St. Mary's holding million dollar challenge to help fund new building

Stephanie Hill, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·3 min read

Dec. 17—St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic School has issued a $1 million challenge.

The 120-day challenge is to raise $1 million for a new Science and Engineering Academy. An anonymous donor will match all funds raised up to $1 million, said Laura Webster, principal at St. Mary's. An original donation started the academy and now the school is working on completing the project.

"We're in the middle of a capital campaign to try to raise $6.9 million," Webster said. "This 120-day pledge started (Dec. 4), so 120 days and every pledge in these 120 days will be matched by a new anonymous donor that will match everything up to $1 million. It's a challenge."

A Science and Engineering Academy would improve their students' education, Webster said.

"The St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic School Science and Engineering Academy will empower our students to put knowledge into action like never before," Webster said. "This modern state-of-the art learning space will allow greater opportunities for students to engage, question, contribute, collaborate, explore and discover on their way to becoming the strong Christian leaders of tomorrow."

Pastor Gregory Wilson, the pastor of the school, said there is a growing need for technical skills such as robotics and design, especially in the world of cyber security thanks to the different scams going around.

"(I'm) looking forward to educating our children to prepare them for this world and the future," Wilson said.

The academy is planned for the corner of York Street and Richland Avenue. Michael Graham, the project manager, said the building will be about 18,000 square feet.

"We have two kind of large, open collaborative learning areas and those are almost 1,000 square feet each," Graham said. "That's just open space for kids to collaborate and learn as teams. There is a teachers' workroom and there are four classrooms on the upper, second floor and then on the ground floor there are three larger classrooms and a lecture hall with seating for 145 people."

Graham said a final review will be done around April. He added that the Diocese of Charleston has to approve the plans. The current schedule has construction beginning in May and finishing in June 2024, with the academy opening fall 2024.

Jane Timmerman, the music/STEAM/socio-emotional k-8th grade teacher at St. Mary's, said she is excited for the new building and its space. She currently works in a 500-square-foot room overflowing with projects.

"Everything will have its own room," Webster said. "We're going from 500 feet to 18,000 feet."

Webster said the students are also excited about doing presentations in the lecture hall and teaching the younger students about STEM.

Wilson said over $218,000 had been donated through Day 17 of the challenge. Donations can be made online through the school and parish websites, Wilson said.

For those interested in donating, visit https://stmarys-aiken.org/academy.