1979 Classmates Make an Impact throughout KC

“Miege is our foundation, it’s home. When you think about it, it gave us the best education, an environment that was fun, friendly, and welcoming, and very participatory with so many different elements, whether it was drill team, or my sons’ journeys in sports, or volunteering in the community that we grew up in. It’s our baseline of who we are today.” — JoLinda Gonzales Vega ’79

Two Bishop Miege Class of 1979 students once sat side by side in Bishop Miege classrooms and learned drill team routines together. Today, those same alumnae have helped raise more than $2 million in donations for The University of Kansas Health System, work that has reshaped cardiac care and expanded access to mental health services across the region.

For Kelly O’Connor Specht ‘79 and Jolinda Gonzales Vega ’79, the connection started at St. Agnes Parish and carried through Bishop Miege classrooms, drill team practices, and a close-knit Catholic school community. Today, that shared history shows up in two different but connected efforts: Carl’s Cause and Golfology Fore Cardiology.

Two causes, one commitment to helping others from the Bishop Miege Class of 1979

For Specht, the early days of Carl’s Cause started with a simple attempt to help.

“We lost our son Carl on June 23, 2017, to suicide, but it was really due to a mental illness, and we were not able to find help here in town locally,” Specht said. “That’s when we started Carl’s Cause, and our overarching goal was to be able to bring mental health awareness to the stadium level, trying to really get it onto a much bigger platform than it had been.”

That goal quickly grew. A first fundraiser, originally intended to support basic equipment, exceeded expectations and opened the door to something much larger with the University of Kansas Health System. One of the most significant outcomes was the creation of the behavioral health navigator role, a position designed to help patients transition out of care and back into daily life.

In 2025, Kelly and her husband Bob were honored by the University of Kansas Health System as Hall of Fame honorees and received the Catalyst Award for their work. They have donated nearly $850,000 for behavioral health through Carl’s Cause.

While Carl’s Cause focused on mental health, Vega had already spent years building a different kind of support system through cardiac rehabilitation.

Golfology Fore Cardiology began after Vega’s husband, Larry Louk, experienced a major cardiac event in 2008 and struggled to find specialized rehabilitation care through the health system. What started as a golf tournament fundraiser eventually became an 18-year effort that has helped fund rehabilitation centers, specialized equipment, patient education programs, and expanded cardiac support services across Kansas City.

To date, Golfology Fore Cardiology has donated more than $1.3 million to cardiac care initiatives through the University of Kansas Health System.

Vega’s experience also allowed her to help Carl’s Cause as a sounding board during its earliest planning stages. Specht turned to her not just as a friend, but as someone who had already built a successful fundraising model.

“Kelly reached out to me, and we just kind of looked at each other, and she said, ‘I want to give back. I want to make mental health stadium level awareness,’” Vega said. “And I said, ‘You can do this.’”

The two efforts are different in focus but similar in structure: community-driven, volunteer-led, and built on long-term relationships.

A foundation that started at Miege

“We sat out on a picnic table and talked, and I asked her about her foundation, how they got started, what was involved, and she came to some of our first meetings and kind of helped us get off the ground,” Specht said.

For Vega, the foundation for that mindset was formed early. That shared baseline, rooted in Catholic education, family expectations, and service, still connects both women decades later.

“Miege is our foundation, it’s home,” Vega said. “When you think about it, it gave us the best education, an environment that was fun, friendly, and welcoming, and very participatory with so many different elements, whether it was drill team, or my sons’ journeys in sports (Steven ‘02, Andrew ‘04, Brian – ‘05), or volunteering in the community that we grew up in. It’s our baseline of who we are today.”

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