completely funded by its audience members.

The Podcast Marathon is the highlight of the final days of the SQPN Giving Campaign that started on All Saints Day under the patronage of St. Maximilian Kolbe. The Giving Campaign ends on Ash Wednesday. So far, almost 500 people helped fund this year’s activities of SQPN with a one time gift or a monthly donation.

Our good friend Mike Kuypers watched the entire marathon from beginning to end and wrote the following report on his Facebook page:

For someone who enjoys watching live shows on uStream this was a full day. It started at 9AM Eastern and didn’t let up until after 9PM. It opened with Fr. Roderick and a new podcast called Catholic Media Guild. Like the website CMG is intended to instruct Catholics how to get the most out of digital media. Even though it’s aimed at bloggers, podcasters and the like I thought it was pretty interesting. Father followed CMG with Secrets of the Hobbit (with Dave Kale) and The Break.

By noon Fr. Roderick was running an hour behind schedule, so Steve Nelson’s segment was dropped and all other shows were pushed back an hour. There followed Catholic Weekend with Capt. Jeff, Lisa & Steve, In Between Sundays with Pat Padley (a barely audible Nick participated by speaker-phone, and an auction brought in quite a bit of money), Secrets of Harry Potter with Fr. Roderick, Jim & Lyn, Catholic in a Small Town with Mac & Katherine, The SaintCast with Paul Camarata, and iPilgrim Podcast with Deborah, Steve (what a trouper!) and Sandy.

When the marathon began we were $8500 short of our $100,000 goal. When it ended we were less than $4000 away. Everyone worked very hard and I was impressed.

Also impressive was the number of people who passed through the SQPN chat room during the 12-hour period. In addition to the podcasters mentioned above I saw Clifford, Jared, Jennifer, Dan, Stefan, Inge, MJ, Denyse, Marnie, Joann, Barbara, Greg Keuter, Dani, John, Jerry, Sean McCarney, Laura, Kevin, Mary, Joe, Barb, Rob, Sean McGaughy, Jeff Miller, Anne, Christy, Amanda, Steph, Sarah, Candace, Jan, Kim A, Fr. Z and Jasmine!

Thanks to Mike for his summary of the podcast marathon, and many thanks to everyone who participated! If you missed it, you can rewatch the shows that were recorded on SQPN’s uStream page:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/SQPNLive

Photo: Pat Padley from ‘In Between Sundays‘ eats a lime in exchange for donations to the SQPN Giving Campaign

Did you manage to catch some of the live broadcast? What was your favorite moment? Share it in the comments!

Time to bring out the puppies during the final days of the SQPN Giving Campaign. We are $8,000 short of our goal, symbolized by these eight adorable puppies. During our Sunday Podcast Marathon, we hope to save all of these 8 puppies, but we can only do that with your help.

Go to sqpn.com/donate and help SQPN continue its work in new media for another year. And keep checking this page to see how many puppies we save!

We are excited to announce the schedule of Sunday’s Podcast Marathon! 12 hours of non-stop podcasting, broadcasted via uStream on our (live channel), to help raise the final $8,500 of the giving campaign.

Join us at live.sqpn.com on Sunday, March 6, 2011 from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm (EST).

Schedule
• 9:00 am – Launch of a new SQPN podcast with Fr. Roderick
• 10:00 am – Health & Holiness special Lenten Edition
• 11:00 am – Secrets of The Hobbit with Dave Kale & Fr. Roderick
• 12:00 pm – The Break with Fr. Roderick
• 1:00 pm – Steve Nelson from Everything Esteban
• 2:00 pm – Catholic Weekend with Jeff , Lisa  and Steve
• 3:00 pm – In Between Sundays with Nick and Patrick Padley
• 4:00 pm – Secrets of Harry Potter with Jim, Lyn and Ariadna
• 5:00 pm – Catholic in a Small Town with Mac & Katherine
• 6:00 pm – The SaintCast with Paul Camarata
• 7:00 pm – The iPilgrim Podcast with Deborah, Sandra & Steve
• 8:00 pm – The iPilgrim Podcast with Deborah, Sandra & Steve

All times listed are Eastern Standard Time (US).  Schedule is subject to change.

If you would like to help us reach our goal, please make your monthly or one-time contribution at http://www.sqpn.com/donate.

We have implemented the brand new Facebook comment system in addition to our existing WordPress comments. Facebook users can now easily leave a comment without having to submit their name and email address for every comment.

In addition, they can also chose to display the comments on their Facebook page, so that even more people can join in the conversation and read the original article.

A large portion of our traffic already comes from links on Facebook, so we know that a lot of you will be able to jump right in. And for everyone else, we still have our regular comment system as well.

What do you think of the new Facebook comments? Share your thoughts in.. the comments

Join an SQPN tradition this Sunday, March 6th as we wrap-up this year’s Giving Campaign!

We’re very close to reaching our revised campaign goal for this year and we will be making the final push this Sunday.  Visit our Ustream channel at live.sqpn.com from 9am to 9pm (EST) and see many of your favorite show hosts live.  Join the online chat and join the fun!

SQPN is very thankful for everyone’s financial support and we can use your help to finish this year’s campaign.  If you would like to help us reach our goal, please make your monthly or one-time contribution at http://www.sqpn.com/donate.

Sunday, March 6, 2011
9:00 am to 9:00 pm (EST)