Rose Garden Resident
Letters & Opinions
New gym brings community together at St. Leo's
By Linda Taaffe
The stray pigeons that had made their home on the ceiling beams in the gym at St. Leo's the Great won't be around to peer down at any more basketball games or to drop "contributions" on students during P.E. Parishioners have sent the pigeons packing. Their departure is just one piece of the story.
After years of living with broken windows, a warped court, a broken heater and ugly wall paneling, parishioners banded together five years ago intent on raising funds to upgrade the school gym.
The school and church community celebrated their determination during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the refurbished gym Oct. 5.
Past parish priests, school heads and parents, including those who no longer have children in the school, gathered with students under overcast skies in front of the gym to wait their turn to see the finished project last week.
The transformation left most speechless. Using $280,000 raised from parish donations, the school was able to retrofit the entire building, replace the wood court, install new windows, upgrade the heater and electrical wiring and hang cloth panels in the school's gold and blue colors on the wall.
The celebration was more than about upgrades. It was more than about a gym. The ribbon cutting at St. Leo's demonstrated the impact each person can have on a community. It revealed a tight-knit community. The finished gym at St. Leo's is a story of determination, sacrifice and kinship.
Parishioners didn't put their hands out and wait for a benefactor to hand them the money they needed for the project. Each of them gave what they could. They collected slowly, but steadily. What they lacked in the bank account, they made up for with their own muscle.
Parent Dan Brown stepped up and volunteered as project manager, soliciting donated time and materials from local companies. Kelli Castillo volunteered as project secretary. Others got busy staining wood and hanging the cloth panels. The braver ones stood on scaffolding, probably about 30-feet high, and hand painted the ceiling beams black.
The community's enthusiasm resulted in the school's first team logo on the court. Volunteers made certain that the blue and yellow lion that covers the center court was big and ferocious looking.
Those who poured into the updated gym last week found themselves bonded by horror stories of the old gym. One man could point with precision to the exact areas where the old gym floor would dip underfoot as a result of an unknown water leak. The P.E. teacher fixated her attention on the new heater. The gym was so cold, she recalled, that she could see her breath when she spoke. She spent most winters looking for a sunspot outside to warm herself.
Those who used the gym had to learn to become handy with a screwdriver, she explained. That was often the only way to turn on the light switch, which worked sporadically. And those who were tough enough to handle the cold and the dark had to watch the floor for bird droppings from the pigeons that roosted above the court. The pigeons were such regular guests, staff and students named many of them.
It's understandable that when students saw the new gym for the first time last week, they treated the building more like a museum, where it's better to look than to touch. There was no running, or scuffing the new floor. Many even went out of their way to walk around the lion logo on the floor, careful not to leave any footprints on the mascot's ferocious face.
More than once, I heard stories of how parents and students would cringe when St. Leo's hosted a sports game in the gym. They were embarrassed to have the worst gym in their league.
They left last week certain that they had the best gym in San Jose--that doesn't mean they will be quick to forget their past. There was talk of putting a fake pigeon on one of those beams to remind them of the good old bad days, and all their hard work to transform the gym.
Linda Taaffe is editor of the Rose Garden Resident.
