By STEPHEN BEALE
 

GOFFSTOWN - Parents at the Villa Augustina have taken one giant leap forward in their capital fundraising campaign, considered a critical part of their bid to buy the school this year.

The Villa Augustina Leadership Transition Team announced that the group has raised $500,000 for capital improvements. “We’ve completed in time for Easter what we began at Christmas,” said Gary Bouchard, a spokesman.

In December, the Religious of Jesus and Mary, which owns and founded the school, told parents it would no longer run or finance it after this summer. Parents immediately launched a campaign to raise the money necessary for capital repairs which the order said it could not afford. At the top of the list are renovations to the exterior stairs and some of the bathrooms in the main building.

That effort began with a $100,000 anonymous gift. The same donor pledged to match the first $200,000 parents collected on their own. Yesterday, the Villa Augustina Leadership Transition Team, which is negotiating the purchase of the school for parents, announced it had reached $200,000 by March 14.

The $200,000 came from about 100 friends and families within the Villa Augustina community, according to Bouchard. The final donation was made by Tom and Mellissa Maille, who have a fifth-grader at the combined elementary-middle school.

The couple originally wanted to give $14,000, but once they found out that would leave the school $3,400 short of its goal, they changed the total amount to $17,400, Bouchard said. Bouchard said the $500,000 was a significant milestone for a school which in the past has been able to raise funds only on a small scale.

“To do this on our own is significant in terms of making the match but also significant in terms of signaling our own faith and determination,” Bouchard said.

Over the next three years, Bouchard said parents eventually hope to achieve $1.5 million for their capital campaign.

A separate effort, meanwhile, is underway to get the $400,000 parents need to purchase the school from the religious order. The monks at St. Anselm have already contributed $100,000 and Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, president of the college, has offered to help parents find the remaining $300,000.

So far, most of the fundraising has been within the Villa Augustina community. Now Bouchard said parents will expand to alums and corporate donors.

“I don’t think the confetti is going to settle on the ground too long,” he said. “We’re going to keep pushing.”

Reproduced by the Goffstown Residents Association.