The Ark - Noah Sails Again
West Chicago
Church Rebuilds Ark to House Sunday School
from the Daily Herald, Friday, February 22,
2002
By Mary Randle, Daily Herald Correspondent
If you’ve driven down Route 59 on the South End of West
Chicago, you’ve probably noticed a curious giraffe staring back at you from a
large boat next to a church. But don’t think you’ve discovered something thought
to be hidden in the far-off mountains of Turkey and Tibet.
West Chicago’s version of Noah’s Ark sits on the banks of
the DuPage River, where it houses Sunday school for Episcopal Church of the
Resurrection, 1465 S. Neltnor.
“All of our classes were sharing one large room with
moveable partitions,” said the Rev. George Koch. “We were bursting at the seams
with kids, and the noise made it difficult for them to concentrate. We decided
we needed to build new facilities for kids, but church construction is normally
hugely expensive, so we were searching for cost-effective ways to meet that
need.”
“We bought a used portable classroom for $1,” said Koch. “We had it disassembled
and brought to the church in pieces. Then it just sat there while we
went through the process of getting building permits.”
Then Koch had an idea.
“I decided that rather than reassembling it to look like
every other boring portable classroom in the country, we should construct it to
look like Noah’s Ark,” he said. “It just struck me as the kind of place kids
would want to go back to. “It’s Sunday, I want to go to the Ark.”
During the next several years, the ark was built at less
than half the usual cost to construct a building of that size. Steve Wing, a
member of the congregation, was the general contractor for the professionals and
also helped direct the many volunteers.
Volunteers accomplished the cleanup and disposal, a lot of
painting, and all of the decorating except for the animals on the outside. The
brown ark is surrounded by animals produced by artist Michael Stiffler. The
giraffe was purchased from a company that makes them for amusement parks. Looking as if it’s poking its head up from inside the ark, the giraffe was made
especially for the church. Noah stands on the other side of the ark, gazing out
at the river. The inside of the building continues the Noah’s Ark theme. All of
the rooms are decorated with animals.
The largest is the Butterfly Room, with more than 1,000
butterflies on the walls. The reception area features a scene of Noah and the
animals that was painted by Wheaton College volunteers. Now the Ark is full of
children as well as animals on Sunday mornings. Their delight in their
surroundings is obvious.
“The Ark is very fun and very unusual,” said Koch. “The
kids and their parents all love it. Church shouldn’t be boring for children or
for adults.”
The Ark is accessible to the handicapped, as is the church
itself.
“That has been one of our goals,” Koch said. “We seek to
be fully accessible to people with any kind of disabililty – physical, mental or
emotional. We also made it an extremely safe place, especially for kids. All
of the classrooms have giant windows between them, and each one is equipped with
a video camera. The feed goes to a monitor inside the church building, so that
parents can check to see what is going on in the classrooms.”
According to Koch, the Ark project also fits in well with
the general call on the Church of the Resurrection. “Something that was being
thrown away onto the garbage heap was rescued, lovingly restored and even
enhanced to more than its original beauty,” he said. “The Ark is an icon, a
symbol of what happens to people’s lives at Resurrection.”
For more information, call (630) 231-1775 or visit the Web
site at www.resurrection.org.
Television monitors in the church
allow parents to see their children in each classroom. A monitor in the Ark
shows the progress of the worship service so the children can come up in time
for Communion each Sunday.
Photos by Marcelle Bright/Daily
Herald
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