Colonel Family Responds to the Call
When Athletic director Mike Guidugli, of Covington Catholic High School, called Mark Knipper ’80 to ask for a favor, he never imagined the degree to which Mark and his family would respond.
Earlier this year Covington Catholic acquired a used school bus with a gift from the CCH Boosters Association. The school needed the bus to transport students to athletic events and extracurricular activities. The bus, however, needed a lot of work.
Guidugli called Mark because, as Mark said, “I know a lot of people and am willing to ask them for help.” Mark actually called in many favors, allowing the bus to be completely refurbished as no additional cost to CCH. His friends installed LED lights and supplied the bus with a top quality stereo system and surround sound.
Mark borrowed the body shop of another friend, and putting to work amateur skills at body work, completely overhauled the exterior of the bus. Mark was quick to add “This was a project that my whole family got involved in. We are Colonels through and through.” Mark’s sons, Nikolaus ’13 and Benjamin ’06, were his primary co-workers. Sons Mark III and Luke, future Colonels classes of ’18 and ’22, also were part of the project.
The three Big Blue buses are used almost daily to transport our students for numerous field trips, for transporting the seniors to and from their retreats, for intramural bowling on Wednesdays, and the school also provides transportation for our feeder schools for their field trips. All of the sports teams have access to use the buses upon request.
