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Relief fund established for former St. Malo employees

By Nissa LaPoint

Our Lady of the Mountains Parish in Estes Park has launched a relief fund for those who lost their jobs and are dealing with emergency needs after a November fire devastated the St. Malo Retreat Center in Allenspark.

Twelve employees and six members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (Sodality of Christian Life) lay movement, who operated the Catholic retreat center, were left without work and some lost their belongings after a Nov. 14 fire engulfed the building and forced the facility’s indefinite closure.

Medical care, food, auto repair and housing assistance needs are becoming urgent for many of the dozen former staffers, who received their last employment benefits in December, explained former employee Brenda Brown.  Further, due to the nature of the employment at the religious retreat center, former workers are not eligible to collect unemployment benefits. 

Brown, out of concern for her former co-workers, brought the problem to the parish’s attention.  In response, Our Lady of the Mountains Parish established the St. Malo Relief Fund to assist former employees with any emergency needs while they search for alternative employment.

Job possibilities are scarce for the former staffers who live in remote areas dependent on seasonal resort work for sustenance, said Susan Schuler, 64, a former employee who lives in unincorporated Boulder County.

“As far as around this area, there is nothing—there are no jobs up here,” said Schuler, who doesn’t expect to find work until the spring. “It’s a hard situation for those of us who were working at St. Malo’s.”

She expects to “get by” but other former employees have more immediate needs, she said. One person may lose their home and another lost their vehicle and has no transportation, former staffer Candace Chapin of Allenspark said about colleagues who asked not to be named.

Chapin received some funding to repair broken headlights on her vehicle and is grateful for any assistance given to her or her former co-workers. Although the loss of the retreat center is devastating and many are left without income, Chapin said she is not a victim.

“It’s a horrible situation, but I’m living in great trust and faith,” she said. “I want people to know that we’re doing our part to get the jobs we need.”

The Denver Archdiocese held a workshop for the employees in December at Our Lady of the Mountains Parish to aid them with preparing their résumés and job searches.

Members of the Sodalitium have also received support from people in the archdiocese and from those within the Christian Life Movement, which belongs to the same spiritual family, said St. Malo director José Ambrozic. Some Sodalitium members are being reassigned to other missions until St. Malo’s future is decided.

“In the meantime, we have things to do in terms of closing down accounts payable, accounts receivable and refunding money to those who booked retreats,” Ambrozic said.

Five members of the movement and one aspirant lived at St. Malo at the time of the fire. Several are living at Holy Name Parish in Englewood.

The potential for rebuilding St. Malo is still uncertain.

Planning the retreat center’s future will be a long process, said Bishop James Conley, apostolic administrator of the archdiocese.

“The future is yet unknown,” Bishop Conley said in a letter sent to priests in early December. “The process of clean-up and the evaluation of structural damages, the proposal of construction possibilities and negotiations with the insurance company will likely take more than six months. Only after this evaluation process is complete will courses of action be proposed for deliberation.”

The center is closed for retreats and conferences while the Archdiocese of Denver Management Corporation handles property issues, he wrote.

The fire that engulfed the north wing of the retreat center containing the atrium, conference center, kitchen area and chapel was ruled accidental, according to a Boulder County Sheriff’s Office fire report. A firewall protected the center’s 49 guest rooms although damage was sustained from firefighting efforts.

It was determined that the fire revolved around the chimney in the center, said Brad Beyersdorf, spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Denver, which investigated the fire.

According to records, staff began using the fireplace in the lodge area after a power outage left them without heat two days before. Employees took turns watching the fire until the morning of Nov. 14 when they attended Mass in the retreat center chapel. It was after leaving Mass that morning that flames were seen coming from roof.

Staff members were able to evacuate and no injuries were reported from the fire estimated to have caused $10 million of damage.

Many of the items and memorabilia, including items from Pope John Paul II’s 1993 visit during World Youth Day, were saved. Some repair work was done to paintings, crucifixes and statues that suffered some smoke and water damage, said Derek Middleton, senior project manager at Belfor Property Restoration, which repaired the items.

“Most of the things we took out were not physically damaged,” Middleton said. “There were some things inside where fire was that needed extensive cleaning, but they weren’t destroyed in the fire.”

Tax-deductible donations to the St. Malo Relief Fund may be sent to Our Lady of the Mountains, P.O. Box 1706, Estes Park, CO 80517.