VANCOUVER
BY KEVIN BIRNBAUM
 Mary, Mike and Madeline Hunter share a laugh with principal Ed Little at the open house for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School in Vancouver on Nov. 16. Photo: Deb Garrett |
The dream of a Catholic high school in southwest Washington took a few more steps toward becoming a reality over two weekends earlier this month.
On Sunday, Nov. 9, a fundraising dinner for the new St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School netted $300,000 of the operational funds needed to open the school at a temporary site in Vancouver next fall. Then, on Sunday, Nov. 16, the school welcomed 56 prospective students, 140 parents and other visitors to an open house at that temporary site.
The Nov. 9 fundraiser, hosted by Archbishop Alex J. Brunett at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver and themed “Open Wide the Doors of Seton Catholic,” brought in more than half of the approximately $500,000 the school needs to raise by July in order to open in the fall of 2009. A handful of corporate sponsors covered expenses like decorations and invitations for the event, said Principal Ed Little, so “every dime that we collected went to Seton Catholic.”
An ‘inspiring’ evening
The $300,000 donated at the dinner significantly exceeded the school’s goal of $200,000 to $225,000, said Little. The 198 guests, who had previously expressed interest in supporting the school, were spurred to generosity by speeches given by Archbishop Brunett and Catholic Schools Interim Superintendent Auxiliary Bishop Joseph J. Tyson, said the school’s pastoral adviser and vice president of the board, Father Matthew O’Leary.
“The archbishop was the most inspired and inspiring that we’ve ever seen him,” said Father O’Leary. “He was just clearly personally devoted to this school and the vision that goes with it for Catholic education and Catholic service to the community, and he spoke with such conviction and passion that it clearly moved people to donate above and beyond what they might well have considered doing. I know this for a fact, because at least four people have told me that.”
Seton Catholic’s supporters are especially grateful for the archbishop’s enthusiastic support of the school because hopes for a Catholic high school in the area in years past had ended in disappointment.
“We have not had a Catholic high school in over 40 years in southwest Washington, not a single Catholic high school south of Olympia,” said Little, “and this is a promise that the archdiocese had made to this area a long time ago that Archbishop Brunett is fulfilling.”
 The temporary home of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School in Vancouver. Photo: Seton Catholic |
Opening wide the doors
The open house on Nov. 16 gave Seton Catholic a chance to show off its temporary home, a newly constructed brick building in Vancouver. The school’s board of directors found the building in mid-October, and the lease was signed in early November, said Little.
“It was really through God’s providence that it all fell into place,” he said.
Little said the approximately 200 people who attended the open house were impressed not only with the building but, more importantly, with the school’s curricular and faith-formation plans.
Seton Catholic is set to open next fall with about 80 students – mostly freshmen, but possibly also sophomores, if enough were interested, said Little. The school will remain at its temporary site until its capital campaign raises the $15 million necessary to build phase one of the permanent campus on its 38-acre plot in Ridgefield adjacent to St. Mary of Guadalupe Church.
A benefit concert the evening of Nov. 16 by Portland-based pianist Michael Allen Harrison at St. John the Evangelist Church in Vancouver raised another $4,000-$5,000 toward the opening of the school.
“This is the fulfillment of a great dream of many years,” said Father O’Leary, “and it just shows that building the Kingdom is something that takes all of us, it takes hard work, it takes patience, prayers, endurance and grace. And we have seen all of those things in abundance.”
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