St. Anne Church and School forges new bonds while it replaces cracked roof beams

DIXON – The Rev. Timothy Draper hasn’t forgotten the sound.

The roof beam at St. Anne Church cracked – “as loud as a gunshot” – Feb. 21, in the midst of morning Mass.

“One of our parishioners, a former worker for the fire department, immediately looked up, saw what had happened, and shouted ‘Everyone out, now!’”

As they evacuated, Draper chanced a glance back, and saw the damage that they believe the harsh winter’s snow and ice caused.

It would be 39 weeks before he would again conduct Mass in the sanctuary. The first services under the renovated ceiling were Saturday and Sunday.

On Tuesday, an hour was set aside for prayer and thanksgiving. On Saturday, there will be a welcome-home dinner celebration.

In the intervening time, the church community applied its many gifts to restoring the sanctuary – making it safer in the process – while developing a deeper connection with the wider community.

Meanwhile, the pre-k-8 school that operates at St. Anne instituted a remote learning schedule immediately, but once in-person learning resumed, it had to relocate more than once. Its students and parents have been on their own journey, which will conclude when they move back in over the Thanksgiving holiday so classes may resume Nov. 29.

The sign outside the school proclaims the return enthusiastically. It reads: “We are coming home!”

“It’s been a long road,” Principal Michael J. Armato said. “We were on the right path the entire time, it just took a long time to get there. We’re nearing that return home to where St. Anne School belongs.”

Community effort

Draper and Armato both expressed their gratitude to the groups, organizations and individuals who helped – some within hours, some over the long haul – in their time of need.

The list includes Bob Slane Construction, which shored up the roof within the day. The Rockford Diocese supported the school’s decision to resume in-person learning.

St. Patrick Church offered the use of its Holloway Center for K-4 classes and its sanctuary for weekend Mass. Sauk Valley Community College accommodated grades 5-8. My Play Village, a Dixon business, took in the preschoolers.

Arrangements for alternate learning locations happened quickly, Armato said. Preschoolers were back in school within two weeks, elementary students a week after that and the junior high students shortly thereafter.

To arrange for a single drop-off and pick-up point, Newman Central Catholic High School provided morning bus service and Illinois School Bus evening runs from the various spots back to Holloway Center.

Dixon Park District granted use of Haymarket Square Park for physical education and recess. The company W. W. Timbers Inc. installed the new beams and reinforced the existing ones when construction got underway in mid-October.

Draper learned that members of parish had skills in engineering, painting, mechanical work and – perhaps most importantly – galvanizing and organizing volunteers. With them, the church was able to assist in painting the ceiling, repair the pews, and do a deep cleaning to the floors, walls, carpeting and windows.

“There’s a sense of excitement and gratitude to God to come together like this,” Draper said.

Learning lifeboat

All of that allowed St. Anne to complete the 2020-21 school year, but a new accommodation was needed for this year.

“As the process continued, we realized we needed to come back together as a school community, to be in one location as a convenience to our parents,” Armato said.

First United Methodist Church in Dixon rented space for the first three months of the 2021-22 school year. “It was a sort of lifeboat until the repairs at our church and school building are complete. They have been fantastic here. Their community has been nothing but helpful for us. Conducting classes at First UMC has been key to the transition. “

“Many families helped move our entire school to this location,” Armato said. “All our tools, our technology was moved over the summer, and we started school on time in August.”

In gratitude, students from St. Anne presented the Rev. Young Sun Lee, associate pastor at First UMC, with a hand-crafted Trinity cross.

All that remains is for St. Anne to move all that stuff back home.

Teaching staff had faith in the process, Armato said.

Hands on

Draper said he was struck that this calendar year was meant to be one of deeper devotion for Catholics toward St. Joseph, the father of Jesus, a carpenter.

As the work progressed they learned from engineers that, actually, two beams had cracked, and the replacement beams would need to support greater weight than the original construction anticipated.

There were prayers for intercession and guidance.

“We got to meet St. Joseph in a new way,” Draper said.

The connection with St. Patrick parish also was reinforced by the experience.

“This situation really let us forge deeper bonds of friendship, help us understand more deeply that we are one Catholic church,” he said.

“We are two different parishes, but we serve the same lord and have the same purpose.”