After selling his Dominos Pizza chain, Thomas Monaghan didn't know what to do with his many, many millions. He had traveled the world, had been to places most people only dream about. He had yachts, and cars and homes and heaven knows what else and yet he still wasn't content. He wanted to make a difference, do something worth while with all of that pizza dough. (Go ahead, laugh. You know that was funny.) And so in 2003, in Yipsilanti, MI, he established Ave Maria University. The first catholic univeristy to be founded in over 40 years.
But land in Yisilanti was scarce and there was no room for expansion so Mr. Monaghan began to search elsewhere for a site for his university. Enter the Barron Collier Company who offered to donate 1,000 acres east of Naples, FL. In exchange for relocating his fledging university to this remote wasteland in south Florida, the Barron Collior Company would build a planned community around it. If you build it, they will come. (Name that movie.) And so a deal was struck. In 2007 the university moved to its new home in Ave Maria, Florida and a tiny community began to grow and prosper.
The little community is beautiful, but isolated. It seemed we drove for miles, and miles, and miles watching flat, barren scrub land whiz by the window. But once we arrived we were entralled with this oasis in the dessert. It is reminiscent of Celebration, in Orlando and contains a world of possibilities. That is if one wants to live in a tiny community some 20 miles from anywhere and anything.
If the university is the bread and butter for folks residing in Ave Maria, the church is the anchor. It sits in the center of the main square presiding over all that goes on there. A reminder to all who live Ave Maria of a value system that should be embraced and a testiment to a pizza king with a catholic conviction and a dream.
Link to Project 365
1 comment:
Beautiful shots. This reminds me of Chataqua.
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