Chilton Area Catholic School expansion project
Chilton Area Catholic School will dedicates big expansion project following Mass with Bishop Ricken on March 23
Special to On Mission
CHILTON — With a major expansion project at Chilton Area Catholic School now complete, Bishop David Ricken came to Chilton on Sunday, March 23, to celebrate the 10 a.m. Mass and participate in the dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony that followed.
He will bless the newly built gymnasium, library/technology center and cafeteria, which more than doubles the size of the school.
Before the addition project, the school was 10,196 feet. The addition is actually larger than the original school, at 15,530 square feet.
Following the dedication, a potluck lunch was held as well as tours of the new space. Chilton Area Catholic School is located at 60 E. Washington St.
The project was approved near the end of the 2023-24 school year with an estimated budget of $3.7 million.
Just a couple weeks before the dedication, Principal Samantha Meyers said, “We’re at the point now where there’s a lot of different people in there all the time, and it’s exciting because every day I look through my window and there’s something new going on or going in.”
Meyers said the final inspection took place March 13.
She said she anticipates having full access to the entire addition the week following the ribbon cutting.
With the addition, students will have physical education classes in the school’s first-ever basketball-court-size gymnasium. Meyers said volleyball and pickleball equipment have been ordered.
“So, I think the opportunities for phy ed and stuff like that are just going to be huge,” Meyers said.
“The other thing, too, that we kind of asked for but now that we’ve seen it, it’s really nice, is the library media center which has all windows on the east side, and it lets in so much natural light,” Meyers said. “And there’s a little bump-out that’s surrounded by windows that will have a reading nook. It really makes the space just so bright and welcoming, and it turned out really, really well.”
Meyers said that because the project stayed on budget, there was money available to resurface the entire parking lot and repair the retaining wall on the west end of the property.
“We keep saying the Holy Spirit is at work because we’ve been very lucky with how things have come out so far,” Meyers said.
“A couple weeks ago, I got to take the whole staff through (the addition) at one of our staff meetings, and it was very exciting for everybody to see all the space we’re going to have and imagine how we’re going to use that space for different things,” she said.
Wisconsin’s Catholic Marian shrines offer ‘Pilgrim Passport’ for 2025 Jubilee Year
CHAMPION — The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in the Diocese of Green Bay is participating in the 2025 Jubilee Year “Pilgrim Passport” program, along with the other two Marian shrines in Wisconsin.
Pope Francis has emphasized the Blessed Virgin Mary’s role as the Mother of Hope during the 2025 Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church titled “Pilgrims of Hope.” The year marks the 2025th anniversary of the Incarnation of the Lord.
Wisconsin’s three Marian shrines partnered for the first time to create the Pilgrim Passport as an invitation to Catholics to visit these sacred sites.
In addition to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the other two Marian shrines are the Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians (known to many as “Holy Hill”) in Hubertus and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse.
“The Jubilee Year is a profound invitation for Catholics to deepen their faith through pilgrimage,” said Fr. Mark-Joseph DeVelis, rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians. “By uniting our shrines through the Pilgrim Passport, we are offering a tangible way for the faithful to mark their journey and embrace the grace of this holy year.”
Wisconsin’s Catholic history will be highlighted at each of the shrines.
Notably, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion is the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States and was designated by Bishop David Ricken as an approved Jubilee Year Pilgrimage Site in 2025 along with St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Green Bay and St. Pius X Church in Appleton.
The Pilgrim Passport is available for free at the three Marian shrines. Designated stamping locations for the Pilgrim Passport are located at each shrine’s gift shop.
For information on planning your visits to the shrines, see the website WisconsinShrines.org.