In late 2007, Father Larry announced a plan to enhance our parish church with the addition of a larger gathering space and foyer.
With the dawn of the New Year upon us, I wish to take a moment to reflect on what 2007 has meant to me personally, and to the parish as a whole. 2007 marked the first full year where we could all enjoy the fruits of our renovation efforts. Our new parish office has proven to be everything we had hoped it to be. The new conference center (in the parish office) has been very well utilized by a variety of groups. We were able to conduct our Tri-city Trinity Koinonia weekend no. 2 in the fall. It proved to be an outstanding place for such retreats.
Everyone seems to be very pleased with the improved looks of the Community Centerﾒs cafeteria and friendship rooms. We were all proud to show it off during the Mexican and Italian Fests we put on this year. Both of these new dinners, as well as the Chicken dinner held at the school, were very successful considering it was the beginning of a new tradition for our parish. Being the parish to host the Right-to-life march to the Hope Clinic this October gave people throughout the diocese a chance to see the vibrancy of Holy Family.
Our school, under the direction of our new principal Marge Pennell, has undergone major renovations with regard to computers, HDTVs in every classroom, new paint, new lights, new bathrooms, new security systems, new front doors, and new landscaping, some of which were initiated over two years ago. All this has made Holy Family School one of the most well equipped, state-of-the-art schools in the entire Madison County area.
There is just one more thing that I feel needs to be done. That is the addition of the Assembly Area as depicted in the model created by Henry Gabriel in back of the church. This will make our already beautiful church building complete. An assembly area is the only feature our church is lacking. So, on the 50th anniversary of what used to be Sacred Heart church, I canﾒt think of a better way to celebrate that milestone than by sprucing up the building that has served us so well over these last 50 years and update her for serving us for the next 50 years.
So, how can I encourage you to become excited about this project? Well, the finance council has offered me a good suggestion. They reminded me that all the renovations we completed last year were the result of the generosity of the few individuals who thought enough of Holy Family church to include the church in their wills. It was that money that was put in the savings account which we hold in the diocese that allowed us to do all these wonderful things without having to conduct a capital fund drive.
However, I felt, and still do, that it was important for us to pay it back by rebuilding the savings account. So, we initiated the PROTECTING PARISH PRIDE (PPP) program complete with a recognition plaque that is presently mounted downstairs in the Community Center. If we were to include the addition of the assembly area for the church in that program, then all the money we have collected thus far could be used for that purpose. And therefore, all pledges made for the building of the assembly area would be considered as giving to the PPP program, thus allowing us to add those names of donors to the recognition plaque. We hope and trust that this will encourage many more people to make pledges allowing us to accomplish both goals. We will not only improve our beautiful church, but we will also slowly rebuild our savings account.
So, hereﾒs what this all means. The PPP program to rebuild our savings account will continue. We will use the monies already given as seed money to build the assembly area. Everyone making a pledge to build the new assembly area will automatically be added to the PPP recognition plaque. Therefore we will no longer have what appears to be two separate fund raising ventures. We will have one--Protecting Parish Pride! We hope this provides the encouragement for you to reconsider making a pledge soon so we can begin letting bids for the assembly area.
