LETTER FROM THE HEADMASTER

Dear Friends of BC,

A year ago, we were initiating the first phase of the last phase of our Capital Campaign, our Parking Lot project. Today, I look with gratitude on an expanse that not only accommodates our vastly expanded parking needs but greatly enhances our campus’s curb appeal and security. For this considerable improvement, I have you to thank.

Thanks to your incredible support, the campus has seen a rejuvenation during the past eight years. Thanks to you, all of our Academic Building’s classrooms have been renovated, our electrical grid has been updated, a STEM wing has been constructed, a turf field has been installed, a sports plaza has been installed and the lighting at our athletic fields is now in place. I have you to thank and I hope that you can take great pride in BC’s face lift.

All of this has allowed BC to expand our enrollment and most importantly, see our graduates admitted to our country’s finest schools and military academies. Not only do we see our grads providing for the needs of a growing Savannah but for Georgia and our Nation.

Beyond a doubt, the progress that we have made, thanks to you, has been considerable and goodness knows too, we cannot afford to stop here. So much needs to be renovated, our Cafeteria and Academic Building, the gym floor replaced and an endowment, reimagined.

This endowment is critical to our resiliency in times of crisis but most especially, our key to affording us the opportunity of offering a BC education to the growing Savannah community and allowing a future generation to take their place as leaders within the Savannah, Georgia and National leadership.

Thank you for all of the sacrifices that you have made that has allowed BC to plan for its future.

Sincerely,

Fr. Frank Ziemkiewicz, O.S.B. Headmaster

Article continued from page 1. to the campaign. And we were very thankful and very excited. We had the opportunity to visit with him 10 days later, on campus, and I asked him why. ‘You went from being a generous annual fund donor to making a sixfigure commitment to the campaign. Why?’ And his answer was, ‘Benedictine had never given me a reason before to make a gift like that. But Fr. Frank had cast the vision and I was excited about where BC was going, so I made the commitment.’”

Again and again, members of the BC family made financial commitments to the school. As each new project sprouted up throughout campus, a wave of excitement spread.

“Momentum was created at Benedictine over the last 10 years, and it’s momentum that has led to this overwhelming support for the capital campaign, an overwhelming demand for young men to attend Benedictine, a balanced operating budget,” Markiton said. “We followed a strong process. We had a blueprint, and a battleplan, and a strategy to raise this money. But without the belief of the BC family, and the vision of Fr. Frank, the best laid plans would have just been sitting there.

“We were blessed to receive eight gifts of $1 million or more; the first in the history of this school,” Markiton continued. “Benedictine family did things in this campaign we never dreamed of doing, exceeding the original $12 million goal that, originally, we thought was a pipe dream, to almost doubling the original goal by the time the campaign was closed.”

Although the Forward, Always Forward Capital Campaign has come to an end, the work to continue making Benedictine Military School thrive will continue.

“We are faced with a new set of challenges, not only as we close out this current capital campaign, but look to the building of our strategic plan and, ultimately, next capital campaign,” Ziemkiewicz said. “We have a younger generation to train in the ideals of the school. We have facilities that continue to require the upgrading and maintenance of them. We’ve had the great graces to be able to acquire superior coaches, who have trained our students so well. Our understanding of the athletic program as a classroom in another venue stands to hold in good stead our future students and their lifelong learning process. These lessons are invaluable and stand to be taught best in the athletic arena.

“So much is yet to be done,” Ziemkiewicz continued. “We are prayerful, confident, hopeful, that the support that we have received in times past during this previous capital campaign will continue to be exhibited in the years to come. We are just so grateful to people right now for the opportunities that our constituents have afforded us.”