Serving All Year: How Lake Catholic Is Deepening Its Commitment to Others
November 26, 2025
Historically, as both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach, volunteerism and charitable giving peak compared to other times throughout the calendar year.
Lake Catholic High School is no different.
The entire school participates in Socktober throughout October. Led by Visual Arts Department Chair Mrs. Kelly Wolf, students, faculty, and staff collect socks and money for donation to several local charities.
On Monday of this week, the Class of 2026 took part in the 51st annual Turkey Day event. What had started back in 1974 as a Thanksgiving feast for friends to enjoy each other as an entire class has turned into much more for Lake Catholic students, as they live out one of the school’s core values – its willingness to serve.
And next week, on the National Day of Giving, the school community will once again participate in #weGiveCatholic, which is the school’s largest single-day of giving, and benefits all current students.
Although students have always been called to serve and give back throughout all four years at Lake Catholic, Mrs. Beth Paskey, who joined the faculty this school year, is enriching that commitment in new ways. She’s making service more accessible, more visible, and more woven into everyday school life.
Paskey, who’s been in Catholic education for the past 34 years, including the last 17 years at St. Gabriel, teaches Freshmen Theology during the morning and then serves as the school’s service coordinator throughout the afternoon – not that those roles are exclusive of each other.
“When this job became available, and the way it’s structured, it was a no-brainer for me,” Paskey said. “A life of service is what we’re called to live. Watching the students get involved and help others is what I enjoy the most. Taking time out of school and helping others in a different environment – it’s very rewarding for me to see.”
Outside of Turkey Day, where nearly a dozen locations were visited by the senior class, students of all grade levels have made multiple trips to Birthright Lake, Inc., Brookdale Senior Living, and the St. Gabriel Food Pantry. Students have also been to the Warehouse of HOPE, participated in both a Living Rosary at St. Gabriel School and the Respect Life Day planned by the Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice Network, and helped out at the Special Sports Halloween Party hosted right here at Lake Catholic.
So far, 103 students have participated in 15 projects, averaging approximately 154.5 hours of service. Turkey Day accounted for another 111 students at 12 locations for about 2.5 hours of service each.
All that in three-plus months of school. And that’s not even counting any service the students do on their own.
“We want service to become the norm,” Paskey said. “We want the students to want to do these things, and not something they have to do to check the box, so to speak.”
The school does have service requirements for the students to graduate. A minimum of 50 hours – 10 hours as a freshman, 15 hours as both a sophomore and junior, and another 10 hours as a senior – is the minimum. To earn the service cord to be worn at the commencement ceremony, a student must have at least 80 hours of service.
“Right now, I work a lot with the freshmen because that’s who I teach,” Paskey said. “To some of the upperclassmen, I’m just a name on an email. But I’m already making plans for the second semester and would love to take kids to different places at least two days a week.”
Some students have even reached out to Paskey with their own ideas for service. A group of students approached her about going to play music at different locations.
“This is not just a me thing,” she said. “Students can come up with their own plans, and I’ll help arrange them in any way I can.”
With Paskey’s leadership and the students’ growing enthusiasm, service at Lake Catholic continues to evolve—not as an obligation, but as a shared way of life.
Lake Catholic Announces Return of Ice Hockey for 26-27 Season; Hires Tim Okicki (’06) as Head Coach
November 17, 2025
At one of the very first school events Erik Schroeder attended after he was hired as the Lake Catholic Athletic Director in July of 2021, he was asked when ice hockey would be back at the school.
After four-plus years, he will finally stop being asked.
Hockey is back at Lake Catholic.
Starting in the 2026-27 school year and winter season, ice hockey will again be a sport offered to the Cougar student-athletes.
“It’s a long time coming,” Schroeder said. “Lake Catholic has such a proud history of hockey, and we’re thrilled to bring that tradition back. This program means a lot to our alumni, our families, and our students, and we’re excited to see Cougar Hockey return to the ice.”
Lake Catholic had a team from 1995 to 2019 when the program ceased because of a lack of participation. During that time, though, the program compiled a record of 401-349-37, including a memorable run to the State Frozen Four in 2014.
Leading the team will be 2006 Lake Catholic graduate Tim Okicki, who was named head coach this week.
“We’re thrilled to bring one of our own back to lead this program,” Schroeder said. “Tim is a proud 2006 Lake Catholic graduate who has been deeply involved in the local hockey community his entire life. He knows what Cougar Hockey means to this school and to Northeast Ohio.”
In addition to being a Lake Catholic alum, Okicki is a longtime coach and player development specialist. Okicki brings more than 15 years of coaching experience, including time as an assistant coach with Lake Catholic from 2011 to 2015—when his brother, Ryan Okicki (’03), guided the Cougars to their first district championship in 2014. Since then, Tim has served as head of Okicki Hockey, a Cleveland-based training program known for developing youth and high school players throughout Northeast Ohio.
He's also coached at Orange High School and has been a skills coach for the past seven years with the Mentor Youth Hockey Program.
“I couldn’t be happier and prouder to be back at Lake Catholic and bring hockey back to this school,” Okicki said. “This is the perfect time and a great opportunity for the school and this once-storied program.”
Okicki will be the eighth head coach in program history, following: Georgi Feduolov (1995-2000), Dennis Giannini (2000-2002), Kirk Koennecke (2002-2003), Tony Prpic (2003-2010), Shawn Sadler (2010-2011), Ryan Okicki (2011-2015), and Justin Vance (’05) (2015-2019).
Now the work begins for Okicki as he starts to get players for the program that will start next season. Although there are some players already in the building.
Last year, AJ Trobenter (’25), Nick Biondolillo (’26), Jake Mackey (’26), and Joe Mackey (’26) all helped lead Mentor High School to the state Frozen Four as members of their team. Biondolillo and both Mackeys will again play for the Cardinals, but then graduate in the spring.
However, James Aliff (’28), Bryce Cindric (’28), Gianna Ducsay (’28), and Waylon Slagle (’27), who will play for Mentor this year, will all have a chance to be a part of the reborn Cougar team.
Both boys and girls will be eligible to be on the team.
“We want to bring in a strong freshman class and build a quality program from there,” Okicki said.
Because of his involvement with the Mentor youth program, Okicki said he knows a lot of the 7th and 8th graders and their families from the area, and because most high schools don’t have hockey, Lake Catholic is a perfect fit.
“Pretty much any kid who doesn’t live in Mentor doesn’t have a high school to play for, so if they want to play, they have to find a club team,” he said. “So, Lake Catholic will be a natural draw, not only for hockey but for the school, too. I went here. I can attest to what a great place it is. The school itself is building momentum. So this isn’t just about hockey, but the entire school is on the rise.”
And adding hockey back into the mix comes at the perfect time.
“Hockey has always been part of what makes Lake Catholic special,” said Schroeder. “We’re proud of that legacy, and bringing the program back is a big moment for our school and our community.”
Socktober 2025: Wrapping Warmth in Every Pair
November 06, 2025
What started as a simple idea between two individuals six years ago has grown into a powerful community tradition of giving. Each October, Mrs. Kelly Wolf, the Lake Catholic Visual Arts Department Chair, teams up with Ms. Julie Tinik for Socktober—a month-long sock drive to support those experiencing homelessness and hardship.
What began with a few boxes of donations has now turned into thousands of pairs of socks and countless acts of kindness.
This year’s Socktober drive was another incredible success. The Lake Catholic community alone donated 4,109 pairs of socks. Including donations collected at Angie’s New York Style Pizzeria in Mentor-on-the-Lake (155 pairs) and by Tinik herself (1,214 pairs), 5,478 pairs of socks will be split up and delivered to Project Hope, Sub Zero, Forbes House, WomenSafe Inc., and City Mission.
The six-year total for Wolf and Tinik is an astounding 18,943 pairs of socks—nearly 19,000 steps toward warmth and comfort for those in need.
The top donors from Lake Catholic were Lily Long (’27), John Cunningham (’28), Lucas Boling (’29), Mason Ruiz (’29), and Mr. Jamie Simonis.
Wolf, who organizes Lake Catholic’s contributions, looks forward to the drive each fall—even if the start always brings some nerves.
“Every year that Lake Catholic starts collecting, I wonder if we can beat last year’s total,” she said. “I get a little nervous, and then special things start happening. Students, parents, and faculty start getting involved. Social media works in so many ways of getting the word out about what we are doing.”
And when the socks start coming in, it’s a sight to behold. The total from Lake Catholic this year increased by 745 pairs compared to last October.
“As we started loading the socks, I wondered if I had a big enough truck,” Wolf said. “If we had put all 5,478 socks together, we definitely would have needed a bigger truck. That’s a great problem to have! I’m so thankful to the Lake Catholic community and to Julie Tinik that together we can help so many people.”
This year, a new partner joined the effort: Christina Earl, owner of Angie’s New York Style Pizzeria, who placed a collection bin in her store lobby. Earl, known for her support of local causes like Forbes House and Project Hope, jumped right in to help. “She was more than willing,” Wolf said. “Her community spirit made a huge difference.”
For Tinik, Socktober is about much more than socks.
“It’s absolutely amazing and brings me such great joy, especially this time of year with the cutbacks on a lot of programs,” she said. “I’m unbelievably grateful for those who gave a little back. It will definitely help others with nothing. Random Acts of Kindness still lives.”
Each year, Socktober proves that small acts of kindness—like donating a pair of socks—can come together to make a big difference. As Wolf and Tinik look ahead to another year, their shared goal remains the same: to keep spreading warmth, comfort, and compassion, one pair at a time.
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By The Numbers
Over the last six years, Lake Catholic has collected and donated 15,068 pairs of socks!
- 600 pairs in 2020
- 2,021 in 2021
- 2,999 in 2022
- 1,975 in 2023
- 3,364 in 2024
- 4,109 in 2025
From the Jungle of Nool to Lake Catholic: Freshman Stars as Horton
October 24, 2025
In a moment of downtime in Health class one day, the students were Googling each other to see what would come up. They’d search for one name after another.
Then came freshman Ethan Monaghan (St. Paschal Baylon).
“Wait! You’re famous,” Ethan said he remembers them saying. “I told them I wasn’t famous. If someone saw me walking down the street, they wouldn’t know who I am.”
Well, if a blue elephant is walking down the street, most students and anyone else would certainly know Dr. Seuss’s Horton. So, in a sense, they would know who Ethan is.
Ethan is Horton.
On Monday, October 6, 2025, Netflix released the first seven episodes of Dr. Seuss’s Horton! - bringing the beloved elephant back to the screen in a brand-new animated series.
Ethan technically isn’t a blue elephant, but Horton is voiced by Ethan.
“I auditioned for the show in early 2024, got a call-back, and then got the job,” he said. “From February 2024 until April of 2025, I recorded an episode a week for 40 weeks and then had 30 more weeks of pickups.” Pickups are re-recordings of a small portion of an audio project, like a single sentence or phrase, rather than the entire script.
According to an article by Common Sense Media, “Dr. Seuss's Horton! is a preschool animated series based on Dr. Seuss' classic Horton Hears a Who. Here, the animals are younger and cuter versions of the book characters, living in harmony in the Jungle of Nool. Horton is an optimistic elephant who, alongside his sidekick/best friend, Samson, is eager to help anyone in need. Their challenges start small—like rescuing a kite or finding a birthday cake—but quickly turn into imaginative adventures where they fly on leaf airplanes or get catapulted using a slinky toy.”
Despite his mom, new Lake Catholic Performing Arts Director Kelly Monaghan, turning her home office into a studio and their basement allowing for more video recordings, Netflix rented studio space at Breakthrough Studios in Valley View for those 70+ weeks where he would record the episodes while on Zoom with the show’s writers, designers, and voice directors. The show isn’t recorded like a traditional live-action production where the actors are all together. In fact, he said, he would have the script so he could see what the lines were before and after his lines, just so he could judge the tone, inflection, and emotion of each of his lines.
“It’s funny, Horton’s best friend is Samson, and I never met him,” Ethan said. “I waved hello to him once on a Zoom, but that was it.”
Although the first seven episodes of Horton! have been released, Netflix has not announced when the rest will come out yet. In the meantime, while Ethan is waiting for his next opportunity on the screen, he said he plans to continue to be involved with the Heights Youth Theatre in University Heights.
“I really enjoy all parts of acting – the singing, dancing, whatever,” Ethan said. “But I do prefer acting over the voice work.”
Last Christmas, he starred as Ralphie in A Christmas Story at the Allen Theater in downtown Cleveland. Rehearsals started in September for the December run and ramped up as the show neared, working for 12 hours or more that final week before it opened. Then it was three weeks, consisting of 24 shows – one each on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and two shows each on Saturday and Sunday.
“That was a lot. We only had Mondays off,” Ethan said. “And I would have loved to go back this year, but I’m too old now. You have to be 13 (years old) or younger. So, I miss all my friends who were in it last year. They’re all back again, but, unfortunately, I’m too old now.”
As his career continues to evolve, Ethan said he’s up for any opportunity but would prefer to get away from the voice work in children’s shows and move on to something more his own age range. Besides Horton, he’s also voiced Kyle, a polar bear friend of Goofy, in Mickey Mouse Funhouse, and George, a kindergarten friend of Kotaro, in the English version of Kotaro Lives Alone.
“I want to work on something with kids my own age,” he said. “In my perfect world, I’d love to be on the Outer Banks, or a show like that.”
Ethan is no stranger to “live acting” on television or the big screen, so a move like that wouldn’t be too daunting. He said he’s been in 8-10 commercials. He’s credited for his part in Sweet Girl, a 2021 movie starring Jason Momoa, although his scene was cut. He was also in three episodes of season two of Manhunt, which premiered in 2020. The season followed the hunt for Eric Rudolph, who was the perpetrator of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.
“I was in Pittsburgh shooting Manhunt,” he said. “That’s a lot of waiting around for your scenes. So, I had a tutor on set. She was more of a teacher and just kept me on track with my schoolwork.”
Now that his part of Horton! is done, Ethan is just a high school student walking the Lake Catholic halls. Although his previous commitments are keeping him from taking part in the Performing Arts Department’s Fall Play – Peter and the Starcatcher – he didn’t rule out helping with the show in some capacity or joining one of the casts in the future.
“I don’t know if I’ll take part in the fall play or spring musical. We’ll have to see what my schedule is like when those shows audition,” he said. “In the meantime, with this show just starting, I might come in and help with tech or the lights or something like that.”
Whenever that next part comes, Ethan will be ready to continue on his path. He said he wants to go to college in New York or Los Angeles. And eventually end up permanently in LA, where he can act forever.
For the next 3+ years though, Lake Catholic will be his home.
“Everyone here is so welcoming and understanding of what my goals are,” he said. “The teachers are all willing to listen and give me any help I might need.
“Lake Catholic allows me to be able to do what I love and still get a great education at the same time.”
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