The Serenelli Project, a prison re-entry apostolate based in Sedamsville, was awarded a $10,000 prize for winning the inaugural To the Heights Award, presented by American holding company MDKeller and the University of Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate.

The award’s judges sought organizations that have a bold vision, are distinctively Catholic, have an innovative use for church property, fulfill the highest and best use of the property and have an eye toward scale and sustainability.

With the prize funds, Serenelli Project will help purchase and rehabilitate Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sedamsville, abandoned since 1989. Once the project has residents, newly released inmates will learn trades from experts and assist in the site’s reconstruction.

The project is named for Allesandro Serenelli, a man who assaulted and killed St. Maria Goretti when she was 11-years-old. She forgave him on her deathbed and he lived a life of repentance, spending years as a lay brother with the Capuchin Friars.

Being selected out of an international pool of candidates was encouraging for Marty Arlinghaus, the project’s founder and volunteer CEO. More than 130 organizations were considered for the award.

“It was very validating,” Arlinghaus said. “Oftentimes people are like, ‘Oh, great idea. I love it.’ And then that’s about all you hear. For someone to say, ‘We love this so much we’re going to help you with this, and we’re going to promote this around,’ [was great].”

Winning the award has opened networking opportunities and increased national interest in what’s being done at Serenelli Project, he said.

What’s new at The Serenelli Project?
Arlinghaus hopes to have residents living in the community as soon as this May. Since incorporating in 2020, Serenelli Project purchased a house in Delhi and began renovations. Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr dedicated the house chapel, named for St. Maria Goretti, in this past June.

With several initiatives underway, the organization needs volunteers and participation, including for Bridges to Life, a restorative justice program wherein criminal offenders meet victims of criminal actions. They do not meet their own victims, but others who volunteer for the project, to help offenders understand how their actions affect others in society.

Also on tap is an “adopt-an-inmate” prayer program. Prisoners will submit their prayer intentions to Serenelli Project, which will deliver them to volunteers on the outside to pray for them. Conversely, volunteers can make a small donation, then staff will light a candle in the chapel for the volunteer’s intention and the intention will be taken into the prisons for inmates to also pray for it. This facilitates the connection between prisoners and the Church they remain members of while incarcerated.

Serenelli Project is also preparing to hire their first general manager, a paid position to help run the organization. More information is available at SerenelliProject.org.

About MD Keller
MDKeller is an American holding company based in Scottsdale, AZ, and Kansas City, MO, co-founded by two-time Superbowl champion Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Austin Wright. Butker and MDKeller conceived the award.

“We could not be more excited for Marty and everyone at the Serenelli Project for being the first recipient of the MDKeller To the Heights Award,” Wright told Catholic News Agency. “Organizations like this are going to create positive
shifts in the culture for generations to come.”

Butker is best remembered in Cincinnati for kicking the game-winning field goal in the AFC Championship Game last season, ending the Bengals’ season and sending his Chiefs to the Super Bowl. He is also an active Catholic who, through MDKeller, supports a variety of Catholic apostolates.

For more information visit SerenelliProject.org

This article appeared in the January 2024 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.