News Releases

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
May 21, 2009

ELCA's Oak Grove Lutheran School to Graduate Class of 2009
09-118-FI   

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Red River cradles the campus of Oak Grove Lutheran School in Fargo, N.D. Two months ago the waters washed over a dike meant to protect the grounds.
     Oak Grove students finish the semester May 29 at a nearby public school, where classes have met since the flood. They will step back on campus again for graduation May 31.
     The high school seniors have won accolades in academics, athletics and the arts, said Bruce A. Messelt, president, Oak Grove Lutheran School, "but they are almost like a class without a home."
     He said after the flood one of school's first goals was "graduation here for them and for their families, to bring closure to their academic experience."
     Oak Grove began providing academic experiences in 1906, and the Red River usually provided a tranquil setting. After the river flooded the campus in 1997, the school built a permanent dike to keep them separate.
     In 2005 the school opened a south campus about a mile from the river to house its preschool through grade 5 classes. The historic north campus still serves grades 6 through 12.
     On March 28, 2009, the river threatened the north campus again.
     Volunteers started arriving at Oak Grove at four o'clock that snowy afternoon, Messelt said. "Alumni showed up, parents showed up, students showed up -- anybody who has a passion for Oak Grove was here." By 11 o'clock they muscled 35,000 sandbags into place as a secondary dike.
     In the middle of the night the permanent dike breached. The river filled the basement and reached the first floor of Benson Hall. It entered the lower level of Jackson Hall. Both are classroom buildings, with offices in Jackson Hall. Water backed into the Ellig Center and threatened the gymnasium floor.
     "It was just one of those darkest times, when your cup is completely empty and the only thing that fills it is the Holy Spirit and God's countenance and love.  That's what happened," Messelt said. A Sunday morning prayer service turned into a rallying point, and volunteers poured back onto campus.
     "It was a battle, and by Sunday afternoon we had started winning," he said.
     It was clear, however, that it would be a long time before classes could be held again on the north campus, Messelt said. "It went from being a sprint to fight the flood to being a marathon of recovering from the flood."
     Oak Grove Lutheran School is a school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Even before the water receded, Concordia College, an ELCA college on the other side of the river in Moorhead, Minn., offered the use of its campus. "Several of our church partners said we could have classes in churches," he said.
     The next goal is to have the whole campus "back in action for the fall," said AnnMarie Campbell, director of marketing and communications, Oak Grove Lutheran School. Fall classes start August 26.
     Oak Grove is wrapping up a centennial capital campaign. Landscaping was all that remained of plans to improve the campus, and fundraising was about $3 million short of reaching an $18 million goal by the end of 2009.
     Now the school estimates that up to another $500,000 will be needed for recovery costs not covered by insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Campbell said.
     "At least for the next six months we know what our job is … put Oak Grove back in a position that it can fully advance the mission that's ahead of us," Messelt said.
     "Our faculty are teaching out of boxes. We've got parents and family members who aren't even back in their homes, yet," he said.
     "These are the types of things that either drive you to your Lord and Savior or drive you away," said Messelt. "Oak Grove has never stood taller, even though, by this flood we were definitely brought to our knees."
-- -- --
     The home page for Oak Grove Lutheran School, Fargo, N.D., is at http://www.oakgrovelutheran.com/ on the Web.

     An audio report of this story is at http://tinyurl.com/ELCANewsAudio on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog