Santa Helping South Side Catholic School Raise Money To Stay Open
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Catholic school in the Hegewisch neighborhood has enlisted some special help to try to raise the money it needs to stay open another year.
St. Florian School at 13110 S. Baltimore Av. needs to raise more than $50,000 to avoid being closed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
With just 17 days until Christmas, the administration at St. Florian has called on Santa Claus to help in the effort to keep their school open.
St. Florian parent Jesse Terrazas has dressed up as Santa, and went up on the school roof at 5 p.m. Sunday, and will stay there until the school raises $55,000.
The school needs that much money by January to stay open next school year.
Instead of a sleigh and nine reindeer, it was a Chicago fire truck that brought Terrazas to the roof of the school.
"The Fire Department brought me here in one of their big, red, fancy machines; a lot of noise. A lot more noisier than the reindeer, but less smellier," he said.
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Terrazas said the 107-year-old school is an asset to the neighborhood.
"We're reaching out to the entire city of wonderful Chicago citizens to help us," he said. "This is a wonderful Catholic institution, and Hegewisch – the community, the furthest southern east community of the city – has been supporting us in our endeavor from the beginning."
In January, the Archdiocese announced St. Florian was one of six schools to close, after a much-needed subsidy was pulled, due to under-enrollment.
St. Florian managed to raise $55,000 earlier this year to avoid being closed, but needs that money again to stay open beyond this school year.
Parents, teachers, and the community raised money through car washes, bake sales, and raffles. This year, they're reaching out to the big guy for help.
"Santa's going to perch himself up on that roof until we get enough donations to show the Archdiocese that we can survive," Terrazas said.
Santa will be on the roof until St. Florian reaches its fundraising goal. The school is using a Go Fund Me web page. As of 7:15 a.m. Monday, they had raised more than $11,700.
