Official Announcement of Capital Campaign
Looking to the Future: The Campaign for DuBois Central Catholic School
September 2024
DuBois Central Catholic School is taking a major step forward! At a special kickoff event held on Thursday, September 19, school President Gretchen Caruso officially made public the new $7.5 million capital campaign. “Looking to the Future: The Campaign for DuBois Central Catholic School” is the school’s first major campaign in over 17 years. Caruso announced that 4.5 million dollars in donations and pledges have already been made to the campaign. “I have been constantly impressed and amazed by the generosity shown to DuBois Central Catholic,” Caruso said. “I look forward to the challenge of leading the school into the future, and I thank each of you for joining me in this endeavor.”
The campaign has been steadily building momentum since initial plans began in 2022. Thanks to early donations from 40-plus lead investors, the “Looking to the Future: The Campaign for DuBois Central Catholic” has reached over 60% of its 7.5-million-dollar goal. “The enthusiastic support of these early donors is vital to the success of our campaign,” said Mark Barchony, Advancement Director of the school. “We are excited about the future opportunities and extremely grateful to all the support we are receiving from the community. Thanks to their generous giving, the capital campaign is well on its way towards achieving its goal.”
DuBois Central Catholic senior class president Westin Youngdahl gave an inspiring speech highlighting the value of the education he has received at DuBois Central Catholic. Westin credited the school’s Christ-centered learning environment for giving him the confidence and abilities necessary for him to pursue his dreams and ambitions. “Because of your generosity, I am standing here, speaking with you today, confident and ready to pursue my future dreams and ambitions.”
The five-year campaign focuses on five specific goals, including: a new multi-purpose center, facility improvements, building the school’s endowment and annual funds, and faculty enrichment, and sets the school on a path for a successful financial future. The capstone of the capital campaign is a new multi-purpose center that will offer a brightly-lit and open space in which a wide variety of classroom activities can be held. During the school day, classes can meet for gym class and large classroom learning projects, such as science fairs and performances. The new space gives teachers flexibility to plan lessons and activities that don’t fit well in a traditional classroom setting, and yet offer inspiring learning experiences for students.
The center will also be used outside of regular school hours. After school, sports teams often have to reschedule or cancel practice due to poor weather conditions or a lack of indoor practice space. With the new building, multiple teams can train at the same time. The center gives the school space to host school-wide and community events, as well as multi-school sports tournaments and games. Constructing a multi-purpose center both freshens and modernizes the school facilities of DuBois Central Catholic School, and aids the school in its longstanding tradition of providing excellent, faith-based academic instruction for area students.
The next few years will be an exciting time for DuBois Catholic School. We invite you to follow our progress through our campaign webpage at duboiscatholic.com. We also ask for your prayerful support over the coming years as we strive to provide area students with a superior, faith-based education that guides them towards becoming true disciples of Christ.
