Lakewood Catholic Academy Dedicates Library

Library volunteers on Dedication Day, from left to right: Ruth Andrews, Kay Kilbane, Barbara Guardi, Jill Negray, Fran Andrews, Bob Andrews and Judith Gedeon.

On February 1, 50 guests gathered at Lakewood Catholic Academy to dedicate the school’s library as The Saint Augustine Library. The ceremony honored the extraordinary service of a group of volunteers who have worked for the past four years to organize, develop, and automate the school’s 15,000 volume library. The group merged the collections of the school libraries of St. Clement, St. James, and St. Luke when LCA opened in 2005 in the former St. Augustine Academy.

Led by Francine Andrews, retired librarian at Saint Ignatius High School, almost 20 volunteers worked on the project. Mrs. Andrews and several of the volunteers are graduates of St. Augustine Academy. To acknowledge their remarkable gift to LCA, Mrs. Andrews and her volunteers were asked to choose a name for the library. The group chose The Saint Augustine Library to honor their alma mater and the legacy of the school that became the new home of Lakewood Catholic Academy. A bronze plaque was unveiled at the ceremony and will be hung outside the main library doors. Rev. Francis P. Walsh, pastor of St. Luke Parish, gave the blessing.

In her remarks, Maureen Arbeznik, principal of Lakewood Catholic Academy, said, “Fran and this group of volunteers created a library befitting not only of St. Augustine, one of the most well known doctors of the Church, but also the legacy of Saint Augustine Academy and of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine. The books in this library provide for our children the opportunity to understand themselves and others and to make sense of the world they live in. We are extremely proud of this library and are so grateful to all of them for making this possible.”