Recent Projects
Alumni Alley Upgrades
In 2021-22, St. Sebastian Parish School renovated the easternmost school entrance along Mull Avenue to create a new main entrance. There is now a lobby area created by adding a second set of glass interior doors and walls. The final element of the project was to restore “Alumni Alley,” a collection of
photographs of the school displayed along the walls where the stairs lead up to the main office. In 2023, Brenda Pier Beck, the St. Sebastian Parish Foundation’s president, and Kathy Holaday, the Foundation’s director, redesigned the display utilizing both old archival and current photographs. Please come for a visit and see them for yourselves!
Picnic Tables for Sebastian’s Garden
The St. Sebastian School Garden is an outdoor classroom and garden that was established in May, 2011. The garden is located on the parish grounds, adjacent to Byrider Hall. The garden provides students and teachers with a unique learning environment – one in which the principles of gardening/farming, environmental science and entrepreneurship are cultivated. Shortly after the garden was created, The Spectacular Garden Fund was established at the Foundation with proceeds from the 2011 Spectacular, the school’s annual fundraiser. Over the years, the garden has experimented with different layouts and crops, adding a volunteer crew of parishioners and parents. Sebastian’s Garden has also developed a strong partnership with Good Samaritan Hunger Center, an independent non-profit that is also located at Byrider Hall, to which all the produce from the garden is donated. In 2022, in conjunction with the established fund at the Foundation, interested donors helped purchase two sturdy picnic tables for Sebastian’s Garden. The tables will be used by the adult and student garden teams when they take breaks from their dedicated care of the garden.
We Give Catholic/Giving Tuesday
2022 New Activity Tables and Chairs for Our Youngest Learners
In 2022, the #weGiveCatholic effort, “Our Youngest Learners,” raised $13,076 for the replacement of the activity tables and chairs in the kindergarten and preschool classrooms. In addition to the online giving campaign, the school held a “change bandit” competition, which yielded over $2,200 in change (and bills)! Thank you to everyone who emptied out their piggy banks and searched their couch cushions, and congratulations to the preschool classes, which brought in the most change and were rewarded with doughnuts and cider. These items were purchased and installed in 2023. Our youngest students and their teachers really love their new modular furniture, which is attractive, sturdy, and adaptable for many configurations for different learning activities.
2023: The Greenhouse Project in Honor of Fr. Valencheck’s 25th Ordination Anniversary
In 2023, the focus of the #weGiveCatholic effort was funding the purchase and installation of a new greenhouse in honor of Fr. Valencheck’s 25th ordination anniversary. An amazing 90 donors contributed over $11,400 for the greenhouse in response to the 2023 #weGiveCatholic effort. These funds will be combined with other dollars raised in 2023 and 2024 for this project. The greenhouse, which will be constructed in 2024, will be a wonderful resource for cultivating the many flowers and bulbs that beautify our altar and our parish grounds! We look forward to sharing pictures of the completed project in the 2024 annual report.
Click here to go to the Foundation Through the Decades pages, where Foundation projects from the last 50 years are featured.