April 29, 2009

A prayer for St. Catherine’s

School’s rich legacy of faith building and academic excellence a treasure worth preserving

By Gina Francis

When I first learned that the Archdiocese of Denver was withdrawing financial support from St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School due to a decline in charitable giving and enrollment, I was overcome by a tremendous sense of loss and disbelief.  I wondered, where is the future of the Church if not among students of Catholic schools? 

What’s more, here in north Denver, particularly in the last four years, we have seen a great response to the needs of keeping St. Catherine’s open and thriving. I have been a part of the Belle Notte benefit gala’s silent auction for those years, while holding down a job and raising our four children because my husband and I are determined to see them through their formative years here at St. Catherine’s.  I am joined by a staff of equally dedicated volunteers who share the same passion and commitment to our school and make the same sacrifices. We struggle to make tuition payments; we log on long hours to make our yearly fundraiser succeed.  We help in the classroom and we find a great bond with each other because we want our children to remain faithful Catholics.

St. Catherine’s serves a critical need in our inner-city community of northwest Denver.  We celebrate the fact that 62 percent of our students are Hispanic and 18 percent are of mixed ethnicity.  Many of our families come from lower-income households—more than 65 percent of our families receive some form of financial aid. 
Compared to the surrounding Denver Public Schools our successes are staggering.  Students who graduate from St. Catherine of Siena School have a 99 percent high school graduation rate, compared to neighboring schools where the high school graduation rate is just 45 percent.

Demographically, St. Catherine’s is set to serve the growing Hispanic Catholic community, which is looked upon as being the bedrock of the future Church in 21st century America.

We are not deterred by the dilemma we now face and are planning to raise $1 million for the school’s existing endowment fund in the next year to sustain the school for generations to come. 

Our parish finance council debuted the “50 for St. Cat’s” program immediately upon hearing of the plan to close our beloved school.  We are looking for 50 friends, family or alumni to each commit $5,000 to help us reach our immediate goal of raising $250,000 by the June 30  deadline.  God willing we will find the generous souls we need, particularly those who have gone on to have bountiful careers and who now have the means to keep St. Catherine’s School open for other generations of Catholic school children.

An estimated $71,500 was raised on April 25 at the 2009 Belle Notte gala held at the Monaco Hotel’s Panzano’s restaurant in downtown Denver.  Among the crowd of faithful supporters that night were families who send their children to Sts. Peter and Paul and to All Souls elementary schools and to Holy Family High School. They came together in a perfect Catholic night of fellowship to support our important efforts and to join us in what might be our final crusade to keep Catholic education alive and thriving at St. Catherine’s.

In the last week I have been inspired on countless occasions as I have witnessed the amazing power of prayer and have experienced the great love that is shared for St. Catherine of Siena School. Scores of friends, family, relatives and alumni have rallied together in support of saving our school. Generous donations have started coming in from as far away as France.  A less substantive but poignant example of the love so many share for St. Catherine’s  was the donation of a kindergartener who  pledged to give his entire life savings to save our school, $14.

When our Belle Notte celebration and auction ended last Saturday night, I drove by the school and sat staring into the darkened classrooms thinking how tragic it would be if the laughter and prayers of children might never again fill those hallways where the fruitful labor of building lives of faith and successful careers have developed for more than 80 remarkable years. 

This is a critical time in our life as a school community. I feel the awesome presence of God and his graces in the spirit that has embraced and rallied around the school. We are joined in solidarity and commitment to preserve this rich tradition and keep these doors open for future generations.

Gina Francis is a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena Church and the mother of three students at the parish school. Her oldest child graduated from St. Catherine’s last year. Francis is the chair of the school’s annual benefit gala, Bella Notte.