St. Hubert High School recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Susan Muller Anderson ′68 Performing Arts Center.
The center, previously a modest auditorium, was renovated and features modernized, comfortable seating for 840 people, new flooring, carpet and curtains and updated lighting and sound system.
The opening follows a $1 million donation by Susan and Jim Anderson, who each own construction companies. Susan, who attended Resurrection of Our Lord, is a 1968 graduate of St. Hubert, where she played bass fiddle for the orchestra. Her husband is a Father Judge grad.
Susan comes from a long line of Bambies, including her mom, Joan, class of 1946, four aunts and two sisters.
The ceremony emcee was Colleen Kean, the school director of institutional advancement.
The Rev. Brian Izzo, the school chaplain and pastor at St. Jerome, blessed the center.
Others in attendance included school president Lizanne Pando and principal Gina MacKenzie; state Reps. Ed Neilson, Joe Hohenstein and Pat Gallagher; City Councilman Mike Driscoll; Bridget Collins-Greenwald (class of ‘88), commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections – Quality of Life; Patricia Rooney, a St. Hubert graduate who is principal at Father Judge; and former Congressman Bob and Karen Borski.
“It’s pretty spectacular,” MacKenzie said of the center.
Pando thanked the aforementioned people, along with representatives of BLOCS and the archdiocese and Tom Forkin, who is Driscoll’s chief of staff and is working on converting portions of Russo Park into athletic fields for St. Hubert.
Pando, who has been president for 10 years, said the school is increasing enrollment thanks, in part, to its curriculum, college/career programs, arts, championship sports teams and more. Anderson’s donation for the center will allow Bambies to gather for assemblies, Mass, chorus and orchestra performances and to spotlight students in the school’s annual musicals, including The Addams Family, which ran from Jan. 16-18.
“The sisterhood at St. Hubert is a very real thing,” Pando said.
Driscoll introduced Anderson, saying he hopes all St. Hubert students – like Anderson was – are inspired to be the best they can.
Anderson said she was proud to be able to make the donation.
“It came from the heart,” she said.
Anderson wants all Bambies who use the center to know, “Your voice matters, and you belong here.” ••
