Video Update: Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thank you very much for all of your interest and prayers for the Immaculata Project. Already we've received a great number of donations and pledges for the project, so we thank you very much.

I'd like to answer for you today three questions about the project as we move forward. The first question is, “Where are we in the design of the new Immaculata?” The second question is, “Have we already hired a contractor for the project?” And the third question is, “When will we be able to give you an update on fundraising?”

So where are we in the design process for the church? As I'm sure you've already seen on our website and in the video for the project, we have finalized more or less the exterior design of the church, as well as the floor plan for the church to make sure that it's suitable for all of our parish needs. There's still a lot of work to be done over the next year or so on some of the nuances of the interior design.

[For example] Will we have columns wrapped in marble or local stone? What will the altar be made out of? What kind of paintings or murals will there be in the church? All of these are questions that we hope to find answers to over the coming year - especially as we bring a contractor on board who can help us with some of those decisions.

Have we hired a contractor yet? Yes, we have. After sending out multiple ‘requests for proposals’ to different firms that we thought would be suitable to build a project of this size, and after much discussion amongst our professional team, we finally filled this role of Construction Manager [i.e. Contractor]. The benefits of having a Construction Manager at this point in the process is that they will be able to help act as a certain ‘construction consultant’ to help us know the constructibility of what has already been designed, and to get more precise cost estimations based on their knowledge at the local market of subcontractors, which in turn will help us establish a guaranteed maximum price for the project.

When will a fundraising update be given? On August the 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, our parishioners here in St. Mary’s made their pledges to the Immaculata. Many donations and pledges have been received from outside of St. Mary's as well for which we are very grateful. So on September the 13th we hope to be able to give you an update on how much has been pledged, how much has been raised, and how much more we need to raise for this project.

Also, I wanted to let you know that we will be giving you updates on this project every 2 weeks. We hope to send you a short email or a little video just letting you know where we're at with fundraising or other news of the project. You can sign up to receive these updates at aNewImmaculata.org

Lastly, I want to thank all of you for your prayers for this project, which - for me - are the most important. Also thank you for the pledges and donations that many of you have sent in. Happy Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for whom we continue to do the work on this project.

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