Work has begun on preserving the century-old stained glass windows at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Riverside.

Glass Heritage studio of Davenport has begun repairing the windows on the south side of the church. Two windows on the east and west sides of the church will also be repaired in the first phase of this project. The windows were originally installed in 1906 with glass shipped from Germany. The church is in an 18-month contract with Glass Heritage to repair 28 of the stained glass windows and replace all 55 exterior protective windows, a project totaling about $235,000. Lay Director John Sojka says the church will be doing a letter campaign soliciting donations from parishioners, “If you just do the math as I have done with 300 families, even if everybody gave $200 a year over five years that would be $1,000 per parishioner or family. That would raise in excess of what we need for the windows alone.”

The windows are one of several improvements the church is working on, such as restoring the church organ and building a storage shed. Sojka adds, “The nice thing is that we have taken in an excess of $10,000 from non-parishioners, people that are just interested in the history and the beauty of our church and we really appreciate that.”

St. Mary’s Church is having a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the window restoration from 7 a.m.-noon Sunday.