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student honors graduate with certificate in braille that he can 'read'

Story and photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

During Catholic Schools Week many of the elementary schools choose a graduate to honor as someone who is “distinguished.” St. Augustine of Canterbury in Belleville chose to honor Jon Brough, a retired Belleville police sergeant who was shot and blinded in November 2006 in the line of duty.

Josh Di Giovanni, who didn’t know Jon Brough’s story, believes he is a hero. “He was doing his duty,” Josh said.

The school signs a covenant each year “with someone in the area to reach out to the community,” principal Sister Bernadette Miller, DC, said. Jon Brough signed the covenant at the beginning of the school year and visited to speak with the students.

He told them, Sister Miller, said, he wanted to learn to read again, this time with the braille alphabet so that he could continue his education.

While the Brough family knew Jon had been chosen as the school’s distinguished graduate, they were not aware that the certificate would be “written” in braille.
“We wanted him to be able to read the certificate,” Sister Miller said.

And she knew just the student who could complete the task — someone who is artistic and goal oriented.

“The Di Giovanni family is bright and artistic,” Sister Miller said. “I knew Josh would be able to complete the project.

With his mother’s help, he bought a piece of platinum and hammered out the inscription and Jon Brough’s name.
“It took some time to do it,” Josh said, because he had to research the braille alphabet and then pound it from the back into the metal.

Josh had worked with metal embossing for an earlier project, so he was familiar with the process, he said.
Because Jon had just undergone yet another surgery to repair damage to his face, he was not able to accept the certificate Jan. 27 at the opening liturgy for Catholic Schools Week, but his sister, Linda Schomber, did.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house” when the certificate was presented, Sister Miller said.

Students and staff look forward to a time when Jon Brough can revisit the school.

Speaking from the hospital, Jon said he was “very honored to be recognized by the school.”
And, he said, he has begun studying braille. “It is hard,” he said, partly because his studies are interrupted with hospital visits, surgeries and the time needed to recover from those surgeries.

Right now, he is looking forward to returning home, completing his recovery and returning to his studies.