On their first day of school Monday, St. Charles Borremeo School students became part of a celebration and ribbon-cutting for their new $7 million gymnasium and science center.
Prior to the ribbon-cutting, Father John Fitch, who presides over the school founded in 1960, and St. Charles Borromeo Church in Port Charlotte, expressed gratitude to the donors.
“They did this for you; they gave up their hard-earned wages,” he told students, before asking them to “say thank you … and maybe give them a hug or high-five.”
He also introduced the school’s new principal, Amy Barron.
Initial planning to build a gymnasium began about a quarter century ago. Any proceeds left from the renovation of the church in the 1990s were to go toward a gymnasium. But there wasn’t enough funding left to build the indoor gym at that time, Fitch said in an interview prior to the ceremony.
Until this school year, students at the pre-K to eighth-grade school had to exercise outdoors, but Florida’s heat and rain made it next to impossible.
“Before the gym, at this time of the year it’s pretty much oppressive, and we’ve had to cancel all physical activity,” Fitch said.
In December 2019, a fundraising campaign kicked off, and one man who wished to remain anonymous donated $1 million in honor of his parents.
Because of his sizeable donation, the gymnasium—James & Catherine Tighe Sheehy Sports and Education Complex—was named after his parents.
Initial construction estimates for the school were pegged at $2 million to $3 million.
But then the pandemic hit, shipping was backlogged and the cost of materials skyrocketed amid inflation, Fitch said. At last count, the total cost for the gymnasium is estimated at $7 million; $500,000 still needs to be raised, he said.
Vigorous fundraising efforts continue with a buy-a-brick program in which one can purchase a brick inscribed with a name or names.
After the ribbon was cut, students poured into the gym, and staff waving pom-poms amid dance music, served as cheerleaders.
The school’s athletic director, Larry “Coach” Taylor, was dressed as a Crusader, which is the name of a fundraising level for the school. He led a basketball competition, and whenever one made the basket, a machine spewed out blue confetti.
A theatrical presentation with a fog machine, dance music and a laser light show drew shouts and screams from the hundreds of students who finally have an air-conditioned place to play and exercise.
The 15,017-square-foot, two-story elevator building has a sizeable gym and science lab on the first floor; the second story has robotics, art and an emphasis on STREAM curriculum.
“St. Charles is a STREAM (science, technology, religion, engineering, art, mathematics) school with religion, hence the R,” Fitch said. “We’re the best school in the area.”
