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December 31, 2021By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free PressMore than $411,000 was raised this month - by numerous people at multiple sites - for a building memorializing a college student and a priest, organizers reported.
“GRACE to the Finish II,” the Dec. 17-19 fundraiser for the new center for St. Mary Parish and Our Lady of the Valley Regional School in Uxbridge, was to last 62 hours, zero minutes, and three seconds - in honor of the second anniversary of Grace Rett’s world-record-setting indoor rowing time.
The 20-year-old OLV alumna, who boldly proclaimed her faith, died in 2020 in a motor vehicle accident while on a training trip in Florida with the College of the Holy Cross Women’s rowing team.
The Grace Rett Athletic Complex and Education Center is to fulfill her dream for her elementary and middle school to have its own indoor athletic space. The building is to include a basketball court and classrooms.
Though much money was raised by Grace to the Finish II, “equally important to us is the inspiration,” and Grace’s legacy, said her father, Christopher Rett.
The legacy of Father Dennis J. O’Brien is also being carried on in the center, which is scheduled to be dedicated in January, said Edward Reynolds, OLV principal.
Father O’Brien, who took up residence at St. Mary’s when he retired in 2017, died unexpectedly July 17. Friends and former parishioners wanted to memorialize him by naming part of the center for him.
Mr. Rett said $100,000 of the $411,000 raised by the second annual “Grace to the Finish” was for the Father O’Brien wing.
More than $3.6 million of the overall goal of $3.8 million has been raised, he said.
Religious sisters are to be honored along with Father O’Brien “to reflect Father O’Brien’s love of and commitment to the religious orders that helped form his faith and empower his ministry,” according to Mr. Reynolds. The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sisters of St. Joseph, who taught him, and the Sisters of St. Anne he worked with at Holy Name Central Catholic High School in Worcester, will be represented.
“We’re trying to inspire parishioners from where Father O’Brien served to consider making a gift in his honor,” because he was devoted to Catholic education, Mr. Reynolds said.
Grace’s sister, Brianne, is also an inspiration, according to their father. Among fund-raising efforts for GRACE to the Finish II was what she did at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where she is a student. When asked in a radio interview about her relationship with God after her sister’s death, she said that relationship is stronger, their father said.
“I think that’s why the athletic director wanted to focus on her story,” Mr. Rett said. He said that the fund-raising and awareness-raising included a talk Brianne gave to fellow students, an article about her and bracelets she designed which honor Grace.
Other efforts included Holy Cross rowing team members and others on indoor rowing machines, hoop-a-thons and a read-a-thon by OLV students, indoor golfing, gift card raffles, an online auction and a musician and businesses donating proceeds to the cause.
“We were all together … on one long Zoom call” for the three days, Mr. Rett said. People came and went on the calls, showing what they were doing and cheering.
