A dream rises, brick by brick

Presentation group is banking on community

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley greeted Steven Krueger, director of the Presentation School Foundation, before last month's event marking its purchase of the Brighton property. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/file)

Kevin Carragee has run more than a few community fund-raisers in his day.

But this is the first time folks have come up to him to ask when the foundation of which he is chairman will be looking for more money.

"Within the community, there is tremendous support," Carragee said of the campaign to refurbish the former Our Lady of Presentation School in Brighton's Oak Square and reopen it as a community center.

Residents' wishes will come true after Thanksgiving, according to Steven Krueger, director of the Presentation School Foundation. A direct-mail campaign will drop 2,800 letters in the mailboxes of Allston-Brighton residents, Presentation graduates, and area businesses to inform them of its "brick-by-brick" campaign. Donors of $250 or more will get an engraved brick in a walkway at the community center.

The foundation aims to raise $180,000 from small donors in the neighborhood, which Krueger said would show the community's commitment and interest in the venture. The group is also approaching foundations and businesses, Krueger said, and has secured its first grant, $40,000 from the Citizens Bank Foundation, for building renovations.

The former parochial school building is almost 100 years old, and many of the systems are original. Krueger expects $3 million in additional funds will be needed to cover a wide range of repairs, such as repointing the mortar in the brick building, and updates to its heating, ventilation, electrical, and plumbing systems.

"Essentially, we will end up with a brand new building," he said.

The Archdiocese of Boston closed Our Lady of Presentation two days before the official end of school in 2005, following the clergy sex-abuse scandal. Last month, former students and parents welcomed the building's acquisition by the Presentation School Foundation.

Plans for the community center include English classes for nonnative speakers, affordable day care and education for young children, and adult education courses, according to Krueger.

"Our discussion of programming is moving from the abstract to the concrete," he said. "And now we are literally talking about concrete - or brick, anyway."