The Pavese Family
By Dana Skulan, Content Coordinator | Photos by Nicole Gorsser and Alexis LeDuc
When you start volunteering as a child it becomes a way of life. You can’t imagine living without giving, of your time and talents. Meet the Pavese family, Chris, Erica and their daughter Lexy. This Family is building a lifestyle of leadership development in community service, first as individuals and then as a couple and family, and it all began at The Jaycees.
“When I joined, you had to be twenty-one,” Chris shared. “I was volunteering when I was thirteen, a friend’s older brother brought us along for community service activities. It carried on with me even when I was in the service. I would go back in July just so i could serve with the Jaycees until I was old enough and they made me an official member.” Erica shared, “I started because friends of mine in college heard about the Jaycees and they used to run a Haunted house in Florence as a fundraiser. It was where the Florence Y’alls stadium is now. I became fascinated with the haunted house. I got to do set design, design costumes, and then go work the haunted house. it was amazing. I loved it. Then everything the raise they put right back into the community.”
The Jaycees are known as The United States Junior Chamber. It is a leadership training service and civic organization for people between 18 and 40. Their purpose is to develop young leaders and foster leadership talent and this year they celebrated their 103rd year of being in service around the world.
Chris and Erica stayed in touch but maintaining their relationship across the country had some challenges and when Chris found an opportunity to move closer, he took it.
“I graduated from engineering school in 2007 and at that time we had been dating for about 4 years and the closest I could get was Nashville,” explained Chris. “Then my boss tricked me into taking an assignment in Chicago saying that was closer to Cincinnati. It was still 5 hours away. We got married in Walton in 2009. then we moved here, to Union, when we were ready to settle down and have kids.”
Erica’s family moved to Union when she was in the sixth grade. “My family is still in Union,” Erica shared. “I built a house on Hicks Pike when we were dating, which was in Union, technically Walton. The main criteria when we moved was that we had to stay in Union.” Chris interjected, “For the school districts Also, Erica’s family grew up in the St. Timothy’s parish, so that was also important.”
They have 3 daughters including Alexys (Lexy) sho is 11 years old and a sixth grader at St. Timothy. Their other two daughters as Candess and Caitlien, both of whom as happily married and living in Washington State. Lexy loves St. Timothy Catholic School where she is actively involved in a diverse number of activities: Golf, Drama, KUNA Club, American Heritage Girls, Challenge, Youth Group and 4H just to name a few.
KUNA Club is a new club to St. Timothy’s where a group of 6th grade kids as given the name of a 3rd world country, and they get to research what the biggest hurdle is facing the country. Then the group must develop a plan of how to solve it. The will be going to Louisville to meet with other middle school kids to present their county and the solution late this year. it is part of a national program called the Kentucky United Nations Assemnly. ww.kyymca.org
“I got Kenya,” Lexy said. “Our research group is looking into issues around women’s rights. They have to write up a proposal and in March we present it to a bunch of other kids in Kentucky. We’re there for 4 days. My group is making a presentation board to show what Kenya is like. We have to make clothes and wrote about the country and their agriculture.”
Lexy added, “Challenge is another group of girls and we meet every Friday at our church and we play games and have fun. We also leash about the bible and Jesus and God, and we do community service. “Challenge” is a Catholic youth ministry program for girls grades 5-12 which focuses on fostering faith, friendship with Christ and positive life choices.”
Erica added, “This year St. Tim’s officially added 10 more classes and a brand-new gym. It’s phenomenal. They have a full stage with audio equipment so they can do pep rallies and gust speakers and assemblies. Their next hurdle is to build a library. Chris sits on the school board there.” He remarked, “the library is already funded, ans books are already coming in. They are going to rally the “Family Ministries” which is essentially the PTA and get the voluntary groups to set up the library. They are also making a special space for the middle schoolers.”
Chris added, “Lexy is also a huge into drama and theatre production. We have been taking her to the Aronoff since before she could talk. She just loves it. She can watch it and memorize it and will tell us all about the story. Even in preschool she was directing everybody and telling them what to say and lining them up. In fourth grade they made her the assistant director of the school play.”
Her Mom says she is compassionate, funny, competitive, and fiercely independent. And when she isn’t busy with her many clubs, she loves sewing and he Aunt Alesha and playing with her cat Filipe.
This busy family finds ways to support other community groups that they appreciate, including supporting our local ball team. They have served as a host-family to exchange students ans well as to Florence Freedom/ Y’all baseball players.
“This is our sixth season and we have had 12 players live with us. The most we ever did was three at one time and that wa s lot,” smiled Erica. “We typically do one or two. If they get cut then they have to leave or if they get picked up by the majors, they have to leave. Asn we have had quite a few do both. We have also had three go into some kind of coaching position. One, Karla Cragie, is the pitching coach for the Florence Y’alls now.” Chris added, “We’ve also had three called up to the majors, which is always exciting, because that is what they are her for, right? so, the are fulfilling their dream. Of those 12 players, two of them have been married, and one of them still comes home, for either Thanksgiving or Christmas and brings their spouse, so that this really cool.”
Because of their commitment to lead and serve other in our community Erica and Chris are making significant career changes to pursue passions of their own. Erica graduated from Ryle High School and attended NKU where she graduated with a degree in English and aminor in Elementary Education. Erica recently transitioned from a career in the Transportations Sector to pursue her true passion of teaching. “I am going to substitute teach and i am already approved to each at St. Timothy’s,” Erica shared. “I just completed all of the training in Boone County too and started substituting there as well. i have been volunteering ever since Lexy was in school. it’s just a passion of mine. I like to be in the classroom, and I like being around the kids.”
Chris served his country in the Navy and worked as an IBEW Electrician before choosing to use his GI Bill to complete his Bachelors and Masters degrees as Gonzaga University. Chris has served in multiple leadership roles for volunteer organizations to business ownership; and in each opportunity, he’s had the pleasure of providing servant leadership, a pillar of his Jesuit education.
Last year, Chris retired from Duke Energy as a remarkable 33-year career in the electrical industry to pursue an ownership role with engineering firm, Grecham Smith, a full-service architecture and engineering firm with 26 offices in 9 states and over 1100 employees.
Chris is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Kentucky and belongs to the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers where he was awarded with the Terrell Award last year while serving his second term as State Director and remains in service within the Northern Kentucky Chapter as a Chairman. Chris is also a licensed pilot and when he’s not convincing his family and friends to fly with him on an adventure, he donates hit time and resources to fly humanitarian missions.
As this family embarks on this next season you can be sure they will be working with the needs of other in mind. While Lexy will be working to solve problems around the world, Erica will be giving her heart in service to local students and Chris will take his talents to the center of our state. If you would like to learn more about this family and the ideas for our community, you can reach them at www.paveseforky.com
Chris is excited for his next opportunity to serve our community as the Kentucky State Representative for the 60th District, a position to be determined in the May primary election. “When this opportunity presented itself, I had just joined the firm as an associate,” Chris explained. “Through discussions and their support, this is truly serving both our passions, to give back and provide community service, and it also feeds into the culture and the mission statement of the engineering firm.”
Posted on 22 Mar 2024, 10:47 - Category: News
Connect With Us