Today the five of us got up early and headed up to visit the grounds for Southern Catholic College set to open in the Fall of 2005. Originally SCC was going to open in 2002 at another location, but building from the ground up was proving too costly. They have been able to secure about 100 acres including a set of buildings that can be converted to dorms, offices, and classrooms.
The new campus will be small but impressive because it was formerly an executive conference center adjacent to a 27-hole country club in the rolling hills just north of Dawsonville. The photo on the web site shows the circle of villas that will become dorm rooms. The villas on the left sit on the lake.
We started with Mass held by Father Kevin Peek. He started by dressing in front of the group of about 200, explaining the tradition behind each vestment. Kelly and Claire were craning their necks. Kathy used to play at Kevin’s house when they were kids. Grant and Kevin were also friends, and he later asked about Grant, promising to visit him in Athens soon. Kevin is currently the official chaplain of SCC.
We got to personally talk to the founder, Tom Clements, who showed the five of us the drawings for the grounds, explaining what would be added each year.
Paul Voss is a professor who took a year sabbatical from Georgia State to create the SCC curriculum. Mary Voss and Kathy were in bible study together at SJN, so we had a chance to catch up with them. Paul is enjoying teaching at Georgia State where he is writing and teaching “the Shakespeare stuff”. His words.
Mary brought us over to talk to the President of SCC, Jim Ashcroft. When Jim heard Danny was interested in playing baseball in college, he showed Danny where the field would be and explained that his son had already arranged to get scoreboards donated from Coca-Cola.
Kevin Peek offered to fund uniforms for the team.
The trip was a fun one to take, especially in the Fall with all the leaves turning. The idea of helping start a new college with 149 other classmates has definitely got Danny (as well as Kathy and my) curiosity up.