Sacred Heart opens $2.4 million community center

By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer

The young athletes at Sacred Heart Parish and School in Royersford are set to jump, dribble, score.
A new gymnasium is part of a $2.4 million community center recently completed on the parish grounds. On Sunday, Oct. 10, Cardinal Justin Rigali dedicated the new facility, which includes, among other features, a state-of-the-art technology center and library.
“It has a lot of school spirit because most of it’s red and white,” said Elizabeth Shields, a fifth-grader at Sacred Heart. “It’s really big. I think it’s one of the best gymnasiums in the area. I like it because we never got to practice in our own gym.”
The school had utilized the gymnasium of a neighboring elementary school before the new facility was completed.
Dribbling a basketball on the “really nice wooden floor” feels good, said Trevor Tivenan, an eighth-grader. “It’s also set up for volleyball. It’s going to really help the momentum of the school. It will help us learn more and make us more athletic.”
The site also houses a state-of-the-art technology center, a library, a kindergarten classroom and two administration offices which connect to the gymnasium, to the main parish school, and to a former convent where the parish meeting rooms are located.
The computers in the new technology center “will help us with our reports and homework,” said Tivenan. “It was really exciting to see all of it developing. It makes me proud.”
Sacred Heart’s pastor also has high praise for the parish community center. “It’s a dream come true,” said Father Thomas F. Doyle, who said the addition is a big step toward the parish’s future.
Sacred Heart has more than 1,500 registered families, with 196 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade.
“It’s a good thing,” said Dorothy Gudz, the parish school principal. She called the addition “a drawing card” for future growth.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at cchicoin@adphila.org or (215) 587-2468.