O'Maras Donate to UPB Chapel

James O’Mara and Dr. Kimberly Young O’Mara have made a gift of $25,000 to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford for a planned interfaith chapel to be built this year on the west end of campus.

The gift helps the university close in on its $2.5 million fundraising goal for the chapel.

“Jim and Kimberly have been strong and generous supporters of Pitt-Bradford for quite some time,” said Dr. Livingston Alexander, president. “As we enter the final phase of our chapel project fundraising effort, we’re delighted and very fortunate that they have once again come to our aid. We are deeply grateful to them.”

Since Pitt-Bradford is a state-related university, money from the commonwealth usually pays for a large part of the construction costs for a new building. But because of the unique use of the chapel, private funding is the only source of money that can be used for its construction.

“We’ve been committed to the chapel for a long time,” said O’Mara, who graduated from Pitt-Bradford as a nontraditional student in 1996 and has served as a member of the university’s Advisory Board since 1994. “We really wanted to participate in this project. We believe in what it does for the community and for the college.”

Young O’Mara is a former faculty member at Pitt-Bradford and current member of the faculty at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y.

She recently spoke at a gathering of chapel supporters about what having a chapel on campus has meant to her.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Rochester, she was going through a rough time as a freshman when she discovered the campus chapel.

“Sitting quietly in the chapel was something that comforted me and meant a lot to me,” she said. “I always visit the chapel when I return to campus.”

Jim O’Mara also recognizes the students’ need for a chapel. “Students need a place to go reflect, and you need a place to hold religious events. The chapel will provide a spiritual anchor for the Pitt-Bradford community and the larger community as well.”

In appreciation of their gift, a wooden bridge leading into the chapel, which is raised several feet above the ground, will be named in honor of the O’Maras.

O’Mara is the former president of Crosby Dairy Products Inc. After earning his bachelor’s degree from Pitt-Bradford, he went on to earn a master of social work degree from Pitt in 2000. In 1996, the O’Maras established a scholarship in memory of their mothers for nontraditional students with preference given to single parents.

Young O’Mara is a full professor in the school of business at St. Bonaventure and has taught at Pitt-Bradford and the University of Rochester School of Medicine. A psychologist, she is also the founder of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery and the author of three books on Internet addiction.

In January, officials announced that the university had raised more than $2 million of its goal to build the chapel. Major gifts have included a $1 million anonymous gift given in honor of Harriett B. Wick and a $500,000 gift by Wick in memory of her grandson, Michael Quinn Wick, who died in a 2005 automobile accident.

Designed by Albert Filoni of MacLachlan, Cornelius and Filoni Architects Inc. of Pittsburgh, the chapel itself will take advantage of the campus’s natural surroundings, with the glass-walled sanctuary facing the west branch of the Tunungwant Creek.

The chapel will be built using several green construction practices, including the use of pilings instead of moving earth for a foundation and special insulated glass to keep the sanctuary from overheating in the summer.

In addition to being a site for religious services, the chapel will also serve as a center for coordinating student volunteerism and an intimate venue for lectures, concerts and poetry readings.

For more information on the chapel or to make a donation, contact Karen Niemic Buchheit, executive director of institutional advancement, at (814)362-5091 or kpb@pitt.edu.