Parish Painting Restoration Project

St. Mary’s Parish 2025-2027
Painting Restoration Project

We’re committed to continue restoring and revitalizing our beloved church which includes painting the church and restoring our pews. There are donation envelopes available in the vestibule as well as an offering box to collect donations and envelopes for this project. Each week we are updating the totals of pledged Pews and the percentage of our goal we have achieved in the box to the right. Together, let us work to ensure that our church remains a beautiful and welcoming sanctuary for generations to come, and a testament to our faith and commitment to our community. Please contact the parish office or the committee members for any questions or clarification on this project.

August 9, 2026 Project Update

Restoration Project Updates / Important Dates:

August 29–30: Last weekend Masses celebrated in the church.
Sunday, August 30: Following the 1:00 p.m. Mass, we will begin clearing the church in preparation for the restoration work.
Week of August 31: Removal of the pews.
Week of September 7: Painting and restoration work begins.
Beginning Tuesday, September 1: All Masses will be celebrated in St. Bridget Hall (the church basement) until further notice.

Volunteers Needed

We are asking for parishioners to help with clearing the church on Sunday, August 30, and with preparing St. Bridget Hall for Masses. Your time and assistance would be greatly appreciated.
We are also looking for volunteers to assist with operating the elevator chair before and after each of the weekend Masses. Volunteers should be able to arrive a little early. Any parishioner willing to help is welcome!

April 26, 2026 Project Update

We would like to share an update on our parish painting and restoration project. Thanks to the generosity of our parish community, all pews have been sponsored, we have met our goal for pledges, and we have already received approximately 77% of our goal. If anyone else would like to contribute to the project it would be extraordinarily appreciated!

Work is scheduled to begin in August, with pews and the Stations of the Cross being carefully removed in phases for restoration and returned as they are completed. Painting of the church will begin this fall.

A sample pew is currently on display in the back of church. We encourage you to take a moment to view it and see the work that will be done.

At this time, we anticipate the project will be completed by December, in time for the celebration of our Jubilee.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers as we move forward with this important work.

July 7, 2025 Project Update

We have made fantastic progress on our Restoration Project! We still have 5 large pews and 7 small pews available that can be reserved. With such generous support we are at the beginning stages of the next steps of our project. In the coming weeks if you reserved a pew, you should be receiving a letter in the mail that shows where your selected pew(s) are located as well as the plaque information. We ask that you verify location and wording to ensure what we have recorded is correct, and either confirm what our records show or update us on what needs to be corrected. Thank you to everyone who has donated to this endeavor, all of your work and generosity is greatly appreciated!

Current Donations

April 27, 2025 Project Update

As of right now we have 12 out of 24 small pews pledged for and 18 out of 44 large pews pledged for. We still need 38 pews to be pledged for in total, and are at 43.29% of our $230,000 in pledges currently. Many people have sponsored a pew but haven’t listed a specific pew or location that they wanted, on the image those sponsored pews are listed as ‘Tentative Location’. If you would like to change the location of your pew please contact one of the committee members or send an email to bulletin@stmlys.diolcparish.org with your pew location request. If you wish to donate to the project or would like to submit a pledge, please utilize the wooden box in the church vestibule. There are envelopes on the table next to it along with the initial rendering of the painting portion of the project. Thank you to all who have pledged or donated to this project, your financial support is greatly appreciated by not only us but future generations. We will continue to provide updates on this page as the project progresses.

Tentative Pledged Pews

This year we have committed to continue restoring and revitalizing our beloved church building, a sacred space that has served generations of worshippers. Over time, our building has experienced natural wear and tear, and we now embark on a painting restoration project to ensure its beauty and functionality for the future.

Together after consultation and meeting with the Parish Council, Finance Council and the Buildings and Ground Committee, we’ve decided that we would like to move forward with the Parish Painting Project over the next three year period. Our parish received some generous donations recently to put toward this project which has now made it possible for us to start getting bids and putting together project timelines. After careful consideration we have decided to move forward with Church Interiors Inc who is the nation’s leading church remodeling, restoration and renovations specialist. They come highly recommended to us by other parishes in the Diocese including Mauston, Elroy and Sparta.

With this movement forward we will need assistance from the members of our congregation to help pay for the costs of the project that haven’t already been covered by previous donors. We are asking for assistance over a three year period to help cover the costs of painting, any wall restoration and labor. One of the ways you can help with this project is to sponsor a pew. The large pews will be offered for $2800 apiece and smaller pews will be $1400. In return, donors will receive a plaque inscription on the pew they sponsor. We ask that you fill out the enclosed card with the amount you are able to pledge in donations toward this project to be paid out over a three year period.

For better understanding of what is being painted and the associated costs, we’ve listed out the items and the projected estimates:

Painting / Restoration of the Stations of the Cross:	$289,200
New Pews:	$156,300
Anticipated Total Cost:	$445,500
Anticipated Secured Funds:	$215,500
Money to be Raised:	$230,000

Together, let us work to ensure that our church remains a beautiful and welcoming sanctuary for generations to come, and a testament to our faith and commitment to our community.

In Christ,
Fr. Cryton Outschoorn together with the Project Committee: Sheri Guyse, Jim Cauley & Tanya Walsh-Laehn

This rendering is not the final design, but rather an initial prototype only. Final image may change over the course of the project. There is a larger version of the initial design prototype which will be displayed in the back of Church with more detail.