What happened to the little girl who played on the grounds of an Escanaba, MI campground run by her grandparents? She grew up to collect colored rocks, traverse rivers and streams all in an effort to restore a large-scale fort in the woods.

That “fort in the woods” is where Chris Alimenti and a team of volunteers have been hanging out three times a week for the past four years in an effort to restore the Geneva Grotto.

The Grotto was built by Catholic priests of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart High School Seminary back in 1929. They pulled rocks from the Fox River and brought colored glass found around a marble factory in Ottawa to fashion the magnificent structure with their bare hands. They also created a stations-of-the-cross walk from the seminary to the grotto with full size crosses, each with a bronze relief plaque in the center depicting the sufferings of Christ.

I grew up on property just above the Geneva Grotto and thought it perfectly normal to walk among the crosses and float our bathtub boats down the creek after standing in awe of a giant Jesus statue with blood dripping down his hands.

Didn’t everyone have a full-scale Byzantine style shrine in their backyard? When the Missionary school closed in 1971 the grotto began to decline, ultimately being overtaken by weeds and vandals who spray-painted graffiti all over the painstakingly crafted mosaics.

Bob McQuillan of Batavia and Patrick Murtaugh of the Knights of Columbus approached Kane County Forest Preserve with a three-year restoration and maintenance plan that kicked the project into high gear.

Chris Alimenti saw a Facebook post about it and decided to help clean up the property. From that first visit she was hooked. As an artist herself, Chris was looking to move her art beyond metal garden fairies to “something that would last beyond my lifetime.” She and Valerie Taylor and her daughter have spent countless hours cleaning, collecting and caulking decorative stones to repair the mosaics, the altar and the large cross at the top.

Professional artisans were hired with funds raised to complete the significant structural work caused by water damage as well as the mosaic dome image of a sunburst in blue sky. Chris found a tile specialist who will repair the white tile floor to the exact specifications of the original once fundraising is complete.

All of this hand-hewn effort has brought people back to the Grotto. Many come for a place of quiet reflection and remembrance of beloved relatives or pets now gone. They leave behind photos on the altar and Chris found a way to preserve these precious images and display them appropriately in (you guessed it) rocks with slits in them.

This holiday season the Grotto is glowing in Christmas lights, wreaths and even a small nativity scene. It’s the perfect spot for a family looking for a unique snowy walk at sunset.

Funds for continued restoration are needed and can be contributed by buying a memorial brick for $100.00. Chris’s hard work and that of many volunteers is now monitored by 24/7 surveillance cameras at multiple locations on the property.

In this season of hope, despite all that is broken in our world, we can take comfort in knowing that people do care about giving of themselves to restore and bring light in the darkness. “Let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new.” (Book of Common Prayer, pg. 528).

This story was written by Margaret Philbrick, an author from Geneva, IL.