A WELCOME SIGHT

Whether you're walking into a home, a store, a restaurant or a church, your first impression sets the tone for your experience.  Another area of concentration of Project 2017 was to examine the entrances to St. Francis de Sales to see where they could be enhanced.

The Highway 50 entrance (which was added on to during the pastorship of Fr. Dave Braun) is  architecturally very pretty.  We have added some new lighting to bring out the beauty!  The entire area has been freshly painted and new flooring is in the works. The original entrance to the church is actually inside the vestibule, marked with the arch that you see in these vintage photos:

 

The old glass doors that were in the back of the church have been removed and beautiful new wooden doors are being built to go under the arch.  The arch itself is being restored and will be a highlight of that space, welcoming all who enter as it has done for over 100 years!

 

 

The chapel entrance off of the parking lot is also getting a makeover.  As you have seen, the wall has been removed that was the library (the library has moved downstairs to a beautiful new space) to create more room.   This will help traffic flow on the weekends and will create a nicer gathering area for funerals and weddings.  We are also building a "Welcome Center" which will have cabinets and large screen TV.  Some of the cabinets will be glass to display historical St. Francis de Sales items in honor of the 175th year of our parish. It's our hope to have upcoming event information to scroll on the television.  In the future we plan to have some of the Masses live streamed on the TV so that it can be a friendly "cry" area for parents of young children.  It will also have a retractable table area for people to sell tickets, scrip, etc. on behalf of our many ministries.  New lighting, ceiling tiles, and flooring are also in the plan.  Our aim is to clear up the clutter that seemed to accumulate in that area.  An added bonus of removing the wall is that this beautiful original stained glass window (moved when the chapel was built) is now visible to all who enter and exit this way.

 

We are also working on the breezeway area to clean it up.  The floor will be painted with epoxy (as well as the stairs to the basement inside that door) and new lighting is planned.  This area will  become our Donor Wall to recognize all who have given to make Project 2017 a reality.

 

We're very excited that all of these improvements will help to create a welcoming atmosphere for our already friendly parish!   We're right on schedule with less than a month to go!!