Preserving Mission San Juan Capistrano takes more than prayer.
Just ask executive director Mechelle Lawrence and Father Arthur Holquin, who both joined the mission more than three years ago.
“There were a lot of issues of deferred maintenance when I came on board,” Holquin said. “I had to realize that the parish couldn’t be sustained on its own. Prayers don’t pay for the electric bill or water bill or the leaking roof.”
Restoring old buildings, cracked walkways and leaking pipes never is cheap. Enter local executives and prominent people in the county as donors, and suddenly those leaking pipes are getting fixed.
It’s because of local executives that the mission recently installed a $2 million, alter-like retablo at its Basilica church. They’re also the reason why the mission plans to spend nearly $3 million preserving its Serra Chapel and south wing.
The mission, built in 1776, is the county’s third largest tourist attraction, drawing more than 320,000 visitors each year.
It generated $2.8 million in revenue and nearly $1.2 million in donations for the 12 months through June 2006. It counted 1,595 memberships, providing $70,000 in revenue. In January, it sold 138 memberships for $6,450. The mission’s also booked $463,000 in corporate events this year.
At the forefront of mission backers is Anthony Moiso, chief executive of Rancho Mission Viejo LLC. Moiso,whose company’s many holdings include El Adobe de Capistrano restaurant across from the mission,has been a longtime supporter.
He’s president of the Mission Preservation Foundation, which works on fund raising for preservation projects, education programs and tours.
Most who’ve been raising money do so out of their own Catholic faith.
Others include: Art Birtcher of Birtcher Anderson Properties Inc.; Michael Hagan, now retired from Furon Co.; William Cvengros, a former chief executive of Newport Beach-based bond fund manager Pacific Investment Management Co.; trial lawyer Wylie Aitken; and Connie Spenuzza of Imperial Manufacturing Co. in Corona.
Donors who have given more than $10,000 to the mission include Wylie and Elizabeth Aitken, Tony and Melinda Moiso, Richard J. O’Neill, Moiso’s uncle, Joan Irvine Smith and the Spenuzzas.
Spenuzza and her husband, Peter, paid for a live performance by singer Melissa Manchester at the mission’s 2006 benefit gala and concert dinner.
“When I contribute to the mission, I feel like I’m adding to a legacy,” Spenuzza said. “All of our missions are so vital. We’re always striving to keep (Mission San Juan Capistrano) conserved because it’s Orange County’s only mission and we have so many members that are very active in the business community who care.”
Conservation projects on tap are part of a five-year plan adopted in 2004 by the Mission Preserva-tion Foundation and the mission. The goal: make the mission tourist-friendly by restoring and preserving its architecture, artifacts and paintings, according to Lawrence.
That includes the $2 million retablo, which saw construction start this past fall. Talleres de Arte Granda, a liturgical arts maker in Madrid, Spain, made the retablo. The piece is made of cedar wood and gilded with gold leaf,gold that’s beaten into extremely thin sheets. On it are statues and pictures of several saints, the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the cross. It was inspired by the retablo in the mission’s Serra Chapel, which was created in Spain nearly 400 years ago. The new retablo stands 42 feet tall, 30 feet wide and weighs 16 tons.
Mission San Juan Capistrano is one of the better-funded and better-managed missions of the 21 in California, said Knox Mellon, executive director of the California Mission Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving the state’s missions.
The local mission is able to do these projects because it has solid financial support, he said.
“All missions are in need of assistance because they all have deterioration issues, whether it’s in regards to their buildings or their artifacts,” Mellon said. “(Mission San Juan Capistrano) impressed me with its ability to recruit support from the community. Good management is critical. But unfortunately not all missions have the level that it has.”
The mission’s Serra Chapel project, which will keep the chapel’s original architecture, artifacts and paintings, is set to cost $1.5 million.
The mission started planning for the project in 2005, Lawrence said.
Last week, it received a $270,000 donation from the Thomas J. and Erma Jean Tracy Foundation to fund the restoration of the Serra Chapel’s eight Stations of the Cross, which are large crucifixions, wall paintings and finishes.
Erma Jean Tracy donated the money through the foundation in memory of her husband, Tom Tracy, who died a year ago.
Tom Tracy founded Tracy Industries Inc. in Whittier, which distributed remanufactured Ford parts.
The entire preservation project is likely to finish in 2008, Lawrence said.
Preservation plans for the mission’s south wing also are under way.
The $1.2 million project would conserve original paint finishes, cement, plasters and mortars. Water damage and the mission’s gift shop also are set to be fixed. There’s about $66,000 in water damage at the south wing, Lawrence said.
Board members, donors and volunteers will help fund the projects, according to Lawrence.
Lawrence was San Juan Capistrano’s economic development manager for 12 years before joining the mission.
Her goal: generate money for the mission’s conservation projects and educational programs, which she’s doing by raising awareness and among OC’s business community.
Fund-raisers, such as its annual gala, which features live musical entertainment and gourmet dinners catered by the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, and a $30 coffee table-style cookbook are part of the mission’s marketing.
“Sometimes people think that a nonprofit should feel guilty about marketing itself,” Lawrence said. “But the truth is, if we don’t market ourselves and raise money to maintain this place, there won’t be a mission for people to go to.”
Marketing the mission while maintaining “integrity” has its challenges, she said. In the past, the mission has rejected corporate sponsorships that contradict its purpose of promoting education, tranquility and spirituality, Lawrence said. She declined to give specifics.
Lawrence said she and Holquin are taking a realistic approach to running the mission.
Solving the mission’s problems with deferred maintenance was an issue they both wanted to tackle when they came on board in 2003.
Holquin said he’s raised an additional $4 million in pledges from private benefactors to better equip the Basilica church.
The donations will be distributed over three to five years and will be used for new pews, a digital sound system, air-conditioning and upgraded lighting, he said. n
