Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future
Commitment Weekend April 28-29, 2018!
CAMPAIGN HISTORY
Dear St. Catherine Parish Family,
When I arrived at St. Catherine’s, I immediately fell in love with our parish and began to express my hope that I would be pastor here for a very long time. Consequently, I quickly began to think about the long-term needs of our parish, and I formed a committee, called the Capital Planning Committee (CPC), consisting of parishioners, school parents, and staff members who have expertise in business, finance, and construction. We began meeting regularly to discuss the needs of our parish community regarding our long-term financial stability, and our facilities and maintenance needs.
Our long-term financial stability focused on the debt burden we have been servicing and our capital reserves. This debt was due to several large upgrades we had undertaken over the years including the building of the Our Lady of Grace facility (which houses our parish offices and preschool), our grade school, and acquiring the property across the street where our rectory for our priests and convent for our sisters are located. We have been paying down this debt over the years, and the current balance is approximately $1.8 million dollars. I believe very strongly, however, that it is important for the future of our parish to retire this debt quickly. This will allow us to devote our resources to upgrading our facilities, expanding our ministries, and providing for our long-term growth and financial stability.
A second focus was the need to build a healthy capital reserve to provide for major facility repairs and maintenance. There are several major facility issues that need to be addressed for the church including the oor, lighting, and the HVAC system which is already past its life cycle and will need to be replaced very soon.
Finally, the CPC discussed the possibility of building a parish hall. About ten years ago, several parishioners worked
to develop a master plan for our campus, which included repairing our field, renovating Herbert Hall, and building an expansion next to Herbert Hall to provide for the growing needs of our parish and schools. The first two parts were completed a few years ago due to the generosity of many of our parishioners and school families who raised sufficient funds to completely pay for the projects.
In planning for a new parish hall, the committee discerned that initial plans of building on the area next to Herbert Hall would still be the best location. Although this reduces the size of the field, the committee felt there is enough space for outdoor parish and school activities, and that this space provides the best location with regard to convenience and accessibility. A new parish hall will provide significant benefits by allowing us to host gatherings for parish and school events without conflicting with school hours or sporting events. It will provide a space for faith formation and fellowship activities with enhanced A/V capabilities and clearer acoustics. To allow for fine arts and drama activities by our children, a permanent stage will also be included. Finally, an outdoor deck and patio will provide for fair-weather activities for our parish fellowship ministries. Our timeline for building is aggressive; we would like to begin building as early as June of 2018 to keep disruptions to the campus to a minimum.
In order to achieve all our goals, we are implementing a capital campaign, Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future, and I am asking every family to prayerfully consider making a sacrificial gift to our campaign. Our goal for the campaign is $4 million dollars. This is certainly an ambitious goal, but I am confident that with everyone’s participation, we will be able to reach this goal and move forward in faith together to continue to build up our parish and schools to serve the Lord’s Church.
