--------A McCoy Moment----------

Celebrating the Legacy of S. Elizabeth McCoy

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March 18, 2014 A Lover of Arts Sister Elizabeth was a believer in talent education. A bit of a ham, she looked forward to making a cameo appearance in the Spring Show for several years. It began with the RICE Song in 1996 when Sister Elizabeth skillfully moved the bouncing ball over the words for the audience to sing along. When and how she would appear remained a mystery until the night of the show, and each year it delighted the audience and created a special memory. Fittingly our last show in the gym was entitled Curtain Call. Sister Elizabeth took on the character of Carol Burnett, an actress and comedian whom most of you might be too young to remember. Sister Elizabeth, surrounded by alumni who themselves performed on the gym stage, namely Mr. and Mrs. Dale and Amy Lintner, tugged her ear in the style of Carol Burnett when the lights went out in the gym for the last time in 2002. In the meantime, though, Sister Elizabeth’s dream for a beautiful, state-of-the-art space to feature the performing arts was coming true. In the spring of 2003 she was overjoyed to be part of the cast of Music Man, Jr., our first Broadway Junior production in the brand new auditorium. Sister Elizabeth knew that the performing, creative, and visual arts provided children with meaningful learning experiences that connected their bodies, hearts, and minds. She knew that the fine arts develop an appreciation of beauty, a sense of purpose to life, and the discipline of acquiring new skills. She knew fine arts would complement the overall learning a student receives in the classroom and was committed to developing the needed programs and facilities that would create a first-rate fine arts education for AAA students. Between 1990 and 2000, the program offerings and the number of faculty in the music and art departments were growing quickly. It was becoming a challenge to meet this demand without proper instructional and rehearsal spaces. So Sister Elizabeth went to work on a plan she had been thinking about for a long time. The McCoy Center, her last project, fulfilled her commitment to the arts and talent education. The community undertook this impressive building project and the new building opened for the 2002-2003 school year as the Fine Arts and Technology Center. It was lovingly renamed the Elizabeth McCoy Center in the fall of 2004. Strengthening the Handmaids’ ministry of quality education for the 21st century, the McCoy Center has played a large role in nurturing the talent and creativity that lives within our students. Sister Elizabeth’s passion for the arts and her dream for a building devoted to them is a tremendous gift to us all today.