St. John’s also embarked on a separate fundraising campaign through the online platform iGiveCatholic to close an operating budget gap in the parish and, especially, the parish’s kindergarten-through-grade-12 school.
Alan Holdren, 42, a relatively new parishioner who now teaches at the school, put together a series of exploits inspired by the YouTube channel Dude Perfect.
Each exploit was tied to hitting a fundraising milestone.
“That was a way of engaging with it and getting some excitement about it, whether it raised money or not,” Holdren told CNA. “It was just a campaign to make people feel part of the church even more.”
Holdren is a former CNA correspondent in Rome, a former producer for EWTN (which now owns CNA), and the founding editor of the EWTN show “Vaticano.” So he knows his way around cameras and editing.
He made multi-angle videos of each exploit — including a one-on-one basketball game between the two priests of the parish in full cassocks.
Another exploit: The pastor, Father Jarrett Konrade, climbed the steps of the school’s fire escape two at a time to launch left-handed basketball throws to a hoop 76.9 feet away before an audience of students.
It took a while.
“I guarantee you Dude Perfect does not do its shots live because it takes a lot of attempts,” Konrade, 45, told CNA. “We were blessed to have the 85th shot go in because I was losing a lot of faith that it would happen. My arm was also losing faith.”
He said his arm was sore for about 10 days after what organizers are calling “the longest shot ever by a priest on the playground.”
To date, the parish has raised more than $45,000, while St. John’s Catholic School has raised more than $275,000.
(Story continues below)
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“Which is insane,” Konrade said in one of the videos.
The operating deficits are gone, at least for now.
He is even more excited about the forthcoming perpetual adoration of the Eucharist.
“When you see perpetual adoration, you see people on their knees before Jesus 168 hours a week, you see a fruitfulness that can be like a heartbeat of a parish,” Konrade said.
The bishop gets involved
Parishioners asked Bishop Vincke if he would perform a feat if the campaign reached the $250,000 milestone. He didn’t like the ideas presented to him, so he decided to pray about it. In November, he hit upon the idea of making a long walk to pray for peace.
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