Renovation of Our Lady Star of Sea School will build community

  
  
Aug. 10 marked a day of celebration and hope for the future at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church Parish in the St. Roch neighborhood. Several parish organizations hosted a “Roch’ing By the Sea” fund-raiser, a first effort to raise money to renovate the former school building for use as a community center.     “A lot of information and awareness was raised,” said parishioner and concert co-chairman Anthony Carter. Approximately 400 people turned out to hear an outdoor soul fest with the Soul Heirs Band and Jimmy Brown and Just Us, to eat jambalaya, grilled hamburgers , hot dogs, sausage and snowballs, and to dance under the tent and in the parish parking lot.
 
To open the event, Society of Divine Word Father Tony Anala asked God to guide and protect everyone so they could have fun.
   “We pray that you bless all who supported this occasion, and you will replenish them,” Father Anala said.

   Carter, who also is a parish finance committee member and longtime St. Roch homeowner and resident, said a survey done of the area uncovered various needs in the neighborhood. He said pastors from various churches – Our Lady Star of the Sea, two Baptist churches, a Methodist church and nondenominational church – have been meeting regularly about what’s needed, and a community center was tops on the list since none of the churches had meeting space.

Children need a place
   “It’s a need for our children to have activities and for ourselves,” Carter said.  “We just refurbished the park (Harold Sampson–St. Roch Park). But if a child doesn’t play sports or have an activity at the park, there is nothing  for him to do. … There are no art classes, etc. We also want to provide programs for our senior citizens. People are starting to invest here, and we want to give an opportunity for people to have things to be involved in.”
 
  Father Anala, pastor since August 2012, sees the former school building’s restoration as an additional opportunity for parish activities, CCD expansion, parish growth and community bonding.
   “We are looking at it being a beacon for the community,” he said.  “We’re hoping not only to use it as a parish center, but as a community center, like it was before Katrina.”

   Diane Dooley, parish catechetical leader, said parish groups wrangle for meeting times in the church where the majority of events and classes are currently held.  She’s found that as classes for religious education are conducted, they coincide occasionally with rehearsals for choir or liturgical dance groups.

   “It is a true challenge,” Dooley said. “At any time, we have up to 40 children, and they have to face the pews to use as desktops. We have to be conscious of noise. Everybody has to work around one another.”
   Having the former school building renovated will allow teachers much more flexibility.
   “Each grade-level class will be able to do what they need in their own space at their own pace,” Dooley said. “It would give us more of a sense of community.”

Rallying point on weekdays
   It will also bring parishioners together at times other than weekend Mass, Father Anala said.
   “We want a place after Mass where we can greet each other outside of the church building, and we want to add sacredness back to the church,” Father Anala said.
   Not only that, a community hall could be rented and pay for itself, Carter said.
   Immediately before Hurricane Katrina, the school building had last been rented to the Orleans Parish Public School System as a truancy center. When Katrina hit, water damaged the ground floor, although the school roof was intact. The first-floor interior has since been gutted and is ripe for a new look.

   Father Anala said the parish, with approval from the Archdiocese of New Orleans, is working on renovation plans now and hopes to carve out a large meeting room downstairs to accommodate 200-300 people. The second level of the two-story building will remain in a classroom configuration.
   Rough estimates of the renovations range from $300,00-$500,000.
   “My dream is to begin within a year’s time,” Father Anala said. 
   He said the archdiocese also is working with the parish to repair the church, which had roof damage during Katrina and wasn’t water-sealed. So far, a handicapped ramp has been built, and the rectory has been repaired, but church repairs remain and could cost as much as $1 million.

   Carter was pleased with the community support of the first event and is planning another in the spring. He hopes to form a nonprofit organization within the next six months to organize future fund-raisers for parish renovations.
   Christine Bordelon can be reached at cbordelon@clarionherald.org.