DRAPER — This year the Skaggs Catholic Center in Draper is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Founded in 1999, the Skaggs Catholic Center offers educational opportunities from preschool through high school. The 57-acre campus houses Guardian Angel Day Care, St. John the Baptist Elementary, St. John the Baptist Middle School and Juan Diego Catholic High School.
For the anniversary, “there will be different things that the schools will be doing through the school year, said David Brunetti, JDCHS’ director of campus life.
However, official events will be Sept. 25-27; the original dedication of the school was on Sept. 26, 1999.
On the evening of Sept. 25, an invitation-only event will honor the dedication anniversary by the presentation of a 300-page book “that chronicles all of the art that is on the campus,” Brunetti said.
“At the Skaggs Center there’s the belief that if spirits are surrounded by an environment that is beautiful and rich and filled with art, their minds are more open not only to learning but feeling the presence of God, so over the course of 25 years the campus every year commissions a new piece of art,” he said.
On Sept. 26, the actual anniversary date, Mass will be celebrated in the morning. Among those invited to attend are the school community, diocesan and government officials, and family members of the founders and donors.
“Then, on that evening there will be a private gala very similar to the Bishop’s Dinner but at the same time different,” Brunetti said. “We want to offer a trip into memory lane; a lot of alumni are coming back.”
Rounding out the three days, on Sept. 27 will be a celebration on campus from 6 to 10 p.m. to which all the community is invited.
In addition to these celebrations, on Nov. 1, the Feast of All Saints, “we will open the time capsule that has been buried for 25 years,” Brunetti said. “Then on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe [Dec. 12], we will add more items, close and seal and bury it again.”
According to the diocesan archives, the Skaggs Catholic Center was funded by Leonard Samuel (Sam) Skaggs, Jr. and his wife, Ailene, who donated $42 million to build the facility as a flagship for the Catholic community in Utah.
“The real miraculous aspect is that that would happen here in Salt Lake City, which doesn’t have a large Catholic population,” said Dr. Galey Colosimo, who has served as principal of Juan Diego CHS since it opened; he also served as the project director as the center was being built.
When the Most Rev. George H. Niederauer was installed as Bishop of Salt Lake City in early 1995, he took up the cause to increase Catholic education in the state and had the diocese place a bid on the old Jordan High School in Sandy. The diocese lost the bid, and that was when the Skaggs Family Foundation for Roman Catholic and Community Charities stepped in.
The generosity of the Skaggs family was “heaven sent,” said Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, who was then the diocesan vicar general. “We would never be able to raise that kind of money.”
With the Skaggs’ support, Msgr. Fitzgerald and Colosimo spent several months traveling to 100 public, private and Catholic schools, learning the best and worst of modern school construction. What they learned was incorporated into the plans used by MHTN Architects of Salt Lake and Big-D Construction of Ogden as the building of the Skaggs Catholic Center began.
When the center opened, “the vision was that a community was going to be created,” Brunetti said. “When the school was opened through that generous gift of the Skaggs family, it was just bricks and mortar; it had no traditions, no charism, no sense of belonging, but what has happened through 25 years is that a lot of joy, a lot of wonderful success, a lot of beautiful moments in people’s lives and also through moments of great sorrow – that whole experience has formed a community of people that the Skaggs Catholic Center is home to.”
Hundreds and hundreds of students have spent their entire educational life, from cradle to heading to college, at the Skaggs Center, he said.
“This is a place that people call home. … Parents and their kids have passed through this school and have spent a good part of their lives here,” he said.
“It’s really wonderful when you are here for that long; this is a full circle of life that is hard to put into words: the relationships that have been formed here, the bonds that have been formed,” Brunetti said. “I could not be more grateful; it is an honor and a pleasure to be here.”
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