Capital campaign for new parish religious education center aims ?Over the Rainbow'
PRICE — The people of Notre Dame de Lourdes Parish in Price have seen a lot of changes over the past few years, including the loss of their beloved Daughters of Charity. The closing of Notre Dame de Lourdes Regional School in 1999 is still the source of hurt feelings. But now, the parish is moving forward with plan to build a new religious education and social center, said Pastor Father Donald E. Hope. "Right now, we are holding religious education classes at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church," Fr. Hope said in an interview with the Intermountain Catholic. In a June 2006 letter to parishioners the parish steering committee wrote: "As we look to the future, we need to build a space of our own. As our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents provided the means to grow in the faith for us, we are now challenged to provide for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We need space for classrooms for our children and adult converts, a social hall, and we would like to house our parish offices and a daily Mass chapel in the same structure." Inspired by a photograph Fr. Hope took of Notre Dame de Lourdes Church one rainy day when a double rainbow was extended over the church, the parish building committee named their fund-raising efforts the "End of the Rainbow" Capital Campaign, which was officially kicked off July 22-23. All members of the parish were encouraged to make three-year pledges to the campaign. In a July letter to Notre Dame de Lourdes Regional School alumni inviting them to participate in the fund raising effort, alumni representatives put the cost of the new building at approximately $1,750,000, of which the parish needs to raise $750,000 more before building plans can continue. "As a former student of Notre Dame School, we would like to invite you to be a part of making our dream of a new facility possible," they wrote to their fellow alumni. "We no longer have the Notre Dame School building, but we are still strong in the Notre Dame spirit of living our faith and wishing to pass that faith on to our children. As a former beneficiary of the sacrifices of those who provided us with a solid foundation for life, we ask you to consider joining with us in this effort." "Parish response has been fairly good," Fr. Hope said. "I think there are a number of people who are waiting to make their pledges after they’ve seen how the initial drive does. We’re continuing to encourage people to make pledges, and additional fund raising efforts will be made after the first of the year." Fr. Hope said he and the steering committee are hoping for an early spring 2007 ground-breaking in an area behind the current church. The steering committee has designed a brochure for the campaign that offers questions and answers about the plans for the new building, its uses, and the many means open to people to make and fulfill pledges. Contractual designs will be considered based on the success of the capital campaign, and may change before the ground-breaking depending on increases in building costs, changes in construction codes, and the final amount brought in by the capital campaign, the brochure said. Additionally, contributions to the building fund will be solicited from individuals and organizations outside the parish, Fr. Hope said. "There are two main reasons we want to reach our goal as soon as possible. First, building costs will only increase each year we wait to build the center, and second, inflation rates are rapidly changing and will increase in the future." The steering committee offers this final thought in the brochure: "We need to find the richness of our faith and build a center for the religious development and training of our children and grandchildren in the daily search for Our Lord and all his treasures waiting for us "at the end of the rainbow."
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