A group of Milwaukee community members are trying to add a place of peace and tranquility for travelers among the hustle and bustle at General Mitchell International Airport.
The Interfaith Airport Chapel of Milwaukee, a nonprofit organization spearheaded by Suzanne McKinney of Cudahy, Wis., has been working hard to turn its idea of an interfaith chapel at Mitchell Airport into a reality.
The County Board’s Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Transit approved the interfaith chapel and meditation room on April 6.
McKinney said the approval by the committee was vital.
“It had to pass that before we could truly begin fundraising,” she said.
The group has been working to contact faith leaders, business people and community leaders to help with fundraising, McKinney said.
The committee voted unanimously and it will go in front of the full county board on April 21 before heading to the county executive for its ratification.
Harold Mester, the public information manager for the Milwaukee County Board, said he did not foresee there being any issues with it getting passed, and once it is the airport will be able to go on and make plans.
Mitchell currently does not have a chapel, according to airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe.
The proposed meditation room will be a nondenominational, she said.
The chapel will be located adjacent to the sailboat art display in the lobby area of the main parking structure, according to the Business Journal.
It will be available 24 hours a day, have chaplains available and will conduct services, McKinney said.
McKinney first got the idea when her former church, St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, which was located near the airport, moved to Oak Creek.
“As a member of that church, I saw lots of visitors and travelers from the airport,” she said.
With the church gone, there would be a void and no place for people to stop anymore, she said.
Supervisor Patricia Jursik on the County Board’s Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Transit said that many travelers would go to St. Stephen’s, “particularly those traveling for funerals.”
“Now that St. Stephen’s has relocated, it’s important to provide a nondenominational space at our airport,” Jursik said in a statement to the committee.
McKinney became very interested in getting a chapel in Mitchell after visiting Cardinal Stritch University and learning about mobility ministry, where graduates do ministry at truck stops and on cruise ships.
“Mitchell needed a chapel; that was my calling,” she said.
Currently, the Interfaith group is working on fundraising so that they can begin construction on the chapel. No date has been set yet to start building, but McKinney hopes it will be soon.
She is hoping it will take six months to raise the $300,000 needed to construct the chapel and only four months to complete it.
They have been working closely with Plunkett Raysich Architects, an architectural firm in Milwaukee, and have some basic designs for the chapel.
“It is very beautiful,” McKinney said. “(Plunkett Raysich Architects) has done renderings and they are almost a piece of art themselves.”
She said that the chapel will also contain artifacts from the old St. Stephen’s church.
“People will feel so peaceful when they walk in,” McKinney said.
Supervisor Michael Mayor, chairman of the Transportation, Public Works and Transit Committee, said in a statement he was pleased there will be an option for travelers and employees at the airport.
“Not only will the chapel give travelers a place to worship and meditate, it will hopefully make their traveling experience a little more relaxing as well,” he said.