The St. Nicholas Academy boarding school in Jefferson City is ready to accept boys to live there and attend school at St. Peter Interparish School, and the academy itself has become a federated agency with Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri.
St. Nicholas was founded by Elizabeth Huber, and it has been a project years in the making.
"I just believe it's meant to be," Huber said, given how many people in the community have helped, from renovating the building to donating the furniture in it.
St. Nicholas is on Edgewood Drive, behind Capital Region Medical Center's campus and Huber & Associates Inc., where Huber is chief executive officer.
Capital Region is leasing the building to the boarding school for $1 a year.
The boarding school will serve up to 12 boys, ages 4 through high school, though the plan is to start in the fall with about four boys, ages 4-8.
St. Nicholas Academy's website states it will "dedicate its resources to maximizing the potential of children in financial need," with the intent to help children excel academically and socially.
Live-in house parents have been hired, whose paid job will be to provide guidance, support and discipline to the boys who will live year-round in the building.
St. Nicholas' director Sister Susan Renner said the house parents will have every fourth weekend off, when relief parents will come in during that time.
Renner said the idea of having children live at St. Nicholas is not about taking them away from their families, but instead to partner with families to give their boys a supportive home environment that can help them become the best men they can be.
"We want them to be as independent as possible" when it comes time for them to leave St. Nicholas, Renner said of making sure that boys - only boys at this point - will learn how to clean, cook and do laundry, as well as know how to drive a car, when it comes time for that.
"It's something that I didn't have growing up," Funtez Robinson said of having a male figure to be a role model in his life.
Robinson and his wife, Unique, are the house parents for St. Nicholas.
Funtez credited mentors Dan Turner, Mike Downey, Kris Wyatt, Yuki Teramoto and Leslie Cross for "showing me things I never thought I could do" and helping him be his best self, and that's also his motivation for wanting to do the same for the boys who will be in Unique's and his care at St. Nicholas.
Funtez said he was born in Columbia, raised in Jefferson City and Charleston, and is a graduate of Jefferson City High School and Lincoln University; Unique is from southern California.
He said Unique and he do not currently have children of their own.
In terms of being house parents, "we talked about it last year," and they felt it was something God was calling them to do, he said.
Parents will still have contact with their children through phone calls, email and visits, and house parents, teachers and others "will work together to keep parents informed and in touch with their child. It's a team effort, and parents/sponsors will play a key role," according to the academy's website.
St. Nicholas itself will be in the care of the Diocese of Jefferson City and Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri.
Renner described that being a federated agency of Catholic Charities means Catholic Charities "coordinates and provides advocacy, centralized administration, communications, quality assurance and fund development."
"Maybe an easy way to say it would be that Catholic Charities provides the supportive structures and services that allow (St. Nicholas) to focus on what it does best: empowering kids and families in need," she added.
Additionally, Huber said the Diocese of Jefferson City's Bishop W. Shawn McKnight would designate a board of directors for St. Nicholas, and the board would in turn hire people for day-to-day operations.
St. Nicholas' articles of incorporation as a nonprofit corporation, filed with the state, were amended in April to have the diocese's the Rev. Monsignor Robert Kurwicki be the academy's registered agent, with the diocese's bishop as the corporation's member.
Huber said she would be on the board, and her main duties would be to fundraise and be a voice for St. Nicholas.
She said it was a big change to give away some control, but after she met with McKnight a couple times, she decided it was a good idea because of the stable support St. Nicholas can receive from the diocese and Catholic Charities, and she won't have so much on her shoulders.
The Cole County Board of Equalization sent St. Nicholas' application for property tax exemption to the Missouri Tax Commission last year, but Huber said the county assessor ultimately granted the exemption before it was presented to the state commission.
She also lost her mother, Dorothy P. Oswald, last month, who passed away at the age of 91.
The obituary for Oswald, of Boonville, credits her as "a huge supporter of the St. Nicholas Academy."
Huber said her biggest regret is not being able to have children in the academy before her mom died; "we had great talks about it while she was still alive."
She said quite a few people have donated to St. Nicholas after reading the obituary - which suggested memorials for Oswald be sent to the boarding school - and her mom also left her an inheritance that she's going to put toward St. Nicholas, that will pay for it "for some time."
Huber said the last two major things left to do with the building are to install a special lock for a fire escape door and install cameras for the children's and house parents' safety.
While fully furnished, almost all by one family's donations - up to four boys will share bedrooms with two bunk beds, a full bathroom and a closet for each boy - Renner said outstanding material needs that people can donate or help support are bicycles, bicycle helmets, car safety seats for children ages 4-8 (who weigh up to about 100 pounds), some CD players and audiobooks.
She added that "we'd be open to a pool table," they would not say no to exercise equipment such as a stationary bike and the hope is to install some playground equipment.
She said a basketball and tether ball court will also be installed.
St. Nicholas also features a full kitchen, snack kitchen, large playroom, study area, laundry room, art and music room, and a projector for a home movie theater.
"I wanted it to feel like a home," Huber said.
"We're looking for kids now," Renner said, adding that brochures are ready.
More information is available at St. Nicholas Academy's website at https://stnick.org/.