GREENSBORO — Our Lady of Grace School has been blessed with three substantial gifts from parishioners, including two gifts totaling $49,000 from Don and Mary Gay Brady. The third came from an anonymous donor who gave $25,000 to create an endowment with the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte to fund the school’s curriculum and technology updates in perpetuity.
“We are overjoyed to receive these incredibly generous donations,” said Principal Catherine Rusch. “The gifts from the Brady family provided critical technology updates, and the endowment will be a reliable source of money for key improvements to our school now and in the years to come. It will help protect us from fluctuations in the economy and allow us to continue to provide a high-quality, Catholic education.”
Because there’s enough money to start the endowment, others wishing to contribute in this way can add to it in any amount, helping increase the annual distribution to the school.
Pictured: Mary Gay and Don Brady are pictured in the updated computer lab at Our Lady of Grace School with their grandchildren Lance Farley and Levi Brady, both OLG students. The Brady family and an anonymous donor gave a combined $74,000 to fund technology upgrades at the school, both now and into the future. (Photo provided by Paola Scilinguo)
The donations from the Brady family provided much-needed, more-immediate boosts in technological improvements. Members of the parish since 1962, the couple donated $35,000 for new computers in the school’s lab and $14,000 for new smart projectors in the middle school.
“Mary Gay and I have been very blessed, and we wanted to share our blessings with the Our Lady of Grace community,” said Don Brady, the chairman and founder of Brady Services, a provider of HVAC and building solutions in Greensboro. “I envision a tremendous future for the school and wanted help ensure the students’ success.”
The new Epson Brightlink 685Wi projectors in the middle school will match the ones in the lower grades. They not only bring more reliability and better instruction, but they also reduce the number of devices teachers must learn to operate.
Parishioner and volunteer Pat Tighe, a retired IT professional, led a team of school parents and other parishioners as they tackled the work of installing the 35 lab computers. Tighe and the school’s media specialist/technology coordinator Angie Messick worked for months on planning, research and implementation of the new lab. Brady Services IT Professionals Karen Branson and Eric Haitz donated their time and expertise to selecting and purchasing the computers and working with Tighe and Messick on the installation.
“Seeing the final product made it so worth it,” Messick said. “Our school is known for its academic excellence. Having adequate technology helps us to continue to achieve that goal. Although I feel that our students need to have a well-rounded education that doesn’t rely solely on technology, it is also an important component and teaching tool. We need to be able to provide our students with the best technology we can so that they are better prepared, 21st-century learners. Our lab will allow us to keep current with new software and benefit from digital textbooks and other learning resources.”
The new Lenovo All-In-One Desktop computers feature the Windows 10 operating system. Most of the workstations in the school use Windows 7, an old operating system for which support and software compatibility are slowly phasing out. The computers in the lab were showing age, too. Some of the machines became corrupt, making them difficult and time-consuming to restore.
“With Mr. Tighe and myself being the IT support staff for the school, we knew it would make a huge difference to be able to replace the lab and start from scratch, so to speak, with new, updated devices, not to mention having the correct number of workstations needed to adequately serve the needs of our students,” Messick said.
Our Lady of Grace School’s computer lab, with new technology funded by the Brady family and an anonymous donor. (Photo provided by Angie Messick)The students have been very excited about the updates. “The new computers are great!” exclaimed fourth-grader Hannah Carney. “They run really fast and they are much easier to work with.” Eighth-grader Lance Farley, one of the Bradys’ 14 grandchildren, said he was happy to have Windows 10 before he graduates in May. His cousin, kindergartner Levi Brady, and the rest of the elementary school will enjoy the upgrades much longer and will see continued improvements thanks to the technology and curriculum endowment.
Lance and Levi are two of more than a dozen members of the Brady-Farley family to attend OLG over the years. Among them were Don and Mary Gay Brady’s five children: Ann Leigh, Jim, Mary Kate, Joe and Amy Beth.
The couple has donated the money for a variety of additions to the Our Lady of Grace campus, including the pre-kindergarten playground, a new sound system for the church, and a campus security system. They made significant contributions to new building projects as well.
Brady began supporting education decades ago. He was chair of the capital campaign for the 1976 expansion of OLG School, which was later blessed by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen on Nov. 14 that year. He also served on the capital campaign committee for the current school building that opened in 2014. Brady has been chair of the parish council twice and was a member of the Board of Education for Guilford County Schools. Formerly a member of the Presbyterian Church, he converted to Catholicism more than 45 years ago on the same day his son Jim received his First Holy Communion at Our Lady of Grace.
“As a long-time parent, I have always been grateful for the generosity of our parish family toward our school,” Rusch said. “The investments made in Catholic education by families like the Bradys have a tremendous impact on our students as they are prepared at OLG to serve and to lead as Christ’s light in our community and beyond. Their commitment ensures the continued growth and success of our school.”
— Annie Ferguson, Correspondent
Angie Messick, Mary Kate Farley (Lance's mom), Lance Farley, Don Brady, OLG Principal Catherine Rusch, Mary Gay Brady and Levi Brady. (Photo provided by Paola Scilinguo)
OLG fourth-grader Pierre Preudhomme enjoys using the new computers provided by donations from the Brady family. (Photo by Annie Ferguson)