As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting our Sudbury Catholic parents, the SCDSB would like to provide a link to the latest newsletter from The Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education (OAPCE).
This month’s newsletter can be found here.
On Friday December 4th, St. Benedict welcomed a couple of special guests to help with the TD Bank Toy Caravan. Terry and Mell, from Q92, Sudbury’s Best Rock, dropped by to help TD Canada Trust promote their annual toy drive. St. Benedict has been a great supporter of this annual event and has collected more than 2300 new toys over the past three years to be placed under the Christmas Tree on Christmas morning to brighten hundreds of homes across the city. People from across the city were invited to drop by the school with their new unwrapped toy and in return enjoy a free breakfast sandwich. Ms. Kuzenko expressed her pride in the generosity of the staff and students, and Ms. Catalano the school’s lunchroom supervisor and Mr. Pappin the school Chaplaincy Lead battled it out in Battle of the Sexes. Terry and Mell also spoke to Ethan Jodouin and Alassandra Marone and asked why the school was so passionate about this toy drive. “Our students care about others…we want to make sure everyone has a Merry Christmas,” and so the generous number of gifts continues to grow. So far this year the school is well on the way to surpassing its goal of collecting 850 toys for children across the city.”
St. David Catholic Elementary School celebrated the season of advent with a school wide teaching assembly that focused on hope, love, joy and peace. The grade 2/3 and 3 classes hosted the celebration and taught the school population about the importance of advent and the virtue of patience, especially during this busy time of year. The children and their teachers related “being patient for Jesus’ birth” to waiting for an important phone call, waiting for spring to come or waiting for babies to be born.
The assembly was focused on love and how we show love to one another in our everyday lives. The advent wreath was also explained by the students. It is a tradition that began hundreds of years ago in Germany. The wreath is in the shape of a circle covered in evergreen bows, representing eternal life with 4 candles representing hope, love, joy and peace and the four weeks of advent.
For the past several years, Marymount Academy has held its annual Goals for Girls Ball Hockey Tournament. This tournament is organized by the school’s Girls’ Athletic Association (GAA) and involves student and teacher floor hockey teams playing ball hockey round robin style with themed teams, creative uniforms and spirit awards. The Goals for Girls campaign is held to encourage young women to be physically active and to help them recognize and become involved in the many activities and opportunities available in their school and community. As well, this tournament is also a fundraiser in which monies raised are used to sponsor young women who cannot financially afford to play sports, and to purchase fitness equipment. This year, in addition to the school fundraising, a portion of the funds raised will go towards the Adaptive Canuck ALS Foundation. Marymount worked with retired teacher Michel Leroux, who was diagnosed with ALS a month after he retired from teaching, as well as a gentleman by the name of Jeff Perreault (who was also diagnosed with ALS about a year ago and is only in his mid-30’s). Together, they are trying to raise enough funds to help provide advanced stem cell treatments for all PALS (People Living with ALS), and the students and staff at MMA felt that this would be a great organization to also support with its Goals for Girls fundraiser. Alongside the one day ball hockey tournament, students also had the opportunity to soak their teachers with a bucket/dunk tank in the school. All teams that signed up to play paid an entrance fee, and that fee allowed each team member to attempt to hit a target that dumped ice-cold water on the teachers. As well, any student could pay five dollars for the opportunity to soak their teachers. Needless to say, the teachers who signed up were cold and wet for a big portion of the day as the final monies raised were over $3200.00 with a portion going to the Adaptive Canucks Foundation, as well as to support students in need. Mia Tullio, Co-President of the G.A.A. was happy that today was about the school and the community. “As Regals we are taught the importance of giving back to those who need support, both close to us, as well as in our community,” Tullio explained. “The culture of Marymount is very unique in that we really try to better ourselves, by helping others. Through this Goals for Girls event, we are able to engage in physical activity in a positive and spirited environment, but more importantly we are able to provide assistance to our fellow students who may need it, and are also supporting an organization that supports families, friends and neighbours right in our own community!”
One often hears about world hunger, but the reality is that hunger is also in our own community – especially in December and January. Every year, Marymount Academy holds an annual Christmas food drive to help stock the shelves of the Sudbury Food Bank in preparation for the holiday season. The school pairs up with “Kids Helping Kids”, which was founded by Edgar Burton and is the biggest food drive in Sudbury. One quarter to one third of the food received at the Sudbury Food Bank annually is collected from the Edgar Burton Christmas Food Drive. The founder, Mr. Burton, unfortunately is no longer with us, however his legacy and impact still lives on, especially in our Marymount community. This campaign has a special place in the Regals’ hearts as his wife, Sharon Burton, works in our school cafeteria. Her continuous kindness and generosity on a day-to-day basis has inspired many girls to give back to our community through this event.
Typically, the Marymount Catholic Charities Council (MC3) sets a goal of 5000 cans, but this year we decided to step it up. We set a goal of 10,000 cans and with a combination of non-perishable food and monetary donations, the Regals raised a total of 12,613 cans. This is the largest number of cans collected at Marymount since 2012. Lise Callahan, the teacher in charge of the drive was thrilled with the school’s response to the challenge. “We are incredibly proud of our Regals and know that their efforts in helping to alleviate food insecurity will impact many individuals throughout Greater Sudbury this Christmas season. What has had the most value and impact on our school has been the exposure that we have been able to bring around the topic of local hunger.”
John Steinbeck is quoted as saying, “I guess there are never enough books. ”The school community at Holy Trinity Catholic School feels the same! They would like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who generously donated to this year’s ADOPT-A-SCHOOL campaign. Each and every contribution is greatly appreciated! At the end of this autumn’s 2-week campaign a grand total of $8,139.00 was gathered for Holy Trinity to use to add to the school’s library collection.
But, that is not all… on December 2nd, 2015, the staff of the local Chapters and Coles stores dropped by Holy Trinity to officially kick-off “Giving Tuesday” by “giving back” to our school community through the donation of a collection of treasured books (each employee suggested their favourite children’s book to donate to the school).
In another surprise twist – the store representatives opened a large poster tied in a bright red ribbon to reveal yet another donation of $5000.00!! These additional funds will go far towards helping encourage the love of reading for every student at Holy Trinity Catholic School.
Christmas will be just a little brighter this year for some patients in the Sudbury area suffering from cancer. Grade 8 students at St. Charles College Elementary, created handmade Christmas cards that will be distributed to patients suffering from cancer, in honour of one of their own classmates who is courageously battling the disease.
Mrs. Kathy Belanger, the teacher in charge of the activity said: “One of my students, came to me with a letter from her grand mother’s friend, asking if we would be willing to create Christmas cards as a way to make some people’s holiday season a little brighter. Our class thought it would be a wonderful gesture to demonstrate how we are ‘Church in the World’.”
During two religion classes, students in the 8A homeroom put their artistic talents to work while listening to Christmas music, which created an atmosphere of happiness, joy and hope for those struggling with the disease.
The cards will be distributed before the holidays begin.
Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School grade two teacher Tania Fay has a personal connection to Paris. On of her friends -Glenn Gervot, lives just minutes away from where the recent Paris shootings took place. Wanting to do something, Fay led the entire Holy Cross staff and students to create a piece of art that she would send to her friend in France. The school took up the challenge and sent the finished product off to Paris as well as a flag with messages of peace to be shared with the people of France and all the visitors from around the world. Gervot was thankful to receive the artwork and brought to the location of the attacks.
“Today was the day to bring to one of the November 13th shootings in Paris (that is 10mn walk from our place and saw 19 persons die) a collection a hearts and warm thoughts from a school from Canada! Thank you Tania for sending us this beautiful collection, made by ALL students from your school. It is now in a good place and should fill the scene with warm feelings from Canada.”
On Tuesday, December 1, 2015 Trustee Michael Bellmore was acclaimed as the new Board Chair for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. Born in Sudbury, Bellmore is a proud alumnus of Sudbury Catholic Schools (Immaculate Conception and St. Charles College). He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2010, however he was elected to the former Sudbury District Roman Catholic Separate School Board in 1994 as one of the youngest ever elected, and served until 1997. A longtime and passionate advocate for education, he also served as a member of the Cambrian College Board of Governors and as a student leader at the local and provincial levels. Committeed to building a Greater Sudbury he has served on numerous boards and organizations and is currently the Chair of the Greater Sudbury Public Library Board. “I would like to thank outgoing Chair Jody Cameron for all of his leadership,” stated Bellmore after the acclamation. “I only hope that I can live up to all that he has taught me. We will be continuing on with the good work that already takes place at Sudbury Catholic and it is time to get on with business!”
Serving alongside Bellmore is Trustee Ray Desjardins who was also acclaimed as Vice Chair. This is Desjardins first time serving in this role.
