September 4, 2011  - Ground-breaking – On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, a ceremonial ground-breaking was held between services to commemorate the start of what is the most extensive building project in the Church’s 97-year history.

Four years in the planning, the project calls for an extension of the Fellowship Hall virtually doubling its size, the expansion of the kitchen to make it more suitable for large groups, the building of a ramp to allow easier accessibility, and the building of a handicapped-accessible restroom nearer the sanctuary.  The bid price was a whopping $730,000 but the congregation rose to the occasion by pledging or gifting over $664,000 over the three-year capital campaign.  The congregation also pledged to give 10% of the funds received in the campaign to four entities outside the congregation, The Port Angeles Food Bank, The Answer for Youth (a local program for at-risk youth), Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and The Heifer Project.   Reserves of almost $190,000 also allocated for the project put the final cost definitely in reach for the faithful saints at the First Presbyterian Church.    

Martha Hurd, who has served on each of the Building Committees leading to this project, was granted the honor of turning over the first shovelful of dirt.  Since the project by necessity is a project of the entire congregation, everyone who wanted a turn at the shovel was invited to do so.  After years of praying and dreaming, the start of construction was only days away, awaiting the final approval of a construction loan from the Synod of Alaska-Northwest.