St. Walter granted fundraising extension
Archdiocese gives school another month after securing pledges
St. Walter Catholic School, which the Archdiocese of Chicago had given until Monday to raise $364,345 or close its doors, has been granted a month’s extension after securing enough pledges to cover its full fundraising goal, officials said Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said the Morgan Park school, whose administrators met with archdiocesan officials Tuesday to review fundraising efforts, will be given until Feb. 11 to have all of the pledged money — which is necessary to cover the school’s expected operating deficits for this school year and next school year — in its bank account.
“We are very excited and thankful for the Archdiocese for working with us on this,” St. Walter Principal Sharon O’Toole said, adding that she didn’t think the school should have any trouble securing the pledged money by the new deadline.
She thanked school families and community members for all of their support, saying she was moved by the private messages she’d received from donors and well-wishers.
“It was really touching to see the community come together around the school,” said O’Toole, who, while relieved at the extension, said she isn’t planning on taking her foot off the pedal on fundraising any time soon.
“This is a good sign,” she said of the extension, “but in my mind, I know our work isn’t done. We got to keep up on the fundraising.”
O’Toole said last week that St. Walter had raised more than $200,000 through a variety of raffles, sales, dinners and donations since November, when archdiocesan officials visited the school to discuss the fundraising requirement at a community meeting.
Additional funds have since been pledged by alumni donors and the Big Shoulders Fund, a nonprofit that supports Catholic schools in low-income communities throughout the city and has
provided scholarship money to St. Walter in the past, she said.
The pre-kindergarten through eighth grade school, which attracts a diverse array of students from 20 different ZIP codes, will continue to solicit donations for the foreseeable future so that it doesn’t find itself in a similar budget bind down the road, O’Toole said.
Like many Catholic schools, St. Walter has seen its enrollment plunge in recent years, and is currently down to 118 students, or about half what it had just six years ago.
It’s critical for the school to not only maintain enrollment, but to increase its enrollment in the future if it wants to remain open, O’Toole said.
Toward that end, St. Walter will be holding an open house for prospective students and families on Jan. 27 from 11:30 to 2 p.m., she said.
Anyone interested in supporting the school’s continued fundraising efforts can do so by visiting its website, stwalter.org, and clicking on the blue button that appears in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, or by buying tickets for its Queen of Hearts raffle at Beggars Pizza in Blue Island, O’Toole said.