THUNDER BAY – St. Patrick's Cathedral has been raising money for its “new hat” and has already seen extraordinary support from the community over the past few months.
Monsignor Pat Stilla, director of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, said that the fundraising efforts have gone exceedingly well so far with over half a million dollars raised since fundraising began on Nov. 1.
“So, $550,000 and we're still moving each week, we go up and people are very generous, and they have been very generous all this time,” he said.
“But we have a big goal to meet, you know, and it's over the next three to five years. So, we're not trying to do it right away but hopefully, in three or five years, we'll reach that goal.”
Stilla says that the progress made is a good start but the finish line is far off with the total for the roof of the cathedral coming to $1.7 million to redo.
“And then the side chapels, which are flat roofs for another $400,000 and then the office next door is probably another $150,000,” he said.
“But we're probably going to leave the flat roofs for now, and the office next door, we're really concentrating on the top roof because that really has to be fixed right away.”
The current roof of the cathedral was installed in 1963 and made of concrete covered with plywood and topped-off with rubber sheeting and Stilla said that some of the roof is beginning see some serious wear.
“As the wind picks up and because the building is so high, some strips of it are just blowing right off and it's leaving the the plywood bare and some of it is is starting to rot away and if that water gets to the concrete, then we're going to start compromising the roof altogether,” he said.
“So that's why it's kind of a a very interesting and serious thing to do it right now, you know, now this happened a few years ago as well, we had it repaired, they basically just repaired what was gone before the rubber sheathing. They patched that up a little bit that lasted about 10 years, but now it's right back to where we were before.”
Another big plan that Stilla said the cathedral has for fundraising in addition to other events is the installation of a memorial wall in the foyer of the church.
“It will place the names of people who want their loved ones remembered, and if they make a donation towards them, then their names will be placed there like a memorial like we have at the at the hospital and different other places like that,” he said.
“It's not so much a memorial as it is a memory wall of people who have donated to the project and how grateful we are to them that they have donated.”
To find out more about the fundraiser and to support the cathedral, visit the fundraiser website where residents can either make a donation or buy 5050 raffle tickets.
