Fans Put Faith in a New Saint

Money Changes Everything

There was no way to save Holy Rosary High School. The thought broke Patty Glaser's heart. Just a year ago, she had invented the school from a successful elementary school she ran. It was going to be a place for children who were dyslexic, learning disabled or struggling with language when all other schools didn't work. It had only been open a couple days when Katrina hit.

Somehow she had managed to keep both schools open after the storm. But now the archdiocese was telling her it needed $100,000 to save the high school and she knew then that it was hopeless. No one in post-hurricane New Orleans had $100,000 for anything, let alone a special-needs high school.

She told the parents on a Tuesday in early May that unless the money magically appeared by that Friday, the school was all but finished.

Only a strange thing happened. The parents began writing checks. Someone went outside and made a call on his cellphone, then returned to say his work partners were in, too. Others dug through purses or called friends. By the end of the next day they had close to $50,000.

One of the parents knew Greg Bensel, the Saints' vice president of communications. She made a call. Was there any way the team could help?

Bensel had just met with Ornstein, who was still rattled by Perry Pittman's limousine ride. He and Bush wanted to help, he said. Just let him know what to do. Suddenly here was an opportunity. Bensel called Ornstein. Ornstein called Bush. Within hours, $50,000 -- Bush's Adidas endorsement money -- was on its way to Holy Rosary.

And Holy Rosary would stay open for another year.

"This young man did it for us and he did it with a lot of heart," Glaser said. "I'm sure his mother raised him right. I'm dying to meet his mother."

She held an assembly a few days later and she had Bush walk through the school. As he did, the parents flooded toward him with tears spilling from their eyes. They told him about their children and how those children couldn't function in regular schools and that Holy Rosary was the only place they could thrive. And did he know that he had just saved the school and, coincidentally, their children's lives?

Bush looked befuddled. Then he saw the sign, made by a child that hung on the wall. It read, "Reggie Bush is making a difference."

And right there, Glaser remembered thinking, Bush was going to cry. He almost did. His voice cracked and sputtered but then he went on. She told him about the school's most important program, the one that links all the things the students had learned in the previous days in one class called "connections." She thought the program needed a name. How about the "Reggie Bush Connections Program?"

Then Rev. William Maestri, superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, stepped up before the assembly and told everyone about a follower of Saint Dominic in 12th-century France who had lived a life of prayer and generosity and concern for the poor. The man's name was Blessed Reginald of Orleans.