The following is an excerpt pulled from The Vicksburg Post’s archives. The photo originally appeared in the May 15, 1977 edition of The Vicksburg Post. Subscribers have full access to The Post’s archives. For more information on how to access them or to sign up for a subscription, click here.

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St. Aloysius High School has launched a three-phase campaign to raise $400,000 to rebuild the school which was damaged by fire on Feb. 16. The campaign phases will seek contributions from members of the three Catholic parishes in Vicksburg, business and professional leaders and graduates of the school. There will also be contacts made with parents of non-Catholics who are attending the school or who have graduated.

Sister Mary Hildegarde, R.S.M., has been named honorary chairman for the drive and the pastors of the three parishes are also chairmen. Lonnie Boykin and Mrs. Hazel Brown will be chairmen for St. Mary’s Parish, Mr. and Mrs. Dave Bridgers will head the drive for St. Michael’s and David Gibson and Mrs. Josephine Pratt will be the leaders for St. Paul’s.

The chairmen for the business and professional phase will be Thomas Barksdale, Earl Lundy and James Cole, presidents of Vicksburg’s three banks. Leonard Katzenmeyer will head the alumni division.

Division leaders have chosen their team leaders and these team leaders have already asked members to work on the parish campaigns.

All of the program workers will meet Thursday, May 19, at the St. Francis School at 8 p.m. to go over final plans for the parish solicitation which will be on Sunday, May 22.

On Intention Sunday, the workers will again meet at St. Francis at 1:30 p.m. for a final briefing before they begin making personal contacts with the members of the parishes seeking donations and pledges. Workers will make their first reports on their contacts between 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the same day at the Parish Halls of St. Michael’s, St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s Churches. The second report meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 23, and the third meeting will be Wednesday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. These meetings will be at the parish halls.

In the business and professional division, co-chairmen and division chairmen will meet with team chairmen Friday, May 20, to select team members. The meeting will be at noon, tentatively at the Holiday Inn, and then will go to make their contacts among the business and professional people. They will report back to the Bank of Vicksburg board room between 3 and 5 p.m. with the results of their contacts. They will report on any clean-up contacts on Wednesday, June 1, at the same time at the Bank of Vicksburg board room.

Plans as they stand now call for building of about 21,000 to 24,000 square feet at a cost in the vicinity of $400,000.