Rett family calls GRACE Center support stunning

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent 

 Mary Jo Rett admitted she was dreading having to celebrate her first Christmas without her daughter Grace, who died in a traffic accident in January 2020 in Vero Beach, Florida, the day after her 20th birthday. Grace was there training with women’s crew teammates from the College of the Holy Cross.  

But Mrs. Rett’s spirits and those of her husband Chris and daughter Brianne soared when more than $600,000 was raised to help build a recreation center that will be named after Grace at Our Lady of the Valley Regional School in their hometown of Uxbridge. 

The Grace to the Finish fundraiser lasted 62 hours and three seconds. The unusual timeframe was significant. Grace set a world record for consecutive indoor rowing with that time in December 2019. 

When Mrs. Rett spoke with Holy Cross president Father Philip L. Boroughs a few days after the fundraiser, he mentioned that the event must have felt like Christmas for the Rett family. 

“That’s absolutely true,” Mrs. Rett said. “That was our Christmas.” 

Grace and Brianne attended Our Lady of the Valley from kindergarten through eighth grade and their mother teaches music there. 

“They loved OLV so much,” Mrs. Rett said. “We’re huge fans of that OLV community and the school. They were very well educated. They were very well prepared for high school. Their faith was nurtured. It’s an amazing school.” 

When Brianne was in the first grade, Mrs. Rett began volunteering with the school chorus and she went on to become the school’s music teacher. Eventually, when Mrs. Rett reports to work each day, she’ll be able to see the center named after her daughter. 

It’s going to be very emotional,” she said. “I feel that way any time I go to OLV. I feel Grace there, I feel Brianne there. But to have that building and to know what it’s going to do for the kids and how much it meant to Grace ...” 

Grace had said that if she ever had the money, she wanted to build a gym for the school. 

“She said it a lot,” her mother said, “because it meant so much to her.” 

It was Brianne’s idea to call the building the “Grace Recreation Athletic Complex and Education” Center – or GRACE Center – in order to use each of the first letters of her sister’s first name. Brianne also designed the center’s logo by replacing the word “and” with a cross between the C and the E.  

Father Nicholas Desimone, the Retts’ pastor at St. Mary Church next door to the school, said the name of the center is not only a play on Grace’s name, “but also the fact that we live by grace, that outpouring of God’s self at every moment. So, the ironies abound.” 

Thomas Wickstrom, chairman of OLV’s consultative board, reported this week that the fundraiser that lasted from 8 a.m. Dec. 19 through 10 p.m. Dec. 21, raised more than $600,000 from about 5,000 donations from all over the country. 

“It was just stunning,” Mrs. Rett said. 

The Grace to the Finish fundraiser combined with school savings and other donations, including an anonymous gift of $1 million, give OLV nearly $3 million toward its goal of $3.8 million to build the center, according to Mr. Wickstrom. 

The Rett family and the school are confident that the fundraising goal will be met in time for construction to begin on schedule in April so the center can open in January of 2022. 

During the fundraiser, members of the Holy Cross women’s crew team raised more than $50,000 while taking turns completing the 62 hours and three seconds that Grace rowed by herself the previous December. Holy Cross alumni donated more than $15,000. 

The tight-knit national rowing community, including the University of Notre Dame women’s crew team, helped raise money during the fundraiser. Donations arrived from as far away as Texas and California. 

Families at OLV and Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson, Connecticut, which Grace also attended and where Brianne is a senior, also contributed. 

When Grace set the world record at Holy Cross’ Luth Center, she was allowed to take 10-minute breaks each hour. So in a tribute to her, her former Marianapolis crew coach and teacher, Joseph Parodi-Brown, rowed 10 minutes each hour at the school during the fundraiser. On the second night of the fundraiser, Brianne also rowed 10 minutes each hour at home, on Grace’s rowing machine, because the previous year she had remained by her sister’s side to help keep her awake during the second night of her record-setting effort. 

The center will be built on a field behind the school, which is located next to St. Mary Church. 

“It’s overwhelming, the response that we’ve had through this fundraising effort,” Father Desimone said, “and I think it’s a real testimony to the person that Grace Rett was. She was a lively force in this world. She was an outstanding student, a star athlete and a person of really deep faith. And she used all of those things not only for her own betterment but for the betterment of others. And I think this outpouring, this response is people saying, ‘We noticed. This person had a profound impact in our lives and we want to be part of that legacy.’” 

“It went beyond what we had anticipated,” OLV principal Edward Reynolds said. “I was extremely pleased and proud to be over half a million dollars over the course of one weekend. Her spirit resonates.”  

So what would Grace think of the outpouring of support for the construction of a recreation center named after her? 

“She’d be thrilled,” Mrs. Rett said. “I think she would be just amazed. I remember her commenting on how much it meant to her and how amazed she was that all the people that came to see her break the record. And if she could see this, it would mean the world to her, all these people helping. She’d be very proud and thankful.” 

People often called her “Amazing Grace,” a play on the beloved hymn with its powerful message of the deliverance of souls from despair through the mercy of God. The dedication of the GRACE Center would be a perfect opportunity to sing the hymn. 

“I think we probably will,” Mrs. Rett said. 

 – Donations continue to be accepted online at Unibank at gracetothefinish.com. Or donors may mail checks to Our Lady of the Valley Regional School, 75 Mendon St., Uxbridge, MA 01569. 

Students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade attend Our Lady of the Valley Regional School. Principal Edward Reynolds said the number of students jumped from 180 at the start of the school year to 192 in December. There’s a waiting list for students in kindergarten, third grade and fifth grade.  

He credited the increase to the excitement over the new GRACE Center and the fact that the school has safely conducted all classes in-person during the pandemic. (About 20 students decided to follow along at home remotely.) The use of masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer is required, the school is cleaned and disinfected daily, and students in each grade are kept separate from the others.  

Plans to build a center were already in place, but after Grace Rett’s death, Mr. Reynolds’ predecessor, Marilyn Willand, asked the family if the center could be named after the former student. That decision boosted fundraising and will enable people to remember Grace, who set a world record for indoor rowing and tragically died the following month. 

“It’s been providential,” Mr. Reynolds said. “That says it all as far as I’m concerned as a Catholic person of faith.” 

The 7,500-square foot GRACE Center will feature a high school-sized basketball court, 75 bleacher seats, a foyer, a concession stand, bathrooms, storage space, two classrooms and green space for outdoor classes. Rubicon Builders & Austin Architects is designing the project.   

Father Nicholas Desimone, pastor of St. Mary Parish, said the school’s basketball teams have won their share of trophies, but they will have a home gym for the first time. The seventh and eighth grades will move to the GRACE Center to create room in the school for the fine arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs. Grace sang and played the cello so she would have appreciated boosting the arts program.