Pre-school expansion, renovation blessed
SALT LAKE CITY — The Most. Rev. Oscar A. Solis, Bishop of Salt Lake City, blessed the expanded and renovated Nano Nagle Children’s Center at Saint Vincent de Paul School on Feb. 20.
Also attending the dedication and blessing ceremony were Mark Longe, superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools, Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus, associate superintendent, and Ronny Cutshall from the ALSAM Foundation, which provided a grant to help fund the project.
Also present were some of the other donors, current and former parents and children of the center, St. Vincent de Paul School alumni, members of the parish and Father John Norman, pastor. In addition, representatives of MJSA Architecture and Interior Design and Culp Construction, which were in charge of the project, attended the ceremony, which started with a song by the school choir, followed by the opening prayer by Bishop Solis.
“The work of the building is complete but your work of building has just begun,” said Bishop Solis, who also asked God to “build us into a strong community and into stronger witnesses of Christ’s love.”
Thanking God for the completion of the center, Bishop Solis said, “some parts are new; others have been here since the beginning. Today we dedicate the whole space to you as we honor and glorify you.”
Bishop Solis concluded by saying that the space welcomes everyone “with hospitality and grace. This is a place of welcome and love.”
After the opening blessing, Bishop Solis blessed every room and space at the center with holy water.
Because it is important to provide quality child care, “we are really lucky that we have the space for it, a grant and a lot of generous donors,” said Jeramie Green, director of Nano Nagle.
Emphasizing that the center is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Green said that when the facility opened, only eight children were enrolled.
“We opened with just a few kids, and now we are up to 80, and with this [renovation and expansion] we can welcome up to 25 to 30 more,” she said.
Green also said that she was excited and grateful to have the bishop and the parish community celebrating that day at the center.
“Nano is a community – it’s so great to have it,” said Jessica Acosta, part of the Nano Nagle parents’ community.
Nano Nagle Children’s Center is an infant through 3-year-old facility that opened in 2009 after Saint Vincent de Paul School partially renovated what was the old convent where the founders of the school, the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lived in the 1960s. The center was named after the foundress of the Presentation sisters, the Venerable Nano Nagle.
The facility was upgraded in 2011 thanks to a grant from the ASLAM Foundation. This most recent expansion allows the program for 3-year-olds to return to the main Nano Nagle building; for the past six years this program was housed in the parish’s Holy Family Hall.
“Of the 125 children who have ‘graduated’ from Nano Nagle, 96 of them currently attend Saint Vincent de Paul School,” states the press release about the dedication.