High school athlete and volunteer sees life’s bigger picture

By Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent

WORCESTER - Notre Dame Academy senior Brigid Burke plays field hockey and lacrosse, interns for the athletic department, serves as class secretary, organizes a blanket drive for the Mustard Seed, volunteers for Why Me & Sherry’s House, serves as an extraordinary eucharistic minister at Mass and works one or two nights a week as a hostess at the The Boynton Restaurant & Spirits.

“I’m always doing something,” she said. “I like to stay busy and be involved.”
She’s also friendly and good-natured.

She’s “always laughing, always has a smile on her face,” said Deirdre Burchill, NDA lacrosse coach.

Brigid said she was probably the shyest person in her seventh-grade class,
but she thanks her NDA teachers for helping her out of her shell.

“One of the most special things about NDA is the connections you have with teachers,” she said. “They know you better than anyone else, which I think you don’t get in a lot of schools.”
Now, she enjoys meeting new people and she said she feels comfortable talking to anyone. Brigid also credits her family with helping her become more confident and outgoing.

“Looking back at how quiet I was,” she said, “I don’t think I would have had any of the opportunities I have today if I was still that same anxious, quiet person.”

In 2019, Brigid’s brother Thomas died at age 24 in a car accident.

“I think that made me realize the bigger picture in life and how it can be taken away from you any second,” she said. “Not that nothing matters, but don’t be so anxious and scared of what could happen.”

She keeps her brother’s initials, “THB,” on her lacrosse stick.

“So whenever I’m playing lacrosse, that reminds me of him,” she said. “He was so kind to everyone, always smiling, making connections with people.”

That’s what people say about her as well.

Brigid, 17, is the youngest of Richard and Mary Beth Burke’s nine children. She attended Venerini Academy first through sixth grades and Notre Dame since. All of her eight siblings also attended Catholic schools at some point.

“She has great parents and a great family,” said Sherri Pitcher, NDA chief advancement officer, who has known Brigid for more than 10 years, “and a lot of faith and she’s really thrived here at Notre Dame. It’s been a great place for her.”

As the youngest of nine children, Brigid said she used to be a follower, but she adopted the leadership qualities of her siblings.

“I always say I’m a mosaic of my eight older siblings,” she said. “Their different life experiences have turned me into the person I am.”

She credits her five brothers with helping develop her into the athlete and competitor she is today, especially by playing basketball with them in the driveway. Her brothers Robert and Richie played lacrosse in high school and they taught her how to play what became her favorite sport.

Notre Dame juniors and seniors are required to volunteer for 60 hours of community service a year as part of the Love In Action program, but Brigid didn’t want to wait until then. So in the eighth grade, she started a blanket drive for the Mustard Seed, a Catholic worker house and soup kitchen which is managed by NDA graduate Paula Bushey and who knows Brigid’s mother. She’s overseen the drive each year since and starting with her sophomore year she’s worked on it with the Prayerful Activities at Notre Dame Academy (PANDA) Club. Sleeping bags were collected as well as blankets last fall.

“I love helping people,” Brigid said.

As part of her service requirement, Brigid has volunteered since June of 2023 at Why Me & Sherry’s House, which offers free support and housing to families with a child undergoing cancer treatment. After school, she stuffs envelopes, cleans toys and babysits the children while their parents are in support group meetings.

“It’s also a good feeling,” she said. “Just seeing how happy the kids are to have someone to play with.”

Since the seventh grade, she has served as her NDA class secretary.

One or two nights a week after school, she works as a hostess at the Boynton Restaurant.
Brigid is a strong student who plans to attend Holy Cross in the fall. Her mother and sister Elizabeth both graduated from HC.

Brigid has earned one credit in each of the last two years by serving as an intern for NDA athletic director Laura Habacker, posting athletic news on Instagram, selling tickets and providing water to the referees at basketball games.

Brigid has played sports since she was in the fourth grade, and she ranks Ms. Burchill as the best coach she’s ever had.

“She’s the most energetic person I’ve ever met in my life,” she said.

Brigid didn’t get into a lacrosse game as a seventh grader, but when Ms. Burchill took over as coach the following year she started Brigid and she’s started ever since.

“Now I think I’m very good at lacrosse and I think it’s because she saw the potential in me,” Brigid said. “Just knowing that someone saw potential in you is one of the best feelings ever.”
Brigid tries to set a good example for the younger players and last year she gave her two extra lacrosse sticks to seventh graders who needed them.

“She’s such a great kid,” Ms. Burchill said. “I could go on and on.”

In field hockey, she was a reserve as a sophomore and started on defense at center back as a junior and senior.

“She’s a great player,” NDA coach Andrea O’Brien said. “She has great defensive skills. She’s very smart. She definitely has really great field vision. ... She was not captain, but that didn’t stop her from being a leader on the field and off the field with the girls.”

Brigid plays defense in lacrosse and field hockey and hasn’t scored a goal in either sport, but she said she doesn’t mind because she loves trying to prevent the opposition from scoring.
She’d like to play field hockey or lacrosse on the club level at HC.

Last August, Brigid became an extraordinary eucharistic minister and she serves at her parish of Christ the King and during school Masses at NDA.

Brigid considers Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, pastor at Christ the King, to be one of her mentors. Msgr. Sullivan taught Brigid in her confirmation class and trained her as an extraordinary eucharistic minister.

Faith means a lot to Brigid and her family.

“I think it’s the most important thing in my life,” she said. “I think it’s so interesting that you can put faith into anything you do in life, whether it’s school, sports, going to work. It just guides me in every aspect of my life.”

Before each field hockey and lacrosse game, Brigid and her teammates pray the “Hail Mary.”
“I’m not praying to win,” she said. “Praying to me is calming and it grounds me and makes me realize win or lose, it doesn’t matter to the rest of my life. The bigger picture will always be my religion and the end goal is to go to heaven and be with God.”