HAPPINESS is to have everything…you need!
NOT the need to have everything.
If JOY is in the JOURNEY,
then REWARD is in the Destination
Journey is our Winnebago Motorhome
Sept 3,2021-The Royal Treatment.
It’s very safe to say that Carla and I are just regular people. I expect, if we were in a crowd very few would notice us. The last time we visited Spellman was around 7-years ago. It looked great then and looks even better today. We were originally greeted by Aimee Wetzel, VP of External Affairs. Back in the 50’s, when I attended, we only had a Sister Superior, Sister Vera. But now the school is private and is a non-profit corporation. They’ve been able to bring about so many improvements it would take too long to go through the list. After a few minutes we were joined by Dan Hodes, President of CSHS.
This is one very colorful and outgoing personality. He not only gave us a VIP tour of the new CSHS but also a demonstration of his “professional” skateboard abilities. Yes! Skateboard. In his younger days he was also a professional skateboarder, actually a championship level boarder. He definitely excels at all he undertakes, as we were about to experience.
We visit the newly refurbished football venue. This venue can accommodate football, baseball, soccer and Lacrosse. This artificial turf has been tested to provide maximum protection from both impact and burns. Most of the colored lines are part of the turf itself whereas the remainder of the lines are painted on for that particular sporting event. To say the least Spellman might be the only high school with such a perfect playing field.
President Hodes admits that even if he had the money, he would not be able to physically create a running track within this venue, due to physical space limitations. A more modest track will be created in a lower field in the future.
The tour and personal time he gave Carla, and I would be something you’d experience only if you were a politician and high-level religious personality. Carla and I did not fit either category, but we enjoyed his recounting of the historical changes that have occurred over the last sixty-years. The school looked so good you’d swear it was brand new.
Now a quick trip around the NEW and refurbished Cardinal Spellman HS.
Below and to the left is the school mascot (a Cardinal Bird)
Carla with President Dan Hodes-Below are pictures of the renovated Library.
Above is the library again and our Chapel-Remember this is a private Catholic School, they all have a Chapel. Below and just outside the Chapel is an area for contemplation. During exam week this location would be the place to go to in order to ask for help from Above. Once again, below, were in one of three, I think, Chemistry Labs with the classroom teacher. Actually, school is out today, these teachers are dedicated.
Above is the renovated Cafeteria. Back sixty-years or so ago I remembered having those long 8-foot fold up institutional type tables- so much nicer today. But as I think back, we never minded the tables back then, we just did not know better. Below the four of us are visiting the school Auditorium. That to has been renovated thanks to Pres. Hodes. Nobody seems to know what happened to the Grand Piano that used to hug the stage.
We’re now just outside the Auditorium looking at the Exercise and Weight Room building. This venue did not even exist in my time, not that I would have ever been found in there even if we had an exercise room back then, although we must have, I just don’t know where. Below, as you can tell were in the gym, one again newly renovated. Something new to me was the image of the school mascot, a Cardinal.
This experience and the added bonus of having President Dan and Miss Aimee give us sharing their valuable time with Carla and I this day will be an event I’ll remember for years to come. This was definitely a very rare opportunity to view the many changes that have taken place since I graduated in “62.
For a more inclusive view of Cardinal Spellman HS please go to:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5vOL17sqXQVs2edhqPQ28A
