The future starts today, not tomorrow. – St. Pope John Paul II
For those of you have not taken an opportunity to visit the other buildings on our campus, I would welcome you to do so. We have a wonderful campus, full of spaces for both contemplation and boisterous activities. One of these locations is our Ballroom. The Ballroom serves as a primary meeting, dance, reception and multipurpose hall. You will hopefully all get a chance to see it this weekend during our Parish Picnic and Ministry Fair. It is filled constantly with activities like the Naples Council of World Affairs, Families in Christ, wedding receptions, bereavement luncheons, Big Band Dances, and musical concerts.
This room, and the industrial kitchen connected to it, have served our Parish Family well over the years. However, it needs a significant renovation so it can continue to do for years to come. Some of the essential needs for this room include the ability to continue to support programs that range from 25 to 800 people in a single event:
- New Flooring: The dances hosted here at St. John are extremely popular, not only for our Parish Family, but the entire area of Naples. People come from all over for the Big Bands and the Doo Whop Nights. In fact, there are so many people dancing, that our dance floor cannot hold them all. We need to completely redesign the flooring system for the Ballroom to ensure it can support larger crowds, and be pleasing to the eye as well.
- Stage and AV Enhancements: At this time, the large screens that allow us to play the Super Bowl and ensure each seat in the house can see the movie during our movie nights, are not equipped with current capabilities. The stage also needs to be redeveloped so it can support various activities and musical layouts.
- Storage: Any of the ministries that have storage in our rooms associated with the Ballroom will tell you that there is just not enough space. We need to lay out the storage space so it is more efficient.
- Kitchen: We are developing a brand new food service program for all of St. John, but this kitchen is not designed for the new efforts. From proper food storage capabilities to new equipment that will allow us to support after-school food services, we need to ensure the kitchen can continue to feed 400 at a time safely and effectively.
While we have begun the work our current blessings have allowed us to accomplish for the Build Our Future, Serve Our Past capital campaign, we still need our entire Parish Family to give in order to reach our additional goals. If you have any questions, please contact Joe Lichwalla, the Campaign Coordinator at 239-495-2001 or email: [email protected].
You can also learn more information about the Campaign at: www.sjecc.com/future