Dedication of New Science Center
Dedication of the new Science Center
The new Daryl D. Wittich Science and Learning Center is Dedicated
Paul and I recently returned from our annual visit to John Paul Secondary School and we are very happy to share the news that construction of the Science and Learning Center is now complete!! Msgr. Paul Buyela, Vicar General and Education Secretary of the Archdiocese of Tororo dedicated the building on November 6, 2012 and when the ribbon was cut by Msgr. Buyela, Nancy Berrigan and Blair Berrigan the building officially became known as the “Daryl D. WittichScience and Learning Center”.
Daryl was a very dear friend of ours, whose first career was that of a science teacher. Several years ago we shared our plans for John Paul School with him and he was very excited about the prospect of a premier Science Center at a school in Africa. Because of his love of the sciences and our special friendship with him and his entire family, we feel honored to dedicate this Science Center in his memory.
The new Science and Learning Center is a large building with separate labs for Physics, Biology and Chemistry as well as a huge library and a computer center. During the dedication of the school, each of these labs was also dedicated to special friends and benefactors who have been instrumental to the growth of the school. The Physics lab is the “Jon & Danna Dokmo Physics Lab”, the Biology lab is: the “David Swofford Family Biology Lab”, and the chemistry lab is the “Dr. Ronald B. Mc Kinnis Chemistry Lab”. Dr. Mc Kinnis was a prominent chemist in Florida who held a number of patents related to the citrus industry and is Blair’s maternal grandfather. It was a very special and emotional time for her, to be there for the dedication ceremony recognizing her grandfather.
Through a series of fundraisers that were held over the last several months, enough funds have been generated to completely equip all three of these labs prior to the beginning of the next school year in February, 2013!
We are also very pleased to announce that a complete system of solar panels will be installed on the new Science Center finally bringing electricity to the campus.. This will be an enormous step forward for the students and the faculty. It will open countless new possibilities for them. We’re optimistic that this will also be completed before school begins .
Finally, the new building has a large footprint that is ideal for the collection of water. We are currently exploring the feasibility of installing a water collection system that could yield as much as 100,000 liters of water yearly.
