Daily News | This Philly Catholic school, which lost everything in a fire, is already planning its future
on Tuesday was extinguished, at first there was relief: Everyone had gotten out safely; only one firefighter suffered minor injuries.school.
Sheetz is profoundly glad the fire happened on a beautiful day. The children who otherwise would have been inside at OMC’s after-school program were outside playing and able to get to safety quickly. Indeed, even as firefighters still battled the flames, Sheetz’s phone was ringing with offers of help from other schools, from the archdiocese itself. People have offered classrooms and supplies. In just a few days, other schools — some of them in communities less resourced than Chestnut Hill, a fact that is not lost on the staff — have held fundraisers and promised more.
“It’s really important that we see this through their eyes, how worried the children are, to comfort them, to let them say, ‘This was scary,’” said Sheetz, who also led OMC through COVID-19. “And to tell them, ‘We’re still here for you.’” With all the school’s materials and technology lost, virtual instruction isn’t possible. Sheetz wants to make sure that when learning resumes, it’s at the same standard that always has been maintained by OMC, which won the coveted U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon of Excellence distinction in 2015.
The school had already been working on a fundraising campaign for its 160th anniversary — OMC first opened a school in 1862, and began operating in its current building in 1881. And though its sturdy stone construction fared well in the fire, the old building already had significant capital needs., said Allie Dolan, mother of four OMC students and president of the Home and School Association.
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