Sunday, March 29th

Earlier this month when George Haddad and myself spoke at the Masses, the committee along with Fr. Gregory felt that the community should hear some of the comments that parishioners were writing on their pledge cards because we were all so moved by their sacrifices and their enthusiasm towards this project. The comments, when presented to the committee and the parishioners, did not have names attached. I would like to share a couple of more comments that I have received and will continue to post them as I receive them.

"Dear Father Gregory,

It was wonderful to see the news in the Eagle recently that you are adding a much-needed elevator to St. Charles. Enclosed, please find my contribution toward the construction of that addition."


"To Father Peter,

Enclosed is a $500 donation toward the St. Charles elevator.

Officially our family belongs in the St. Mark Parish. However, my two grandchildren receive many blessings from St. Charles."

Wednesday, Martch 25th

Here is the rest of the crew that is working so hard behind the scenes. The cement blocks that you see in the pictures will be used to construct the elevator shaft. Thanks guys for the great work done so far!

Monday, March 23rd

We continue to make great progress on our project. The vestibule floor has been cut away.
Fr. Gregory and Gordie LaDouceur are standing beneath the floor. You can see that the floor isn't there and the doors that are in the picture are the front doors. Gordie is one of the hard workers who is making our project a reality.

These pictures above are pictures of the elevator area in the church basement. This is the foundation.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bob Pothier and Jeff Cantarella who work behind the scenes and take these great pictures. They share these pictures so that you all can see our progress when you can't get behind the partitions.

Wednesday, March 18th

During the demolition process of any project you never know what you might find. We have been fortunate in this project to find pieces of St. Charles' past. While working on the demolition in the vestibule area, this old newspaper was found. We believe that it is a religious newspaper like "The Catholic Observer". Unfortunately, we weren't able to see a date.

Not knowing the date was really bothering me. I thought to myself that there has to be some way of figuring this out. I began my search based on the article below about the death of Bishop Wehrle. I had to magnify the original picture to be able to read the text. I then did the infamous "Google" search and low and behold I had information about Bishop Wehrle in less than a minute. It really is amazing what computers can do. He was the Bishop of Bismark, North Dakota and died 11/2/1941. In reading his biography, it was very clear how instrumental he was in the construction of churches in his diocese due to growing members in this diocese.

For more information about the life of Bishop Wehrle please click on the following link:

http://bismarckdiocese.com/diocese/default.asp?ID=413

Tuesday, March 17th

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

Demolition began today in the vestibule of the church. It is great to see so much progress in so little time. We are fortunate to have such a dedicated crew.

Monday, March 3rd

A major snowstorm was predicted for the day that the concrete was going to be poured for the elevator pad but that didn't stop progress.

Pledge Update: March 7, 2009

George Haddad gives an update of the pledges. Along with the update he reads some of the notes sent in with pledges.

Ground Breaking: Saturday March 7, 2009

The "Reaching New Heights" Steering Committee

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14 steps


Steering Committee members with special guest Aaron Brunelle.




Golden shovels to celebrate Reaching New Heights!

A Special Surprise!

While digging the elevator shaft in the bell tower our wonderful construction team discovered that the original beams were still in good condition at 116 years old!

The team was able to remove them and fashion a cross and a stand.

Pictured: Father Peter, Deacon Bill, with Jeff and Vinnie Cantarella. Jeff is our General Contractor and Vinnie (Jeff’s son) is one of the team who made the cross.

The video below is Father Peter explaining just how special the “Rugged Old Cross” is to the people of St. Charles.

We are so lucky to have this piece of our heritage displayed on the altar during our journey though Lent.