About Us

The St. Mary of Woodstock School Foundation, Inc. was founded on September 16, 1986, under the approval, encouragement, and direction of the Diocese of Rockford with the enthusiastic support of Pastor Fr. John Cahill and the St. Mary Parish community. The original board members were Ty Keller, Ray Benoy and Richard Merryman. The most notable purposes for which the Foundation was organized were to operate exclusively for religious, educational and charitable purposes within the 501(c)3 Internal Revenue Code and to provide financial support to St. Mary School. Over the past three decades the Foundation has provided such support to St. Mary School in all aspects of need to support its mission of providing high quality Catholic education to parish and local families. *Several changes have been made in the by-laws since the inception of the Foundation, most notable of which is the break with the diocese approved by then pastor, Msgr. Al Harte, keeping the Foundation independent of any diocesan control and solely under the control of its board members.

The St. Mary of Woodstock School Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 tax deductible charitable organization founded in 1986 to provide ongoing financial support to the St. Mary Catholic School community in Woodstock, Illinois.

St. Mary School has provided quality Catholic-based education to the families of St. Mary parish for over 100 years. Since its creation, the Foundation has provided financial support to St. Mary School to empower, enrich and engage its students. The Foundation exists independently of diocesan control while its membership is derived from the St. Mary parish and school communities.

We take donations from the parish, and then distribute the funds to the most appropriate locations.

Some examples of Foundation support include: computers; sponsorship of the trip to Washington DC for Right to Life march; St. Mary School t-shirts for student uniforms; recent upgrades to school security system; chairs in the auditorium; assistance with technology infrastructure upgrade for original computer lab; chairs for concert choir; donations to upgrade the computer lab made in the name of Fr. Jacob Valle, a St. Mary School graduate; sound and light system upgrade for fine arts programming; tuition assistance; donations to the Guardian Angel fund; St. Mary School spirit wear; book covers; St. Mary’s first high quality school camera; and teacher training programs.