Canisius High School completes historic $22 million capital campaign

Canisius High School recently concluded a historic capital campaign which more than lived up to its title of “Rich Tradition. Bold Vision.”  

The campaign raised a total of $22 million, Canisius High School President Father David S. Ciancimino, SJ, announced.

The “Rich Tradition. Bold Vision” campaign, which was launched in late 2019, exceeded its goal of $18 million. The campaign was chaired by Bob Reger ’66 and Pete Augustine ’83, the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the CHS board of trustees.

“The strength and generosity of our community allowed us to have tremendous success with our capital campaign,” Father Ciancimino said. “Canisius is well equipped to remain at the forefront of secondary education and to provide our students with the best Jesuit education, faculty and facilities imaginable, all so our graduates will continue our mission of making a difference in the world – for good.”

The pillars of the campaign include: 

• A $1.5 million endowed position for the director of Jesuit mission and formation to assure Canisius’ Jesuit tradition into the future.  
• The Madden Center for Global Learning, to be built on Canisius’ Delaware Avenue campus.
• Expansion of the Robert J. Stransky Athletic Complex: Constructing a stadium quality varsity turf baseball field, a JV turf field and other enhancements to the facility. 
• Program endowment for the school’s Center for the Arts.
• Increased scholarship and financial aid for students.  
• Incentives and funds for faculty professional development.

“We were honored to co-chair this campaign,” Reger and Augustine said. “We would like to thank the tireless efforts of our committee and the thousands of donors who made this such a successful campaign, which was accomplished in just over two years and despite a pandemic. The ‘Rich Tradition. Bold Vision’ initiative has resulted in more scholarship dollars, increased programmatic opportunities and significant capital enhancements to improve the already top-tier experience at Canisius High School.”

In addition to the facility and programmatic improvements, the campaign helped grow Canisius’ endowment and strengthened the Blue Doors Annual Fund. The cost of a Canisius education is higher than the tuition charged; the Blue Doors Annual Fund helps fill that gap and enables the school to offer a quality Jesuit education to qualified students of all income levels.

The building and funding of the new Madden Center for Global Learning is being supported by the largest gift of the campaign, that of $2.5 million by Michael Madden ’67. With a modern architectural design and a prominent location between the Koessler Academic Center and the Beecher Academic Wing, the center will provide a programmatic experience to enhance and promote learning by connecting students with Jesuit institutions, Canisius alumni and other learning opportunities worldwide.

The expansion of the Stransky Complex at 2885 Clinton St. in West Seneca will include comprehensive baseball facilities as well as an additional natural grass practice field that can be used by soccer, lacrosse and rugby teams. The baseball center will include a varsity baseball diamond with synthetic turf, a press box, a home locker room as well as a junior varsity baseball diamond with a synthetic turf infield. The expansion project at Stransky will cover 16.5 previously undeveloped acres.

The Center of the Arts, which opened in 2018, will undergo further enhancements and renovations while endowment programs will drive accompanying artistic programming.