For more than 170 years, St. Mary of Mount Carmel School has been forming students in Long Prairie and the surrounding area. Established in 1854, it was the first Catholic school in the Diocese of St. Cloud.
That long legacy of faith and education continues to shape the school and parish today, as St. Mary of Mount Carmel looks to the future with a significant new investment in its campus and community.
After the 5 p.m. Mass May 23, the community celebrated the groundbreaking of a $6.2 million campus expansion connecting the church and school buildings. Bishop Patrick Neary, C.S.C., was on hand to bless the project.
“This is really a milestone moment in the parish’s history,” Bishop Neary said. “It really is a family of faith that makes these kinds of things possible, and I’m just grateful.”
The school recently finished a capital campaign and completed upgrades to its 120-year-old building, but more was needed and planning had been underway for several years for a campus expansion.
A $1 million donation started the ball rolling on what became the “Our Parish – Our Future” capital campaign.
Principal Linda Dinkel, a passionate advocate for Montessori education, had a vision for what was needed to enhance the schools existing program. The initial donation, made by a family member, was directed specifically for expansion of the Montessori early education program.
“Ultimately I knew that we needed two classrooms that could accommodate 20 students in each one, and there really wasn’t room to do that,” Dinkel said.
Though the money was targeted for the school, it opened the door for the larger parish campus expansion.
“This project will provide something for every part of our parish life,” said Tom Sellnow, a member of the building committee, during the groundbreaking event.
It includes a welcoming entrance, gathering and fellowship hall, religious education classrooms, a youth room, public accessibility improvements like an elevator, an adoration chapel, two new Montessori classrooms and a playground for the younger students.
“This really is a project that’s going to benefit the school specifically,” said Father Gabriel Walz, pastor of St. Mary of Mount Carmel Parish. “It’s exciting because Linda had this vision many years ago to be able to expand the Montessori classes.”
The building committee chose to work with Breitbach Construction of Elrosa and HMA Architects of St. Cloud.
Tom Peck, a member of the parish for the past 10 years who serves on the building committee, is a retired architect who worked for HMA Architects.
“Tom’s experience as a retired architect has been invaluable to this project. His former employer, HMA Architects, allowed him to use their software,” Sellnow said. “No one will know exactly how many drawings Tom submitted to the building committee, but I can tell you it’s somewhere between 200 and 1,000.”
After meeting with the builders and architects, it was necessary to find the intersection of what was needed for the faith community and the funds available through the contributions to the capital campaign.
“This is when I first learned the term value engineering, which, as I understand it, means figuring out how to do everything you dreamed about doing with less money than you hoped you’d need,” Sellnow said. “I suggest that the building committee has accomplished this.”
Merle and Kathy Felling of Sauk Centre recently pledged up to $1 million to support the “Our Parish – Our Future” campaign ($1 for every $2 raised over the amount of $4 million), Sellnow explained. During an April 15 meeting, the couple acknowledged a commitment to $680,000 of that amount for the project.
“Their generosity came at a critical moment in the campaign and gave confidence and momentum to the entire project,” Sellnow said. “It put the project in the position it is in today.”
“We know not all parishioners are always going to agree, but you have to grab a vision and run with it,” Dinkel added. “I just think in God’s providence there were a lot of things that happened that just kept us feeling like we were on the right track, because things would happen just when we needed them.”
Work on the project will begin in June and is expected to wrap up in the spring of 2027. Additional work on the parking lot and landscaping will continue into the summer.
“It’s exciting to be at this stage, to finally be breaking ground,” Father Walz said. “I’ve only been here for two years, but these folks have been working on this for many years, leading up to now, and just to see that hope stirred in them and the beauty of being able to more deeply enrich the vitality of St. Mary of Mount Carmel Catholic School.”
Pictured above: Members of the building committee posed for photos after the event. (Dianne Towalski The Central Minnesota Catholic)
