Young angel lifts church from ruins Girl’s generosity sparks fund raising

loading...

ST. AGATHA – Kaysie Pelletier, 9, of Caribou was crushed last month when she heard of the disastrous fire at St. Agatha Catholic Church.

The third-grader at Teague Park School went to her “hiding place” where she keeps her allowance and took out all of her money, a total of $16. She then had her mother send it to the Rev. Claude Gendreau, pastor of the damaged church.

“I cried when she told me she wanted to give her saved allowance to the church,” Karen Pelletier said Thursday afternoon about her daughter’s generosity. “We are so proud of her for doing that.”

In the note Pelletier wrote to Gendreau, she stated, “Our daughter was very sad that her memere and pepere [grandparents Gilmay and Reginald] Butch Bouchards’ church had a fire. She knows that when I was a little girl that I went to church there weekly and got married in that church [in 1984].”

Kaysie, captain of a baton group in Caribou, and her brother Darren, 13, are altar servers at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Caribou and are the children of Karen and Brian Pelletier.

The little girl gets an allowance of $2 a week.

“I do believe there are angels amongst us and our daughter proved it to us that day,” Karen Pelletier wrote in her note. “When she realized what had happened [to the church] she was sad. She took out her 16 dollars that she had, gave it to me and wanted me to give it to the church to help rebuild it.

“She chose not to spend her money on candy and toys, but rather help out the church so her memere and pepere can go back to their church,” Pelletier wrote.

It was 5:15 a.m. April 10 when Armand Gagnon, a 70-year-old retiree out on his daily walk, discovered the fire in the 61-year-old church. His quick actions in alerting fire officials averted an even larger disaster of the possible destruction of the church.

Damage to the landmark house of worship was estimated at $225,000. While insurance will cover a large part of the reconstruction, it is estimated that the parish will be left with $100,000 to pay for the reconstruction and renovation of the church. The building is self-insured through a diocesan program.

The fire, started by an electrical malfunction, destroyed the balcony area and an adjoining wall and caused smoke and water damage everywhere. The entire interior has to be cleaned, from the basement to the ceiling.

When carpeting was removed for replacement, floor tiles containing asbestos were discovered underneath. Their removal added $100,000 to the cost of restoration. A stained-glass window, now sent out for repairs, also was broken.

On Sunday, May 13, Mother’s Day, the parish will launch a two-month drive to raise the money. The St. Agatha Parish Reconstruction and Restoration Fund Raising Committee, a volunteer group formed by the parish finance committee, started work on the project two weeks ago.

The first step will be a letter sent to parishioners by Gendreau, who also is pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Sinclair and St. Luce Catholic Church in Frenchville.

“I have been impressed with the spiritual strength of the three parishes and the legacy of faith that has endured and supported our parishes,” he wrote to his parishioners. “Today, as we have in the past, we must draw heavily upon both to answer the challenge presented before us.

“No one should have the experience of seeing their church go up in flames, but it does happen. It has happened to our parish community, and we are hopeful as ever that our church doors will reopen shortly,” he wrote.

“We are looking for donations of cash or materials,” Maynard Martin, fund-raising committee chairman, said Thursday. “We want to raise the $100,000 in 60 days, and we need the assistance of anyone and everyone.”

Dick Smith of Sinclair joined the committee of his neighboring parish. On Wednesday night, he unveiled a 4-foot-by-8-foot thermometer board to track donations to the parish. The colorful board will be raised today next to the parish’s sign.

“The effort is a great endeavor, giving a renewed spirit to the community,” Gendreau said Thursday afternoon. “It will make people feel as if they are part of something.

“The unsolicited donations are a good sign,” he continued. “It was heartwarming when we started receiving these in the mail.

“We think we live in a culture that doesn’t care, and this shows that there are lots of good people,” he said. “The effort is a grass-roots one, bringing different people of different backgrounds together on one common cause.”

While the fund-raising effort will be launched on the weekend, donations to the parish started coming in within days of the April 10 fire. As of Wednesday, $12,584 has been donated to the effort. Another $1,000 arrived in the mail Thursday.

Along with Kaysie Pelletier’s savings have come 25 other gifts, including an anonymous $4,000 donation from a parishioner. The gifts have originated from 12 towns across the state, including Bangor, Caribou, Augusta, Madawaska, Fort Kent, Frenchville, Orono, Ellsworth, Presque Isle, Grand Isle and St. David. They include gifts from present and former parishioners, a former pastor, several churches from across the state, a congregation of nuns and a nursing home.

Companies and corporations doing business in St. Agatha or with employees from St. Agatha will be solicited in the fund-raising effort.

For several weeks, Masses were held at neighboring St. Luce parish, but on April 28, Mass was celebrated in the basement of the church for first Communion and confirmation services.

The St. Agatha church, located along Route 162 in the center of the community, is a landmark large, brick structure, with a huge bell spire. It was built in 1941, at a cost of $150,000. A fire in 1940 destroyed the previous church that was built in 1893.

The present church, built for a capacity of 1,050 people, was designed by Ed Graham of Boston. The first High Mass there was celebrated Aug. 10, 1941, by Bishop Joseph E. McCarthy.

The present church was renovated, at a cost of over $100,000, in 1983-84, and was rededicated by Bishop Edward C. O’Leary on Oct. 21, 1984. The parish now has 408 families on its rolls.