Notre Dame finishes $1.4M center

It's a testament to Notre Dame Regional High School's mission of service, a school official says.

The first event scheduled at the Catholic school's newly completed multipurpose center won't be a basketball game or a volleyball match. The $1.4 million facility will first host the Franciscan Mission Week -- with some 25 students and staff members of the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, N.Y., using Notre Dame as a base camp for a week of community service projects in Southeast Missouri.

The mission workers will stay at the multipurpose center Sunday through Friday, working in the Cape Girardeau area with a variety of projects to assist the poor. The workers are returning the favor; Notre Dame students and staff have traveled to New York City in the past helping the Franciscan Brothers with mission work.

"That's what we're excited about. The first event in the new multipurpose center will be a service activity rather than a sports activity," said Notre Dame development director Tony Buehrle. "The mission of the Catholic Church is to bring people to Christ, and you do that through service."

Today, however, Notre Dame celebrates the end of a 16-month construction project and a plan much longer in the making, as the private school looks ahead to the next phase of its development.

Notre Dame Regional High School is putting the finishing touches on its new gym, which will be opening soon. (Kristin Eberts)

At 8 a.m., officials at Notre Dame will receive the key from the contractor and hold a prayer service and thanksgiving for the completed building.

The 12,000-square-foot addition includes a court for basketball and volleyball, a walking track, a multipurpose room with seating for about 250 fans and a wrestling practice room much bigger than the one the school has used for its young wrestling program. The center provides ample storage for sports equipment and high-tech digital connectivity.

The center will help alleviate conflicts in activity schedules. Student athletes routinely practiced late into the evening because the old facility was constantly booked. Blood drives and class assemblies sometimes moved physical education and health classes out of the space.

"Now you can really just use that room and life can happen," said Notre Dame principal Brother David Migliorino in June.

The school started a capital campaign to fund a $6 million expansion more than two years ago, right as the economy started faltering. Supporters have come through on the first couple of construction phases, Buehrle said, including Notre Dame students, who have raised money to help pay for some elements of the multipurpose center.

The four-phase school expansion project includes additional classrooms, with a fourth science lab, second art room and more space for family and consumer sciences. Work is underway on that addition. Phase three will upgrade the auditorium -- or cafetorium -- and the final phase will add about 600 seats to Notre Dame's 1,400-seat gymnasium. The total project is expected to take about five years to complete.

The school works with the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau to secure loans. To receive a loan, the school must raise 50 percent of the loan amount and have the rest pledged.

"We're still in donation mode for phase three and phase four pledges in cash," Buehrle said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

265 Notre Dame Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO