Immaculate Conception High fund-raiser collects $55,000 to keep doors open (01/24/93)

Immaculate Conception High fund-raiser collects $55,000 to keep doors open

by Roman Woronowycz

WARREN, Mich. - Continuing their resolve to keep the doors of Immaculate Conception High School open for a second generation of Ukrainian Americans, students, alumni and supporters in mid-November organized a "Phone-A-Thon" fundraiser that has so far raised more than $55,000 in pledges. Organizers will use the money to initiate the move of the school from Hamtramck, located within the confines of Detroit, to Warren, where a large portion of the local Ukrainian community now resides.

The school, which is accredited by the University of Michigan and is considered one of the best in the nation, has had to deal with declining student enrollment over the last decade. Lately, a community debate about whether to close the school spurred school supporters to take action to ensure the school's survival.

Ten phone banks were hooked up on the weekends of November 6 and 13, 1992, at the grade school located in Warren, and were manned by students, current and former, and anybody else who cared enough to help. They called alumni and past supporters asking for financial contributions. Over 75 percent of the current student body took part, either by getting on the phones or stuffing envelopes. Among the backers was Bishop Innocent Lotocky, who showed up on Friday, November 13, to express his support for the effort.

"We are on our way to our goal," said Lydia Wroblewsky, president of the Immaculate Conception Parents Club, which sponsored the event. "I have every faith we will reach it with our mailing." She said the club had set a $100,000 target, based on the hope that 1,000 alumni would give an average of $100 each towards maintaining the school. The mailing is a follow-up request for donations sent out in early December to alumni who were not reached by phone.

Future plans for the school have been changing more quickly than the textbooks in its computer classes (or a teenager's hairstyle). Current plans, though far from concrete, call for some minimal modernization of the grade school building, which has more than adequate space available for the high school's classroom needs, to make room for a library and administrative offices. The Rev. Bernard Panczuk said serious negotiations are being conducted about using the sports facilities of the Warren Consolidated school system, which would then greatly minimize the cost of the move.

Original hopes were that the community would support a $2 million investment in the expansion and modernization of the grade school. The Rev. Panczuk, pastor of St. Josaphat's Church in Warren, one of the two parishes that support the school, said those plans changed when "some very good people voiced their concerns on spending such a large amount of money on a select few students."

Then the school decided to look to rent a facility in the Warren area and found the empty school building of Our Lady of Redemption. However, negotiations fell through when Our Lady insisted they could only sell, not lease the structure.

The Rev. Panczuk said the current strategy is a temporary measure. "Right now what we would do is make a minimum investment that would simply become an upgrade for the grade school if the high school should fail. If the school survives, that is (if) the enrollment steadily rises and we get the confidence of the people, then in two to three years we could build the gymnasium and all the needed administrative facilities."

Tax-deductible charitable contributions are being accepted by the Immaculate Conception High School Parents Club. Donations may be sent to: Phone-A-Thon, Immaculate Conception High School, 11600 McDougall, Hamtramck, MI, 48212.

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