Sam Johnson wins Tommy Christmas Spirit Award

Published July 22, 2015

The fourth annual Tommy Christmas Spirit Award was handed out to Sam Johnson, 18, a member of St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville, during the annual Catholic Charities Summer Institute at St. John Center in Little Rock July 12-17. Tricia Gentry, of the Diocese of Little Rock Youth Ministry Office, said a panel chose Johnson for the award, named in honor of Christmas, a 17-year-old convert from Paragould who made a strong impact when attending the summer institute. Christmas died in December 2011 from an undetected heart condition.

“What we do is we just kind of watch kids throughout the week and see who really steps up with the spirit of service and getting to know each other and really impacted what’s going on, as Tommy was,” Gentry said. “Let me just say every morning, Sam was up meeting me at the doors of the dining hall and helped me with breakfast without even asking … He made an effort to get to know everyone. He’s just a really fine young man and others started following in his example.”

Johnson has attended the institute four times and will attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in the fall as a double major at the Sam Walton College of Business with a double minor in math and French.

As the award recipient, Johnson was given $100 to donate to the charity of his choice and chose St. Joseph Farm, where the institute participants helped volunteer, because “I just really like what they do there,” he said.

“It means a lot to me,” Johnson said of the award. “It’s always nice to be recognized for the kinds of things that we all should just be doing anyway like trying to help out where we can.”