Pastoral Council Executive Members:

Father Karl P. Ganss

Pastor

Originally from Philadelphia, Fr. Karl came to the Midwest in 1956 to study at Sacred Heart Preparatory Seminary in Geneva. Ordained to the priesthood in 1968, Fr. Karl's varied responsibilities have included: Area Director of Religious Education and Superintendent of Catholc Schools for McHenry County; the diocesan executive team for Marriage Encounter; head of the Renew Program for the Rockford Diocese; and, Vicar for Spiritual Formation under bishops O'Neill and Doran.

Fr. Karl became active in full time pastoral ministry with his appointment as associate pastor of Holy Angels Parish in Aurora and has served as administrator of St. Patirck mission Parish in Hartland, pastor of St. Mary in Durand, and St. Patrick Mission in Irish Grove; his last assignment before coming to St. Gall was pastor of St. Mary Parish in Dekalb.

Pastoral Council Members:

Mark Chaplin

Deacon

Email: chaplin@osigroup.com

Mark was born and raised in downstate Illinois, attending high school and college in Iowa, graduating with a BA in Organizational Management from UNI, Cedar Falls, IA. A lifelong Catholic and involved in multiple and varied ministries, Mark eventually felt called to the permanent diaconate. He did his diaconate studies while in Missouri and was ordained to the Jefferson City diocese in 1995 where he served until 1998. He then served in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati before being assigned as St. Gall’s first deacon in 2007. Since then he serves as deacon at frequent liturgies and works with marriage preparation of couples, baptismal preparation of parents, music ministry, Catholics Come Home, RCIA, Finance Committee, and as an ex officio member of Pastoral Council.

Mark has been married to Laura, for 35 years, and they have 3 daughters. Two are married with children – meaning Mark and Laura are blessed with five grandchildren who live nearby. In his spare time, Mark enjoys family history researching. He loves working with his hands and sports, including being a huge Cardinals baseball and Vikings football fan.

Laura Chaplin

Director of Liturgy

Email: laura@stgall.com

Laura became Catholic as an adult and always hoped to someday work for the Church. She finished a Master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University, New Orleans, LA in 1996 and then moved to Ohio, where Laura worked for her parish full-time as Music teacher, Director of Music and eventually Pastoral Associate for Worship.

Laura and her husband Mark joined St. Gall in 2007 when they moved to Sugar Grove and became active in the Music ministry. Then in 2009 she joined the parish staff as the parish’s first Director of Liturgy and is thoroughly enjoying getting to know parishioners involved in all sorts of ministries.

Laura is married to her high school sweetheart, our own Deacon Mark. They have 3 daughters, 2 sons-in-law, and 5 precious grandchildren. Laura is an avid genealogist and enjoys reading, crocheting, sewing, most any crafts, and antiquing.

Pat Hartwig

Email: phartwig@sidley.com

I have been a member of St. Gall parish since 1970. I have 3 grown daughters who received all the sacraments and were married at St. Gall. I have 4 grandchildren ages 1 year to 6 years with another due in March. Some of God’s many blessings in my life.

Throughout the years I have been involved in many aspects of parish life. Co-Chair of St. Patrick’s Dinner 4 years; co-chair of the rummage sale for many years; active in Altar & Rosary; prior and current Parish Councils; Planning Committee; Choir; Eucharist Minister and even a short time as a CCD teacher which clearly is not one of my strengths.

I was raised in Chicago and attended 12 years of Catholic school. I have been working in downtown Chicago since 1985, originally as a legal secretary and currently as a legal secretarial supervisor. Even though I moved out of Elburn 10 years ago I continue as a member of St. Gall. This parish is truly home to me and I can’t imagine being in a more welcoming environment than we have here at St. Gall.

Jeff Walter

Email: jdwalter2@sbcglobal.net

Jeff Walter lives in Elburn with his wife Carrie (St. Gall’s Director of Communication) and two children Katie and Jeffrey. We have been members of the parish for 4 1/2 years. Originally from Toledo, Ohio, The Walter family arrived in Elburn via Keller, Texas where Jeff worked for General Motors. Currently Jeff is a Technical Release Manager Consultant for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and works in the IT Group on projects that deal with Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence.

Jeff and Carrie are both involved in several ministries around St. Gall including being a Lector (Jeff), Eucharistic Minister (Carrie), CCD teacher (Carrie), Snow Shoveling Team (Jeff), Gala (Jeff & Carrie), Golf Outing (Jeff), Turkey Dinner Chairs (Jeff & Carrie) and of course the Pastoral Council which Jeff helped reinstitute several years ago.

Jeff and Carrie firmly believe that a great Parish is built around a strong sense of community and a strong commitment from its members to be involved and are always encouraging their friends and neighbors to be involved in St. Gall. Jeff and Carrie take heart in Winston Churchill’s quote “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give”

Jennifer Sitar

Email: jensitar@yahoo.com

I have lived in Elburn for 6 years with my husband, Mark, and three children Matthew, 7 Carley, 5 and Jack, 2. We lived in the Chicago area for 4 years before moving to Blue Springs, Missouri with my husband's job. When we had the chance to relocate back to the area, we felt so fortunate to have found such a wonderful community in which to raise our children.

I grew up in Effingham, Illinois and was a member of St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. There I attended both the catholic grade school and high school. I attended college at SIU in Carbondale where I earned my bachelor’s degree in accounting. I worked in accounting for 6 years before I got the job I REALLY wanted, that being a stay at home mom. It has truly been the hardest but most rewarding job I have ever had. My days are filled with gymnastics lessons, play dates and the latest sporting event my oldest son happens to be involved in. In my free time I like to read, scrapbook and bake.

My husband, Mark, is owner of Sitar Construction, which has been in business for 2 years; however, he has been in the concrete repair industry for 20 years.

I am very excited to serve on the pastoral council. I want to show my children by example how important it is to give back to the church and also to grow on my own faith journey. We hope to pass onto our children the same catholic education and upbringing that we had.

Sandi Toms

Email: sandietoms@hotmail.com

My husband, Roy and I joined St. Gall's Parish four years ago.

We have been married for forty-one years and are blessed with a son and two daughters. We also have four grandsons and three granddaughters to spoil!

My father who is ninety years old, just came to live with us from South Dakota. We are happy to have him with us.

I am an avid reader and enjoy serving on the church Library Committee. This is my first year on the Pastoral Council and I am looking forward to participating on the Pastoral Council.

Donna Pelletier

Email: dmpelletier@comcast.net

My husband Charlie and I have been members of St. Gall since June 1994 when we moved from the east side of St. Charles to the far western edge in Campton township. We celebrated our 40th anniversary in May of this year and have been blessed with 3 beautiful daughters...all grown, and 6 wonderful grandchildren ages 6 months to 18 years. I worked for AT&T / Lucent Technologies for 17 years in sales and quality management until I accepted their last retirement package in July 2001. After that I decided to get my real estate license and currently work for Kettley Realtors in Elburn and also do inside sales for Scholastic in St. Charles.

I have been involved with helping at church since grade school, where I sang in the choir, helped with sacristy set-up for Mass and cleaned and polished LOTS of candle holders! In college I became the manager of our campus chapel for Sunday Mass set-up. After I married and moved to the western suburbs, I began teaching CCD at Christ the King in Lombard and then at St. John Neumann in St. Charles. It was also at St. John Neumann that I was first asked to be a Eucharistic Minister and was privileged to continue after our move to St. Gall. After a few years at St. Gall, I was also asked to become a cantor and on occasion, sing with the choir.

Blanca Souders

Email: blanca.souders@d303.org

I joined St. Gall Parish 37 years ago. I have been blessed to be married to my husband Roger for 38 years this December. We live in Kaneville and reside on the family farm. We were also blessed with two wonderful sons, Rodger who is 31 and just celebrated his first wedding anniversary with my new daughter-in-law Erica and Chad who is 29 and is still single, hopefully not for long. Anxious for those grandchildren!

Both my sons were baptized and received all their sacraments at St. Gall. During their elementary years I helped teach CCD and helped with the Christmas programs. I have helped with the St. Patrick’s Day Dinner, chaired a Why Catholic group for three years and helped with the Gala this year. I have enjoyed meeting everyone involved with these groups.

I have worked in the school transportation field for over 25 years. At this time, I am Director of Transportation for St. Charles School District 303. I am in charge of making sure that approximately 10,000 students get to and from school safely. It is a challenging job but very rewarding.

I am honored to be asked to sit on the Pastoral Council; I hope to be able to add incite and receive spiritual knowledge with this endeavor.

Shelly and Bob Foguth – Bob Foguth, President

Email: foguths@yahoo.com

Shelly and Bob joined St. Gall in 2009 and have greatly enjoyed the people here right from the beginning. They both commented on how St. Gall is such a welcoming parish. "Some of the people here have a true gift of hospitality. A friend of ours that lives in Elburn recommended Elburn and St. Gall, and he was right on both counts.”

From their days as newlyweds 22 years ago, they taught religious education. "Somehow we always ended up teaching 8th or 9th grade. The kids at this age are really beginning to ask questions. That's a good thing. Often times the path to faith is through doubt."

Shelly has an accounting degree but hasn't really had much of a chance to use it. Shelly stayed home with the kids and home schooled them all the way through high school. "I can't think of anything that has been as rewarding as teaching my children to read." The oldest, Lucas, will be receiving his bachelor of science in Chemical Engineering this spring and Bekah is attending the University of Illinois. Rachel is getting ahead on her studies taking classes at Waubonsee while in high school and takes dance classes seven days a week. The youngest, Sarah, is the always effervescent person going out of her way to be kind to people.

Bob has a Chemical Engineering degree, an MBA and has been able to travel across three continents. “I try to attend mass in each country I visit. It's a comforting feeling to attend mass, regardless of where you are.” When Bob isn't busy engineering things, he likes to jog and is the Chairman of the Board for Northstar Credit Union in Warrenville.

Council Members who did not provide a profile: Jane & Sam Cannata, Chris Cano, Denise Dojka and Scott Grytza