Special to The Catholic Voice
Catholic education in Oakland and the East Bay has an exciting new development: The Bishop O’Dowd High School campus is slated for a historical update.
This spring, O’Dowd’s well-known and much-loved campus in the hills of East Oakland will become more sophisticated, as O’Dowd breaks ground for the O’Dowd Center — a 38,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility to house O’Dowd’s award-winning performing arts, championship athletic teams and vibrant community celebrations, including Mass.
“This makes O’Dowd a cutting-edge campus,” said Kevin Kelly, O’Dowd board chair and parent of three O’Dowd students. He and his family have long supported Catholic education. Parish schools and scholarships gave his parents opportunities to rise from the tenements of Brooklyn to the business world.
“O’Dowd serves such a diverse group of students across Oakland and the East Bay,” Kelly said. “The new Center will keep our school modern and strong. When our campus grows and thrives, our students and future leaders grow and thrive, too.”
The O’Dowd Center is made possible through a landmark matching grant from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation. Wayne Valley was a respected San Leandro businessman, whose company, Citation Builders, was one of the largest single-family homebuilders in California. He and his wife Gladys formed the Valley Foundation in 1977, with a particular interest in supporting excellence in Catholic education.
Lifelong Catholic educator Jennifer Walwark, vice principal at School of the Madeleine in Berkeley and parent of two O’Dowd students, is excited for the Center’s advanced classroom spaces, including ultramodern audio-visual tools. “Learning looks different today than when the original building was designed,” she said. “It’s important that O’Dowd keep moving forward.”
The O’Dowd Center, bolstered by the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation’s robust matching grant, has inspired generous support from the entire O’Dowd community. Through a multiyear campaign called Cor Unum (One Heart), alumni, parents, grandparents and friends of the school are now within reach of their $36.5 million target, with less than $1 million left to raise before the March 31 match deadline. In the final stages, bringing this vision to reality will require everyone who cares about O’Dowd to come together.
The promise of the new Center has motivated giving in all sizes. “Our family is inspired by the words of Mother Teresa,” said Katie Cronin, a Class of 1980 alumna, parent of two O’Dowd graduates, and vice principal at St. Felicitas School in San Leandro. “She taught us ‘We can do small things with great love.’ Even though we couldn’t contribute a lot, we have a moral obligation to support the community that gave us so much.”
For many, giving to the new Center is an act of paying it forward. “There are very few places you can say changed your life,” says Christine Keener, a 2007 O’Dowd alumna, “but my life changed when I went to O’Dowd.”
The Center is set to be completed in the fall of 2022, and will strengthen Catholic education in the East Bay for generations of students. For a virtual tour of the Center and to learn more, visit www.odowdcorunum.org.
