Photos of the St. Philomena preschool fire damage. Courtesy St. Philomena
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
St. Philomena Parish in Salt Lake on Oahu is still trying to raise funds to repair damage to most of its preschool classrooms and some storage space caused by an arson fire on Sept. 5.
The early learning center has six classrooms, two of which suffered fire and water damage, mostly to the roof and ceiling. The remaining four had enough smoke damage to be unusable. Students had to be relocated to temporary classrooms set up in the parish hall and conference room space. A storage space that was used mostly for the parish food pantry also burned in the fire.
“The cross comes unexpectedly but we need to carry it with hope,” Father Li said to Massgoers on Sept. 12 when discussing the fire.
According to an earlier report from William Sandkuhler, risk management consultant for the Diocese of Honolulu, “the loss will exceed $500,000.”
The deductible that needs to be met before insurance covers anything is $500,000, an expense shared with the diocese. But St. Philomena’s pastor, Father Paul Li, said the parish itself must raise at least $10,000 of that.
ELC director Peter Tedtaotao met with Father Li and the parish building planning committee on Dec. 17 to discuss future strategies.
“They will be working on how they can get at least three classrooms ready, so we can move the children back to their classrooms until the entire building is completely repaired,” Tedtaotao said.
Because of the uncovered rebuilding cost, a parishioner has started a no-fee fundraising page to help at spot.fund/mHlpoU. The goal is $50,000 and about $3,000 has been raised so far. You can also donate to St. Philomena directly through the Diocese of Honolulu’s giving page set up for the parish: catholichawaii.org/philomena-fire and stphilomenahawaii.org/donations.
Tedtaotao said that ELC parents have been donating school supplies. St. Philomena’s Early Learning Center is a Montessori-based program for toddlers ages 15 months and up through kindergarten and has 118 students. The school opened in 1978.