In Jacksonville, the ‘Infant of Prague Catholic School’ is still in the recovery process due to Hurricane Florence. Most of the buildings have been worked on, but their biggest project is the gymnasium.

 

“It was really hard hit. This gym was put together by volunteers, hard work to get it to come together and then to have storm come through, it was devistating,” Rhonda Fullerton, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, said.

 

Rhonda Fullerton is a member of the Infant of Prague family. She said before Hurricane Florence hit, parents and staff had just redone the entire gym from painting the wallts to installing a new gym floor, all of which was donated by parents. Now the school is having to go through the entire process once again.

 

“A quarter of the roof was uplifted and it rained in here for weeks before we could actually get a tarp on it.” Jose Cabrera, Business Manager, said.

 

Jose Cabrera, who’s daughter attended Prague Catholic School, said it’s unfortunate to see the building where his children had once recieved awards and gone to practice in, in such bad condition.

 

“We lost the floor, we lost the bathrooms, and a lot of the equipment that was in here,” Cabrera, said.

 

Reconstruction has begun on the gym, starting with the roof. Next, the school plans to repaint the walls and reinstall the gym floor. Fullerton said although this has been a devistating process for the school, it has made the community that much stonger.

 

“We’re making it work, but we do miss our gym it’s a big part of the whole campus- we use it for so many things,” Fullerton, said.

 

The logo that had to be torn off the old gym floor will be hung on the wall, as a reminder of Hurricane Florence.

 

The total reconstruction cost for campus is set at 1 million dollars. Administrators said they hope to see the gym reopen in time for the last basketball game of this season.