Philadelphia Soul pledges up to $100k to help keep St. Hubert’s open

Philadelphia’s arena football team has pledged to help St. Hubert’s high school stay open, but it will require work on the school’s part.

The campaign to help the all-girls school requires the St. Hubert’s community to purchase as many as 5,000 Philadelphia Soul tickets in exchange for a $100,000 donation to the school.

That’s the high end of the spectrum. If 1,000 tickets are purchased, the school will get $15,000. For 2,500 ticket sales, St. Hubert’s will receive $40,000. The math breaks down to $15 of each ticket being put back into the school, as Chicke’s and Pete’s owner and Soul co-owner Pete Ciarrocchi explained in the press announcement yesterday. Tickets must be purchased by Feb. 15.

St. Hubert’s posted the following statement from the team on its Facebook page:

“As of now, they are vouchers valid for any Soul home game. However, if organized, we can make them for any specific game and make it a celebration game using our in-game elements and resources including a St. Hubert’s block party as you celebrate your success in keeping the school open!”

“We have to get this done right now,” Soul broadcaster Lou Tilley said in his impassioned video plea. Like Ciarrocchi, Tilley is a Northeast native. Time is running out before the Archdiocese of Philadelphia makes its final decision on whether to close the school. The Blue Ribbon Commission announced Jan. 6 that St. Hubert’s and three other archdiocesan high schools can expect to close at the end of the school year. To date, the school has raised more than $780,000, and administrators have recently uploaded the school’s appeal presentation to the fundraising website.

“It’s a community, it’s a safe haven and it’s a great Catholic school,” Mayfair native and Soul co-owner Marty Judge said of the school. “My family went to St. Hubert’s and I’m here to try to save St. Hubert’s from being put out.”