Bulletin for July 30

Dear friends in Christ,

Allow me this week to give you an update on the progress of the Redeemer Activity Center construction. As you drive around our campus it is clear that we are well underway with the new building. The trailer for the General Contractor (Paradigm) is onsite and there are plenty of big trucks bulldozers, and other

Redeemer Activity Center

equipment on the back 10 acres that we formerly called “the field.” Drive further around to the back of the Parish Life Center and you'll see additional work being done on the outside of the second floor of that building. From the driveway, however, it's difficult to see just what all is going on.

The accompanying photos should give you some idea. To the right you see the aerial view of the project that outlines the footprint of the Redeemer Activity Center (RAC). The ground has been prepped and we expect the foundation to be poured on or around Aug. 21. Our parish website has a time-lapse camera viewpoint where you can see the movement onsite since Day 1. It's really cool to see the progress in just a month. Click play and you'll see all the photos in sequence. It's a little more than a minute long right now but it will grow as more photos are added. Visit the web to see it in action. And though we've had a few rainy days, work is on schedule and we should be ready to dedicate our new auditorium, gym, classrooms and Youth Ministry suite about this time next year.

We actually have two projects going on at the same time. The RAC is the new building going up on the field, but the other project is what you can't see from outside. It's the renovation to the Parish Life Center (PLC) or what we commonly call the Religious Education and School building.
 

PLC 1st floor entrance

On the first floor, new entrances are being built on both the east and west sides. This will improve the functionality of the space for staff and parents of our Religious Education Department, CtR Catholic School and the Genesis Early Childhood Program. More importantly, it adds important safety elements to both entrances with vestibules where visitors will check-in before being given further access to the building. It’s really going to “dress up” those entrances and allow us to make more effective use of the space. We are hopeful the entrances will be complete by the beginning of the school year on Aug. 17, but it will be tight. If not on the first day, then certainly within the first two weeks it should be ready to go.
 

Pit in old Youth space

On the south end of the second floor, the old Youth Ministry space has been gutted and new walls are being erected to create seven new classrooms and two new science labs. The “pit” in the Youth Room is in the process of being filled in this week with an ingenious design of Styrofoam (it looks like bales of hay) that will form a new base for the floor to be leveled. Additional restrooms, a new conference room, and a few offices are also being formed out of the space. It's amazing how they utilized the space effectively to create room for our growth.
 

New rooms on 2nd floor

Delays in permits from Harris County (the red tape is always a nightmare) cost us a few precious weeks of construction time earlier this summer, and as such, the second floor renovations will not be completed before school begins as we had planned. We are making plans to use other spaces for the first few weeks of the year. By mid-September we should be in the new classrooms and labs, however, and I think the wait will be well worth it. We'll have more updates in a few more weeks once we see how much progress is made. Fortunately all the work in the PLC is inside and weather is not a concern.

All this work is made possible by the good Stewardship and sacrifice of parishioners of CtR. Thank you to all who have pledged to our  Living Our Mission: Shaping Our Future Capital Campaign. If you haven't done so yet, visit the campaign webpage for details on how your pledge will help us reach our goal. Every gift of every size is needed for our project to be a success. Please join your fellow parishioners in making a pledge as we address our present needs for all of our community and plan for the future of our parish home.

This weekend we say goodbye to our Principal Organist, Dorothy VanDine, who is leaving us after four years to continue her education at New York University. Dorothy came to us when she transferred to Rice University as an undergraduate and stayed on as she completed her masters at the University of Houston. She’s from the New York area and the lure of the Big Apple and a chance to move closer to her family to complete a second masters in performing arts management at NYU drew her home. Along with Bridget Wenk, our Director of Music Ministries, I want to thank Dorothy for her contributions to our parish. She’s an uber-talented organist with a keen sense of the role of the organ in the Church’s sacred liturgy. She’s dedicated to her art and ministry like few others. She’s been a joy to have with us and we wish her all of God’s blessings as she continues her promising career in New York. 

Peace,
Fr. Sean