Messmer High School Creates Peace Garden

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Messmer High School Creates Peace Garden

Posted 12/10/2009 06:55AM

This year’s freshman class had the opportunity to create a Peace Garden during annual student retreats. At the retreat, students first reflected upon the parable of the Sower and the Seeds. Students were encouraged to be like good soil, open to God’s grace and presence in their lives.

After the reflection, students got to work planting the Peace Garden as a symbol of their commitment to living peaceful and Spirit filled lives. Next spring, look for azaleas, hydrangeas, trumpet vines, rhododendrons, hopp vines, lady’s mantle, cypress evergreens and flowering crab trees blooming in Messmer’s Peace Garden on the west side of the high school.

The Peace Garden is a result of the creativity and hard work of Ms. Abigail Vogt, Ms. Christine Nienhaus, Mr. and Ms. Polly Partain. Lamm Scapes nursery in Jackson, Wisconsin donated their landscape design service, a gift totaling approximately $350.

Thanks to all who contributed their time, talents and gifts in order to create Messmer’s Peace Garden. We give special thanks to the class of 2013 for their service in creating a space we can all enjoy.

1926 - Archbishop Messmer establishes Diocesan High School (now Messmer High School) with 166 students.

1928 - Diocesan High School renamed Messmer High School after Archbishop Sebastian Gebhard Messmer.

1940 - Enrollment reaches all-time high with two shifts of classes to accommodate more than 1,400 students and no freshman classes.

1980 - Messmer begins to see a steady decline in student enrollment.

1984 - Archdiocese of Milwaukee announces the closure of Messmer High School and Save Messmer Committee is formed.

1984 - With support from the DeRance Foundation, the Messmer school building is purchased from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

1985 - Messmer High School reopens with 115 students and 16 faculty members and becomes the first independent Catholic school in Milwaukee.

1995 - Messmer High School becomes the first religious school accepted into School Choice program.

1998 - Archbishop officially recognizes Messmer as an independent Catholic school.

1999 - Messmer Catholic Schools is established to oversee Messmer High School and the new Messmer Preparatory Catholic School (formerly St. Mary Czestochowa).

2007 - Messmer Catholic Schools assumes management of St. Rose and St. Leo schools at the request of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.