Susan DeLong Gardening at the St. Lawrence Arts Center

By Carol McCracken

The St. Lawrence Arts Center on the Hill was the beneficiary of the work of  20 men and women who volunteered to participate in the United Way Day of Caring yesterday.  They performed a number of jobs including painting the interior of the theater and the lobby,  cleaning up the fenced-in lot next to the Center and gardening in the front of the building.

Susan DeLong, who works at Fairchild Semiconductor, spent most of her 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. shift refilling stones around the four circular gardens at the front of the building.  The stones were taken from the fenced-in lot behind her.  That’s the site of the demoliltion of the tower section of the building that had to be removed a year ago because of safety concerns. Sections of the stone structure that came down were buried in the lot from which Susan was gathering stones for her refilling work. ( It’s hoped that following a successful fund raising effort,  those buried stone pieces of the tower and sanctuary inside, will be dug up and used to rebuild that edifice – an edifice that would be used as a 400-seat performance center, the Sanctuary Theater. It would  greatly enhance the seating capacity at the St. Lawrence which currently has 100 seats in  the Parish Hall Theater.)  Last year, Susan worked at the Longfellow School gardening as well.

Dierdre Nice, executive director, of the St. Lawrence Arts Center said:  “Every year we need volunteers.  It’s great for us.  Non-profits couldn’t exist without volunteers who ask for nothing, but are generous with their time.”