We are on Facebook

I've now put a page up on Facebook for the Old Immaculate Conception Church. You can find us here

Fund-rasing efforts continue

The fund raising efforts are continuing as we strive to generate the money that is needed to save the Old Immaculate Conception Church here in Fort Benton. Several ladies in the parish created a wonderful historic quilt to be raffled on August 29th. Leone Cloepfil has designed a wonderful greeting card which is being sold. On August 29th, the Knights of Columbus will be holding a city wide picnic to help generate funds for our project. Thank you to all who are working on this effort.

We appear in the Great Falls Tribune

The story on the Old Immaculate Conception Catholic Church has appeared in the Great Falls Tribune. I think the article will be available for one week before it goes into the paid archives. I will try to get permission to post the entire article on the blog.

Story in Great Falls Tribune

The Great Falls Tribune will be doing a series of articles about activities in Chouteau County/Fort Benton.

They have a copy of the press release I put out on the Old Immaculate Conception Church and are going to have a photographer stop by on Monday and will also have a follow-up interview, probably via phone. This is exciting. I'll keep you informed when we hit the pages of the Trib.

Chouteau County Christmas

Check out the mention of our church in this slide show

Choteau County Christmas from Lynn Donaldson on Vimeo.

Can we do some work yet?

The biggest concern I have about our restoration efforts is to get a new roof over our heads, but it is possible that we may be able to do some of the projects stated for Phase II this summer using volunteer help and local expertise. Our maintenance man is experienced as a brick layer. As we have been looking at some of the Phase II projects we've discovered that we may be able to have him supervise some volunteers to properly point and tuck the grout. We might also be able to used the volunteers to redirect some of our sprinklers. Several of them are currently spraying towards the old church and causing some of our issues with the grout being washed out. As we get those projects under way, I'll report on our progress.

Support from far away

I am happy to mention that we are receiving a regular contribution from Wyoming for our restoration efforts, and it appears an anonymous donor from Indiana is sending a regular postal money order contribution. For people who are not able to make a big contribution in one payment, making payments over time can still help us achieve our goals.

Thanks to those who are continuing to support our project.

Funds continue to trickle in

Thanks to our donation button on the blog and our web page we are continuing to get funds in for the restoration effort. If you have a way to get the word out about the blog or webpage, it would help us out some more.

Thanks

Parish gets new webpage

I've been putting a lot of work into the webpages for the old church here in Fort Benton. It is good to work on the old, but I don't want to be accused of ignoring the present. With that in mind, I spent yesterday working on a new web page for our current parish church and activities. Check it out here

Thank You

I'd like to take a moment to thank the families of Mary 'Therese' Mousel and Joseph H. Moorse for suggesting us to those who want to offer a memorial. I also ask all of our donors and benefactors to pray for the repose of their souls and for their families. We will be seeing our gauge rise in the next week as we add the memorials that have come in while I've been traveling, as well as those still coming in after the funeral this week.

Requiem in pacem

Slide Show

I thought I would share a few of the photos I've taken of Old Immaculate Conception

KRTV Story on the Old Church

News story to broadcast Sun evening

I just got the following e-mail from KRTV.

Father Leo,

The story is scheduled to air Sunday night at 5:30 and 10. It may also air on Monday morning during the 6 am news. It should be available online sometime Sunday night.

Thanks,
Tim McGonigal
KRTV News Director

Remember that all times are MST.