By S.L. Hansen
for the Register
All are invited to attend the annual Septemberfest fundraiser Saturday, Sept. 21, at Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln, to help with an important project.
Scheduled from noon to 4:30 p.m. on the parish campus at 31st and S streets, the festivities will include food, games, a country store, jewelry store, silent auction, and a raffle. The raffle winner need not be present to win.
The annual celebration will be managed by parishioners accustomed to welcoming guests: the parish has hosted dozens of fundraising events in the last several years, all to raise money for its new parish hall. But this Septemberfest will have a heightened level of excitement.
The parish hall project was first envisioned 20 years ago, when Father Thomas Walsh was pastor. And the groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this year – on May 31, the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
Since then, contractors have poured a foundation, built walls, added a roof and installed windows. The projected completion date is sometime between February and early spring 2025.
Once construction began, “We expected this to be a two- to three-year project, and wow, were we wrong,” said building committee member Judy York.
Like any other parish, Sacred Heart experienced both success and hurdles as parishioners began collecting money for the project.
For the first two years, York explained, the parish did not have fundraisers, due to other fundraisers going on in the diocese. At last, the parish held its first official fundraising event: a pancake breakfast at the Knight of Columbus Hall, accompanied by an eggroll sale. Joba Chamberlain, New York Yankees pitcher (from 2007-2013), was on hand to sign autographs. Chamberlain attended Sacred Heart School as a child, and his grandmother, Sandy Springer, was an active member of the parish.
Some time later, a second pancake breakfast was held at the Catholic Social Services building. After that, Sacred Heart’s building committee decided to host all future fundraisers in the somewhat cramped school basement, which was being used as the school cafeteria and gymnasium during the week, and as the parish social hall on weekends.
As the building committee continued to promote the project, the members contacted numerous local and national organizations that were known to contribute to such causes. Unfortunately, organizations declined, over and over again. Committee members realized they had to step up fundraisers within their own parish.
“We added a cookie and candy sale in December, and a baked potato bar prior to Good Friday,” in addition to ongoing encouragement for parishioners to contribute to the building fund, York recollected.
For the last five years, the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council has also donated proceeds from its annual Fourth of July fireworks stand to the building fund.
Originally, the goal was to build a social hall for the parish as well as a new gymnasium for the parish school. When the school was closed in 2019, the project was reworked to be a parish hall with a functional kitchen and adequate utilities.
“Most importantly,” York said, a new parish hall would provide “a place to evangelize.”
In a recent homily, pastor Msgr. Timothy Thorburn stressed this fact.
“We need a place to gather where we can learn, laugh, rejoice, and even mourn,” he said. “We need a parish hall for the life of our parish. It isn’t just a desire, but a necessity.”
Currently, the parish has raised roughly two-thirds of the cost of this new parish hall. A recently launched capital campaign, “Gather and Glorify,” is the final push to secure pledges and donations for the amount remaining.
“We hope to raise enough funds to pave our parking lot and beautify – glorify! – the church as well,” said Msgr. Thorburn. This would include repainting the sanctuary.
“To date, we have held 36 fundraisers, and we have been blessed with generous donations from our parishioners and friends of Sacred Heart,” York reported.
Some contributions have not been monetary. For example, to reduce the expense of hiring a contractor, several parishioners removed an old annex and shed on the property prior to groundbreaking, to make room for the new hall.
“We are ever so thankful for the financial support we have received and to the priests who have provided guidance and encouragement through this process, and to the committee members and the large number of volunteers who have spent so much time and energy on this project,” York said.
Sacred Heart has been working with Kevin Clark and David LeBlanc of Clark Architectural Collaborative. Clark’s firm has been working with Sacred Heart for many years on the project.
The project was bid to three local firms. Tim Donner of Cheevers Construction, which has completed a number of projects in the diocese, was chosen as the general contractor. The artist, also local, is David Reiser, in consultation with Mary Ellen Kudron. Reiser’s talent can be seen in the renovation of Christ the King Sisters Motherhouse chapel, as well as the interior artistry of St. Patrick Church in Lincoln, and in a number of other churches and schools in the diocese.
All are welcome at the Septemberfest Saturday, Sept. 21, at Sacred Heart, 31st and S streets, from noon to 4:30 p.m. A vigil Mass is celebrated at 5 p.m. Saturday.
