Critchley-Menor awarded by Duluth magazine

Patrice Critchley-Menor, director of social apostolate for the Diocese of Duluth, was given the Rosie Award, named for Rosie the Riveter, by The Woman Today magazine, in a gala event at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in Duluth March 8. 

Each year the magazine gives out six awards as part of its “Rosie awards.” The awards recognize women with titles of “most engaged volunteer,” “silent advocate,” “leadership,” “trailblazer,” and “mentor.” 

And then there’s the namesake award, which combines those superlatives, which the magazine describes as “that woman who simply gets stuff done — she’s a volunteer, a silent advocate, a leader, a trailblazer, and a mentor.”

This year, that was Critchley-Menor, who has worked for the Diocese of Duluth for 25 years. 

She learned she was one of 40 women nominated in an email from the magazine but not who had nominated her or for which award. 

“I was fairly certain that I wasn’t nominated for the silent advocate, because nobody ever accuses me of silence,” she joked in an interview with The Northern Cross. 

It wasn’t until the event at the DECC, when she saw a photo of herself on screen, that she learned she it was the Rosie Award. 

She had been nominated by three friends, she said, two of whom have also been coworkers. 

She said she had been sitting with her husband Dan in the back, not expecting to win. 

“I was completely surprised,” she said. She said Dan cried. 

Part of the surprise, she said, came from the fact that her work is part-time and isn’t always the most visible, and often takes place across many different organizations. 

“I never expected that anybody even saw the work that I did,” she said, noting that the award brings a sense of validation and “helps me to feel otherwise.” 

She said that the nominations and award ceremony mentioned many aspects of her life, including her children, taking care of her parents, her professional work, and her prayer life and “deep Catholic faith.” It mentioned her work several years ago in flood relief, collaborating with counties and municipalities and agencies, her work on nonprofit boards, her ability to listen to people with differing opinions and bring them together, and her work in the church. Some of the things mentioned were ones she’s forgotten she did in her 25 years on the job. 

She said after the awards were announced, the response from others was remarkable. “It was Trice Day,” she said. (That’s her nickname.) It came from coworkers and family and social media and people she hadn’t heard from in a long time. 

“I’m a communicator, but I don’t know how to communicate what this means to me,” she said. 

Critchley-Menor said her work is often “more about planting seeds than harvesting trees.” 

“I don’t know what the long-term benefit of what I do is going to be,” she said, adding that you do it because you believe in the mission. 

She said she considers the award to be about “how I live my faith in an active way. … As Catholics, it’s important that people can tell we’re Catholic, not because of the jewelry we wear or the T-shirts that we’re wearing but because of what we reveal about ourselves in our conversations and how we interpret current events and what we choose to get involved in and spend our money on. 

“Calendars and checkbooks are moral documents,” she said, “and how do we use those in moral and ethical and thoughtful, intentional ways?”