Brother Ed Keefe, C.F.X. tells the story of “The Great Pumpkin Thief,” a former student at St. John’s Prep. Brother Ed had to teach the boy a lesson, but to this day The Great Pumpkin Thief and Brother Ed are friends. The boy, now man, has given many gifts to the Congregation that supported Brother Ed’s work in Kenya.
Transcript: “And she said, ‘Brother, there is a lady on the phone and she is very angry and she insists on talking to you.’ So, I said, ‘OK, put her on.’ So I started talk to this lady who lived right down the street. She told me that a boy wearing a St. John’s Prep jacket had just walked up her walkway to her front steps and taken all her Halloween decorations off the front steps and put them in the trunk of his car and took off. So I asked her, I said, ‘Do you think you could describe what the boy looks like?’ And she started describing this kid: he was so tall, his build, and he had fiery-red hair. And I said to myself, ‘That’s…’–I won’t mention the name now. I’ll call him Jack Smith–‘That’s Jack Smith.’ I said, “Madam, can I call you back in about an hour?’ She sad yes, ok, she gave me her phone number.”
“So I went over to the Dinning Hall and I see Jack Smith. And remember, we are good friends, we really are. I see Jack Smith, I call him over: ‘Yes, Brother.’ I said, ‘Are you The Great Pumpkin Thief?’ ‘Yes, Brother.’ I said, ‘OK, here’s what you do. You get your backside into your car right now, take those things that you took from that ladies front walk, put them exactly where they were, ring her doorbell, and apologize to her. Now, if you don’t wanna do that, when you get home tonight give me a phone call and tell what school you’re going to tomorrow. And he did exactly what I asked him to do.'”
“He used to send me a thousand dollars every year when I was in Kenya, to use to help kids in Kenya go to school.”