Apr 16, 2021

Alumni Lead 90th Anniversary Hallway Improvement Effort

The St. Sebastian Parish Foundation is pleased to announce that donations to Project Spruce Up have exceeded the $100,000 goal. Project Spruce Up was an effort initiated by alumni of St. Sebastian Parish School to improve the condition and appearance of the school hallways that our alumni once roamed.

The project began in 2019, when the St. Sebastian Parish Foundation began working with a group of alumni from the classes of 1969-1978, led by Tom Freeman (Class of 1974), on a project to honor the school’s 90th anniversary. The group decided to focus on the school’s hallway floors, walls and stairwells, which were in need of repairs and upgrades. The hallways and stairwells, as one of the few areas of the school building that are used by every student, teacher, staff person, and visitor, were showing significant wear and tear and were in need of a major “spruce up.”

The St. Sebastian community responded generously, including great support from the 1969-1978 alumni as well as alumni from the classes of 1940-2014. Many school parents (current and past), parishioners and community members also contributed wonderful support. A complete list of donors and pictures of the project work can be found at www.stsebastian.org/foundation/impact.

The first phase of the Project Spruce Up was completed in 2019 with the installation of a polymer epoxy coating on all 7,150 square feet of the flooring in the school, at a cost of about $50,000. The second phase of the project work, which was completed in 2020, focused on repairs/upgrades for both the stairwells and repairs/new paint for the upper portions of the walls, for a cost of $50,000.