Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor. – Blessed Mother Theresa
You may have heard from Father John last weekend about the amazing progress we have made so far with our Capital Campaign. He also told you a little about the rest of our plans that we are continuing to work towards. We have gone through our needs for the church and the PLC. The most recent building on our campus currently is the Claussen Center, named for a pillar of our Catholic community, Bob Claussen, and his family. Those of you who attend the 9 AM Mass in particular know of his warm and engaging personality. This building was developed with several functions in mind. It provides meeting space, offices for Faith Formation, and classrooms. As we have discussed before, these classrooms are effective for youth engagement, especially Faith Formation classes, but not supportive for small group discussions of adults. We plan to resolve this issue with several major improvements to the building design, along with several important repairs:
- Air Conditioning: When the Claussen Center was designed, the air systems were planned on several separate units, all controlled independently. In order to deploy a more energy efficient system, we will be implementing a central cooling unit for the entire structure, with the ability to service each area with different temperature ranges and humidity management.
- New Library: I have had a hard time describing our current “Library” in the PLC. There is nothing about it that makes it a Library. We will be designing and implementing a large library within the current Youth Room space in the Claussen Center. This library will include study space and both digital and paper books for those wanting to expand their knowledge of the Catholic Church and faith. It will include a group discussion space too, with video conferencing with the Diocese and around the world so we can connect to experts and theologians that we would not be able to reach otherwise.
- Choir Room Renovation: With our upcoming enhancements to the music program here at St. John, we anticipate the need to increase the Choir Room’s usage for small music events as well as the various choirs’ rehearsals. We also plan to implement taping capabilities, with a new sound system and built-in digital recording system. That way, our wonderful choirs will be able to get their music out to all of us to enjoy, no matter where we are.
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