Jordan Beck | Daily Press Holy Name Catholic School Alumni/Development Director Michelle Bink, left, and Principal Joe Carlson hold up a sign showing the “Crusader Cross” Tuesday. The diagram is used to display progress on a capital campaign raising funds for the re-opening of Holy Name’s high school.

ESCANABA — A capital campaign to raise funds for the re-opening of Holy Name Catholic School’s high school was officially launched one year ago today. According to school officials, the campaign has been progressing smoothly so far.

“It’s going really well — there’s no shortage of enthusiasm in the school and the community for the project,” Principal Joe Carlson said.

The campaign, which has an overall funding goal of $10.7 million, consists of two phases. The first phase, with a fundraising goal of $6.5 million, is focused on getting Holy Name Catholic High School back up and running; the second, which has a fundraising goal of $4.2 million, will fund a new addition to Holy Name’s building.

Almost $440,000 was raised in the campaign’s first year.

“I think we’d like to be a little further along (than) where we are, but we remain optimistic,” Carlson said.

He noted the school is continuing to meet with individuals and companies regarding potential donations to the campaign.

While the majority of funds raised for the campaign have come from alumni, their family members and friends, and local businesses, Holy Name has also sought other sources of funding.

“(There’s) a lot of grants and foundations that we’ve submitted requests to,” Alumni/Development Director Michelle Bink said.

As the first phase of the campaign includes $5 million in funds for the “Crusader Loyalty Fund” — an endowment to offset operating costs in order to help families pay more affordable tuition rates — Carlson said Holy Name will not ask the local parishes that support it to help pay for these expenses.

“The re-opening of Holy Name High School will not affect the supporting parishes,” he said.

These parishes include St. Joseph & St. Patrick Parish, St. Anne Parish, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish and St. Anthony Parish.

Recently, Holy Name hired Petrus Development to assist with the campaign. Petrus will do an “affinity search” of the school’s database.

“This company will go through our database and give us potential donors — it’s like a wealth search engine,” Bink said.

The school has also created a diagram shaped like as the “Crusader Cross” to visualize progress on fundraising for the campaign’s first phase. A sign showing the Crusader Cross is on display in Holy Name’s school building.

There is still much fundraising and development left for the project, but Carlson said he believes Holy Name will be able to stick to its originally-announced timeline for the start of high school classes.

“At this point in time, we are still on pace, we feel, to open in the fall of 2021,” he said.

Bink encouraged local residents to give the campaign their financial and spiritual support.

“We need prayers … that God’s will be done to reopen Holy Name High School,” she said.

For more information about the capital campaign — or to make a donation — visit www.holynamecrusaders.com, email Bink at alumni@holynamecrusaders.com or call Bink at 906-786-7550 ext. 20.