Legacy of Stewardship: Kent Wellman Gift to Support Parking Lot Project

There are a lot of ways to leave a legacy. We all hope that after we pass, we will find eternal rest with the Lord and have left the world a better place.

An estate gift from Kent Wellman is benefiting St. Anthony of Padua. Thanks to a generous legacy gift, the south parking lot at St. Anthony of Padua is getting a facelift.

Kent passed away on July 21, 2021, after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. He left behind his father, Bill, five siblings, and lots of aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives.

Kent knew we were in great need to do maintenance on the south lot, which has been riddled with holes and patches and low-lying areas that collect ice in the winter and water in the summer. He also knew that because of all our efforts to maintain the church and the school, there would be no funding for such an important project for the foreseeable future.

Thus, when he wrote his will and left handwritten instructions to his executor, he had the forward-looking vision to specify that we should do this project and "spare no expense" to make sure it was "done right." Specifically, this meant that we should pave the lot in concrete, as we did for the west lot several years ago, and that we should be sure that all of the extra work — the "unsung details" of drainage, lighting, curbs, and so on — should all be accounted for and done practically and efficiently without cutting corners. As with the many ongoing projects that the men’s group had managed through the years and that Kent had participated in, Kent understood that value would be found in "doing things right."

“This is what Kent asked for, and it is an honor to perform this work with that spirit of integrity and attention to detail," Fr. Tom Donovan says.

"No doubt this is how he spent his life as a craftsman, sweating the small details and making sure that he delivered nothing but the best.” Fr. Tom is thankful to have known Kent. He’s also grateful for this generous gift as the blacktop parking lot needs repair. Work is also being done to ensure the drainage is rendered correctly. Men’s Group member Dan Reichert misses Kent and is thankful to have known him. “Kent was a kind and friendly Kent Wellman man,” Dan says. “He did so many behind-the-scenes good deeds for the church. If Kent saw something that needed to be done, he just did it.” We hope to have enough left over after the parking lot project to fulfill Kent’s second request — to provide a new walk-in cooler/freezer for our kitchen. Kent understood we've had trouble with our old cooler in recent years and that this would be a welcomed upgrade. It would also allow us to eliminate all the chest freezers taking up space around the kitchen. "We are having architects from our engineering team working on the parking lot and working up conceptual plans for the kitchen with the idea that perhaps when we locate and place the new cooler, we could build the rest of a modern kitchen around it in the coming years," Fr. Tom explains. "Our kitchen is used regularly for parish functions and has served us well but would benefit from a facelift. This would make it look good, but more importantly, modern kitchen designs have a flow pattern for food storage, preparation, and serving, followed by cleaning and maintenance of tableware and equipment. Perhaps we could also look into reconfiguring the current kitchen and dining space to allow for modern, accessible restrooms for our parishioners and guests. Now is the time to look into this as the cooler would perhaps be the largest piece of equipment to place. If we place it inside the walls — or perhaps even outside as Kent suggested — it would be good to figure out how to best use the rest of the space around it for years and decades to come.”

Fr. Tom explains that a kitchen remodel could be an exciting project for the parish to pursue, but no plans would be in place until we have had some time to discuss this further and figure out how to fund that project.

“The architect is providing us with a concept of what might be possible if we do a little planning and dreaming. In the meantime, we don’t want to make mistakes that would trap us with a misplaced cooler that we can’t build around or use to its best potential.”

This is the first large project Fr. Tom has taken on at St. Anthony of Padua. He’s excited to be doing forward-looking work instead of reacting to a problem.

“Thanks to Kent and eternal rest to him,” Fr. Tom says. “Know of the prayers of a grateful community to him and to those who love him. God bless him.”

Fr. Tom would love to see more parishioners consider St. Anthony of Padua in their estate. These gifts are essential to the life of our parish.

“I would urge folks to consider looking at their will,” he says. “Take care of your family and other charities. But don’t forget the church is a need too.”

To learn more about leaving a legacy gift to St. Anthony of Padua, contact Fr. Tom Donovan at 217-222-5996 or tdonovan@dio.org.

Kent Wellman