Dear Parishioners,
A little over two years ago, Fr. Burchell began an initiative, “Building Tomorrow Today”. He asked the pastoral staff to meet with parish community members to identify what it will take to maintain a vibrant parish. Those conversations uncovered a variety of needs and prompted us to focus on five key areas:
- Communications
- Facilities
- Faith Formation
- Welcoming
- Saint Rita School
At the start of 2020, Fr. Burchell and Rick Santangelo began meeting with parishioners to ask for support and begin the work on improving each these five areas. We made a significant financial contribution to the Saint Rita Merit Scholarship program. We hired a full-time staff member to facilitate marketing and communication initiatives for the parish and school. We also met with parishioners to share a list of facility needs and ask for financial support. Unfortunately, shortly after work began on the facilities project, meetings and work were put on hold due to the pandemic. Despite this pause in efforts, I am pleased to announce that we have since been able to move forward with the project.
Thanks to a very generous donation from Don and Pam Washkewicz and parish families, we can begin to make structural improvements to Saint Mark Chapel and create ground floor, handicap-accessible meeting rooms for parish and school ministries. Although we have used Saint Mark Chapel primarily as a chapel, its original design was intended to be a multipurpose room with separate rooms and entrances. Now, our plan is to enhance that design. This renovated space will allow us to incorporate up to four ground floor meeting rooms. These rooms have retractable walls which will provide flexibility to revert to the original chapel space if the need arises. We hope to have construction completed this summer.
Please join me in thanking all those who contributed to this effort alongside Don and Pam.
