Dear Parishioners:
Many Catholic schools in the U.S. are facing a crisis as over 130 have already announced permanent closure. A recent survey of U.S. Catholic school principals showed that currently, 10% are uncertain about their ability to open in the fall; this equals hundreds of Catholic schools and thousands of families in turmoil.
At OLM School, we continue to advance toward the reopening of our parish school! Our plan is up on the school webpage. Our students and faculty are excited about coming back together in the classroom to learn and teach once again! It will be a happy day when our little saints and scholars are back in our outstanding school again!!
I wish to commend and thank our dedicated OLM School Principal, Patrick McNabb, for his hard work in developing the plan. He has been tireless throughout the entire summer in ensuring our school can reopen safely and happily for our students this fall. We also thank our dedicated faculty who have been a tremendous help in ensuring our school reopens as planned.
As you can imagine, we have done considerable cleaning and maintenance work on the school building over these last months. This includes the installation of all new locks on classroom doors, installation of new fire detectors, installation of new ceiling tiles in the gymnasium, and the painting of rooms. In addition, to these “typical” summer maintenance projects, we have been working to make our school as safe and clean as possible for our students during this time of COVID-19. Here’s what we’ve done to date to ensure the safe and productive return of our students:
· Hired a Registered Nurse to serve as our OLM School Nurse
· Renovated the School Nurse Office ($2,500)
· Created a hygienic isolation room for sick students ($2,500)
· Placed HEPA Air Purifiers in every classroom ($7,500)
· Purchased Electrostatic Sanitizing Sprayer & Supplies ($5,000)
· Installed automatic faucets and automatic toilets in all bathroom ($10,000)
· Purchased webcams for every classroom ($2,500)
· Purchased 25 new Chromebooks ($5,000)
We have hired additional maintenance staff for cleaning and sanitizing. They are reorganizing classrooms to ensure safe distance for students and faculty. The school building will be cleaned and sanitized daily and bathrooms hourly, using electrostatic sanitizing spraying. This work requires much time and diligence by our maintenance staff to ensure the safety of all. It also requires increased costs for personnel, supplies and materials.
I am truly grateful for the hard work and dedication of our maintenance staff in keeping OLM safe, clean and beautiful. They do all this plus maintain the entire physical plant, including the Church, Rectory, Mercy House, Mercy Convent, Franciscan Convent, and St. Patrick's Cemetery. If you see them around working, stop, and say thanks!
Of course, all these much-needed projects come at a considerable expense for our school. Unfortunately, our Annual Spring Fling School Fundraiser in April was canceled due to the COVID-19 Lockdown. And we've also had to cancel our Annual Saints and Scholars Open OLM School Golf Tournament scheduled for this September. These are the two largest fundraisers for our parish school and help to fund the many maintenance and educational projects for the school year.
Because we cannot gather in person for either the Golf Tournament or for a Spring Fling, we are happy to announce the "See You in September" Raffle! Only 600 tickets are for sale for $100 apiece. The $10,000 in raffle prizes includes a Grand Prize of $5,000 with additional prizes of $2,500, 2 prizes of $1,000 and $500. The tickets are on sale this week, and the Raffle Drawing is to be live-streamed on Thursday, September 24th, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy! It will be an exciting way to celebrate our Parish Feast.
The proceeds of this raffle ($50,000) will help us with the increased costs of our many needed COVID-19 school maintenance and educational projects. We traditionally have raised nearly $100,000 from our Annual Spring Fling and about $25,000 from the Annual Saints and Scholars Golf Tournament. So you can see the raffle is much needed and helps us toward partially funding the future of our outstanding parish school.
You have always generously supported the mission of Our Lady of Mercy School in the past and we are confident of your continued generosity. In order to obtain your ticket or tickets, please send a check for $100 per ticket payable to “OLM” to Our Lady of Mercy, “See You in September” Raffle at 65 3rd Street, East Greenwich, RI 02818. There is no limit on the number of tickets you may wish to purchase and the more you buy the better the odds of winning!!!
Help us today support our OLM Saints and Scholars of tomorrow! Your odds of winning are better than Powerball and certainly much better than betting on the Red Sox!! Put your money on the OLM Saints and Scholars!!
Gratefully in Christ,
Fr. Healey