New St. Edna parish center to be dedicated Saturday

After years of planning and fundraising, St. Edna Catholic Church in Arlington Heights will dedicate its new parish center Saturday.

Cardinal Blase Cupich will celebrate the 5 p.m. Mass at the parish, 2525 N. Arlington Heights Road, then proceed to the new building for a formal dedication, blessing and reception. He will be joined by bishops Alberto Rojas and George Rassas, the latter of whom helped break ground for the 13,700-square-foot parish center a year ago.

The dedication is the culmination of a multiyear fundraising campaign that collected $5.7 million for the building, which is on the east side of the church campus and connects through a vestibule to the church's existing Hurley Center. It includes a 6,540-square-foot multipurpose room, a 1,475-square-foot performing arts stage, a kitchen, bathrooms and storage space.

Laura Kniskern, the church's operations manager, said the new space has the capability to host athletic events, craft fairs, pancake breakfasts and other large parish events.

St. Edna received Arlington Heights village board permission in November 2017 to construct the building addition and received an associated parking variation. The board approved a similar project in December 2013 that was about 3,000 square feet smaller, but it never got off the ground due to lack of funding.

Three church pastors were involved in the shepherding the project along, Kniskern said.

Some 3,000 families attend St. Edna, which opened in fall 1968 on the 14-acre former Stade farm site. It's first parish center building was completed in 1992.