Brother shredder - Dubois County Free Press, Inc.

*Students at Precious Blood react to Brother Gabriel’s jump.*

Brother Gabriel Cortés uses his skills as a skateboarder to spread a message of love and faith.

The 44-year-old New Hampshire native a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate based out of Bloomington. He was invited to bring his message highlighted with jumps, kicks and crashes to Holy Trinity Catholic Schools on Wednesday as part of Catholic Schools Week.

Brother Gabriel’s message accented reliance on God and Jesus as well as perseverance in faith. He used his own journey practicing skateboarding to demonstrate the lessons he was passing onto the classes.

Brother Gabriel is sponsored by Denver-based Motherboards Skateboarding Company — a Catholic skateboard company.

*As Brother Gabriel performed tricks for the children, he explained a bit of his own journey and compared crashing to sin.* *When you crash, you get back on the skateboard and try again. When you sin, you seek forgiveness from God and continue to persevere.*

*Brother Gabriel skateboarded in his full mantle for a short time, only shedding his top when he began to perform more complicated maneuvers.*

*Brother Gabriel crashed several times during the demonstration.*

Jasper-native Nolan Uebelhor produced this video on Brother Gabriel Cortés.

Holy Trinity will continue to celebrate Catholic Schools this week with ongoing activities. Tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. a Family Skate Night at Jasper Skate Palace sponsored by the schools PTA. On Thursday, February 3rd elementary students will celebrate different vocations by dressing up while Middle School students will participate in “Anything but a Backpack” Day where they cannot bring backpacks to school so they must bring another way to carry their books (shopping cart, luggage, wagon, etc). On Friday, February 4th students can dress from head to toe in purple and gold and there will be pep rallies at both Jasper campuses.

The week culminates with the Saints Day Social event at the Calumet on Saturday, Feb. 5th with doors opening at 6 p.m. Entertainment from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m. by local duo “Dave and Jesse” followed by My Yellow Rickshaw at 7:30 p.m.

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