St. Agatha School Closing

When asked to talk about the closing of St. Agatha's - a home for troubled youths - Nidia Cancel Santos became emotional and paused a few seconds before speaking.

"It's a chapter in our lives that was positive, and now it's coming to an end," said the 57-year-old from Garnerville, who is president of the St. Agatha Home of New York alumni association. "I always thought that it would be there."

Before the property is sold, Cancel Santos said her association decided it would hold one last reunion on the grounds.

"I'm excited and sad," she said about the Oct. 15 event. "I was writing my speech, and I started crying."

Cancel Santos said she came to St. Agatha's when she was 10 and remained there until she graduated from high school.

"I had a very positive experience. I am the person I am today because of the nuns. They gave us structure and taught us how to be independent," she said.

Like Cancel Santos, Olga Freeman, who was 12 when she moved to St. Agatha's, speaks of her time there with great fondness.

"For me, my life began at St. Agatha's. I no longer had to look after the household," the 59-year-old Spring Valley resident said.

St. Agatha's closed because New York Foundling, which operated the 47-acre facility for more 135 years, recently ended its contract for St. Agatha's program, deciding instead to place the children in smaller, more family-like settings.

A buyer has offered the Manhattan-based organization $14.6 million in order to develop 60 homes. The owner, however, would be willing to sell the land for about $13 million to a government entity.

The Nanuet school district has also expressed an interest in buying 37 acres of the property.

Freeman said she feels awful that St. Agatha's closed.

"It's extremely sad, but you also have to be practical," she said. "It's a huge property and extremely expensive to run a place like St. Agatha's."

Freeman said she hopes the property remains a place for children and is not turned into condominiums. Even now as she drives by the property at Convent Road and Duryea Lane, she becomes sad.

"It will take some time to get used to," Freeman said.

About 140 people are expected to attend the reunion, which will begin with an 11 a.m. Mass in the administration building's chapel.

The Mass will be celebrated by Father Rudolph Gonzalez of St. Joseph's Church in Spring Valley. He was chosen because many of the church's congregants are former St. Agatha residents.

Freeman said that she was not surprised by all the people who are planning to attend.