March 8, 2009

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

February was anotherproductive month in our building process. Below is an update on our February results, what you can expect going forward, and where we could use some help.

Spiritual Campaign:

Prayer can build Churches! Last month we kicked off our Spiritual Campaign asking every parishioner to pray the Hail Mary asking our Blessed Mother to intercede for us to help with the building of our new Church for the glory of her Son. To date over 100,000 Hail Mary’s have been prayed by St. John’s parishioners. Our goal is to pray more Hail Mary’s than dollars needed to build out Church. Submit your prayer count to or place your prayer totals into the beautiful prayer box located in each church or even report them on the building fund envelops. There are also special children’s envelops in the narthex of the parish center for children to make their own spiritual or monetary gift.

Fundraising Results to Date:

Our goal is to visit every family in St. John’s community. Visitors meet with a family in their home and go through a beautiful booklet which contains information on the building program including timelines, preliminary drawings and site plans for our new church. To date, we have received pledges from 128 of St. John’s 2033 families. A heartfelt thank you to all those who already accepted a visit and for those whohave made their pledges you have moved us significantly closer to our goal.

In order to build our Church we need approximately $13M. With the $4M we had in the bank at the beginning of the campaign we have a gap of $9M. Currently we have pledges of $3.72M from this campaign!

Our other metric is cash needed to break ground. In order to be financially responsible our goal is to have 50% of the construction cost in hand prior to breaking ground. Our ground breaking goal is June 2010. This means we would like to have $6.5M in the bank by June 2010. We currently have just over $4M in our building fund! In addition we have approximately $250k in our savings account which is being used to pay the architect fees.

What will happen from here?

To date we have 90 trained volunteers who are busy visiting parishioners. This is a significant jump from last month – thanks to all who have stepped up. If you have volunteered but haven’t yet been trained, please call Steve Carr immediately to set up your visit if needed and a training session. He can be reached via email at or by phone at 630-352-7747.

Parishioners should expect a call from one of these visitorsto set up a time to review the building process and answer any questions that you may have. It is important that you take the time to understand the parish goals and have a chance to personally ask questions prior to making your prayerful sacrificial pledge.

A heartfelt thank you to the 90 parishioners who have stepped forward and been trained so far to make visits. At the end of this update is a list of these currently trained visitors. If you see a friend’s name on this list please feel free to reach out to them and request a visit. This will ease the burden on our visitors by reducing the time generally needed to reach each family.

How can you help?

First and foremost, please be gracious when you receive a call and accept a visit without hesitation. Or be proactive and request a visit yourself.

Second, following your visit, pray with your family to discover what God intends for you regarding your contribution to building our Church.

Third, please consider becoming a visitor. A short training is provided and will be scheduled at your convenience. If you are interested in volunteering for this important ministry you can do so by sending an email to the building program email box – . Stephen Carr, our campaign director, will then be in touch with you to arrange training and to get you started. Thanks in advance to all who answer this important call. We will need up to 200 volunteers to enable us to reach all of our parish families.

Lastly, remember to pray your Hail Mary’s and turn in your prayer counts! Make it a family affair – pray the rosary together and for each family member you have just prayed 53 Hail Mary’s. For a family of 5 that is 265 Hail Mary’s!!

Architect Update:

The building committee continues to meet bi-weekly with the architect. We expect conceptual designs to be complete within the next month! Visitors will review the preliminary building and site plans with families during their in-home visit and answer any questions you may have about the design and building process.

That wraps up the Building Committee report for February. Please remember that if you ever have any questions you can ask any of the committee members, our campaign director, our wonderful priests, or just simply submit your question via email to .

I look forward to reporting more outstanding results a month from now!

In Christ’s name,

Diane Beauchamp

Communications Chair

St. John’sBuilding Committee

TRAINED VISITORS:

Greg Adgate
Tierri Alexandre
Sommale Alexandre
Felix Alfonso
Joe Ange
Bob Awtrey
Jane Awtrey
Linda Barry
Diane Beauchamp
Megan Benho
John Benho
John Bischoff
Paula Bischoff
Jim Bowen
Jerry Calhoun
Kathy Calhoun
Mel Carpenter
Marie Carpenter
Stephen Carr
Isabella Caugh
Terry Caugh
Tina Cunicelli
Vic Cunicelli
Mary Davis
Gary Dunlap
Kelley Dunne
Betty Eisenmann
Gary Eisenmann
Mark Elszy
Magaly Fagan
Diane Fairgrieve
Jack Fox
Audrey Greening
Jack Hanssen
James Harvey
Joan Harvey
Karen Hayes
Lester Hayes
Carolyn Hennings
Carol Hertz
Elsa Hoffman
Theresa Homa
Cathy Hoskinson
Margaret Hubert
Kathie Hudes
Tom Hudes
Frank King
Terri King
Bill Knauer
Michelle Litton
Jame Lucier
Katie Maceda
Silvia Marshall
Tom Martwinski
Terry McCarthy
Terry McCarthy
Debbie McCurdy
Robert McCurdy
Jean McElroy
Holly McPeak
Father Mosimann
Barry Nelen
Gabriele O'Connell
Francine Orr
Patrick Orr
Jim Patania
Sue Patania
Cathy Perry
George Perry
Charlie Rash
Phil Rusciolelli
Barbara Rusciolelli
Frank Salvato
Margaret Santos
Ronna Schenk
Matt Schenk
Ron Schenk
Karen Stapleton
Kate Trask
Ken Tschida
Julia Tuzun
Jim Tyrell
Joann Tyrell
JoAnn Van Nuys
Tom Van Nuys
Tammie Vogler
Mary Waldron
Jonathan Williams
Kelli Williams
Jim Wynn