Anonymous donor pledges $16 million to help rebuild Cardinal Newman High School after 2017 wildfire

The video opens with somber piano music punctuating a glimpse of Cardinal Newman High School's granite sign before revealing bulldozed portions of the campus.

It cuts to images of fire, the sound of a siren - the sound of crackling flames from the night of Oct. 8, 2017, when large parts of the Catholic campus were destroyed in the Tubbs fire.

“The fire came rolling down this hill, right behind the school,” said Matt Gallo, of the E. & J. Gallo Winery, whose children attend the school. “Cardinal Newman took a tremendous hit.”

This month, the school announced a fundraising campaign tied to the pledge of an unprecedented multimillion-dollar donation that is aimed to speed the campus recovery.

The Tubbs fire destroyed a classroom building with more than 20 rooms, the library and its front office, causing about $15 million in damage.

Students were scattered in three locations to complete the school year. Portable classrooms were brought in. This past August, students returned to a new classroom building.

The video announced Phase 2 of the recovery.

“In order to rebuild and transform the school campus, a major capital campaign is needed,” Cardinal Newman President Laura Held says on the video.

School officials peg rebuilding costs at $38 million, including the now-completed classroom building, a new, two-story classroom building, all-weather turf at the school's stadium and a student union to house a library, media center and study rooms.

Through $10 million in insurance money and $12 million in pledged donations, including $5 million from an anonymous donor, the school has raised $22 million.

That same anonymous donor has since offered a conditional $11 million gift so long as the school can raise $5 million by June 2021. And, as of Saturday morning, that goal got a little bit easier, as another anonymous donor pledged $1 million as a matching gift, meaning the school need only raise $4 million.

The school announced the fundraising campaign, “A Call to Lead,” on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the fires that not only destroyed portions of Cardinal Newman, but claimed more than 5,300 homes and 24 lives in Sonoma County.

Cardinal Newman hired Partners in Mission as a capital campaign consultant, spending 10 months working behind the scenes before the Oct. 7 launch, which came complete with a name, a website and a video crafted by local Youth Sports Network founder Dave Cox and Cardinal Newman students.

The $5 million campaign is steep, but the school attracts families with the means to afford $16,000 per year for tuition. To put the campaign into perspective, it represents one-third of the amount Santa Rosa Junior College sought to raise with its three-year, $15 million 100th anniversary campaign launched in May 2016.

Following the replacement of one building, and the newly announced campaign, Gallo said in the video that the campus is buzzing, calling the feeling “infectious” in the video.

“I'm excited to be at Newman at this time,” freshman John Simon said.

The video ends with a mashup of students repeating the phrase, “We need your support, please help.”

You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-326-2964 or at tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @tylersilvy.