Students at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School had an exceptional opportunity on Monday, May 2, 2011. As part of their Catholic Education Week events, award-winning author Colleen Syndor visited the school and sat and read with the students and staff. In two separate sessions, one for the primary and one for the junior students, Syndor talked about being an author, answered questions from the students and read some of her books aloud with the kids. Last year, principal Diana Salvador applied for a grant through the TD Canadian Children’s Book Week (April 30 – May 7) and was informed that she was successful in her application. Colleen Sydor was the selected author for the visit and the school began making preparations for her visit. As Catholic Education Week fell on the same week, Salvador felt it was the perfect fit for Sydor’s visit. “One of the sub-themes for Catholic Education Week – Celebrating the Spirit, is the spirit of hospitality,” Salvador stated. “ What better way to celebrate this as a school than to have a wonderful, inspirational visitor come and speak to the students, where we can show her the true spirit of St. Bernadette’s.”
The students listened to Syndor speak and enthusiastically answered her questions as she asked them about different parts of her book. They had been familiarizing themselves as a school with her books for the last several weeks and had several favourites of which she read to the two groups.