Chelsea Academy

Please mark your calendars for a “Renaissance in Rappahannock,” on May 17, 2008. Led by Wendy Lee, a group of volunteers has begun the planning for this dinner/auction that will be held at Rappahannock Cellars. Great food and wine will be served. There will be live and silent auctions, and the entertainment will include a performance of a shortened A Man for All Seasons as well as choral and instrumental music in the spirit of the Renaissance. Formal invitations will be mailed in the new year.

Many of you have probably noticed the new Chelsea Academy sign that stands prominently on Shenandoah Shores Road. In the coming weeks, construction should begin on building out the upper level of the east wing of the Human Life International building. This facility is ideally suited to meet our needs. It offers plenty of space for classrooms and the availability of a beautiful chapel. It is conveniently located near a gymnasium and athletic fields, and its setting overlooking the Massanutten Mountains is inspiring. We look forward to beginning the construction.

It is with your prayers that this project to open a new school is moving forward. To help focus our efforts, Father Hathaway wrote the following for a prayer card:

Heavenly Father, we ask You to send the grace of Your Holy Spirit to guide us with Your wisdom as we lay the foundation for Chelsea Academy.

Bless this endeavor which seeks to imbue a traditional liberal arts education with the truth of our Catholic faith.

Direct all our thoughts, words, and actions and guide them by Your gracious assistance that every word and work of ours may always begin in You and be brought by You to a successful and happy conclusion.

We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, intercede for us.
Saint Thomas More, pray for us.

I am grateful to Tom McFadden for his design work and to Henry Wingate for contributing a pencil drawing of St. Thomas More for the prayer card. (His paintings of the Baptism of Christ and the Visitation adorn the apse of St. John the Baptist Church.) Copies of the card will be made available at area parishes, and I encourage you to pick one up and include Chelsea Academy in the daily prayers of your families.

We also rely on the financial support of donors to the school, and it has been encouraging to receive unsolicited gifts, large and small, to Chelsea Academy over the past several months. These and gifts in the future will help us build a first-rate program and provide tuition assistance to our families. In the new year, we will launch our first official fundraising campaign. But, now, as many of you will be reviewing your philanthropic giving before the tax year ends, I invite you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to Chelsea Academy. Thomas More once remarked that “if any good thing shall go forward, something must be adventured.” Chelsea Academy is going to be a “good thing.” We are grateful for any gift you can “adventure” in helping to ensure that this project goes forward.

Best wishes to you and your families this Christmastide!

Sincerely,

Jonathan D. Brand

Headmaster
Chelsea Academy

Email: jbrand@chelseaacademy.org
Telephone: 540 635-0622