When Mrs. Paul, Catholic Women’s League president called St. Mary School to elicit the school’s support for the Operation Christmas Child Project, St. Mary’s Catholic School Principal and staff said they would be happy to provide support to such a worthwhile project.
“It’s important that young people in our schools feel they are part of the parish community, and the global community at large. There is no better way to reduce poverty than by participating in goodwill projects,” said principal Sherry Bortolotti.
The school has thanked their school secretary Claire Olivier who passionately embraced this idea and ensured there were enough boxes for every student to give one shoe box stacked with toys, soap, socks, books etc. to a child in need. “I fill good knowing that we’ve made Christmas better for a handful of children, that is the true meaning of Christmas,” said Olivier.
Local Co-ordinator for Operation Christmas Child, Karyn Stenbraaten stated, “The key to being a happy person is giving to others.” St. Mary’s children are happily waiting to take on their next goodwill project
Author: admin
Victory for the St. Charles Boys’ Hockey Team
The boy’s Senior Hockey team won the Nippissing District Association tournament in North Bay on the weekend of December 2-4th.
The boys had a round robin record of 2-0-1 which gave them a birth in the quarter finals versus the Scollard Hall Bears. The boys won the game 6-4 which lead to a semi-final game versus the Franco Cite Patriotes. S.C.C. won the game 4-1 which gave the team a feeling of retribution over a finals loss to the Patriotes in the recent Lively tournament. The win gave the team a birth in the finals versus St. Mary’s Eagles from Kitchener. This was the team that the Cards had tied in round robin play.
The Cards were tied 1-1 after one period and 2-2 after two periods. Zach Belanger scored with just over 5 minutes to play to win the game and bring home the championship!
Belanger lead the team with 13 points in the tournament, earning MVP honours. Trevor Bedard also had twelve points to help seal the victory.
Mayor for the Day at St. Mark
Grade 6 student Haley Cornthwaite chaired a mock Council meeting after being granted 8 hour Mayoral powers recently. Her classmates acted as members of the council, eagerly listening to facts surrounding the proposed road closures for the Santa Claus parade. To give them a helping hand, the students heard from Constable Petroski and home inspector. In addition to learning the municipal ropes, the students also had an opportunity to learn of the important work of city home inspector as well as a chance to pose questions to Constable concerning his job as as OPP officer. To cap off the morning, the students of St. Mark school closely inspected an emergency response vehicl as well as the pump truck at the Fire Station.
Corpus Christi Celebrates Mass with the Bishop
Recently at Corpus Christi, students and staff were honoured that Bishop Simard and Father Larry Rymes came to say Mass. School trustee Estelle Scappatura was also on hand to celebrate with the Corpus Christi family.
A Love of Animals Really “Pays Off” For St. Anne Kindergarten Students
The English Early Learning Students at St. Anne School in Hanmer are on a mission. They plan on helping out as much of Sudbury’s animal population as much as they can. Earlier in the fall, the young students from within the Sudbury Catholic School Board nicknamed themselves “The ABC’S”. (All Because of Caring Students). They brainstormed and came up with a fundraising idea to purchase items that could help out the communities injured or needy animals. Through the help of local businesses like Hanson Family Dentistry and Paula’s Canine Country Club, as well as contributions from family and friends, the students put their logo on small donation cans that ask for one penny. The cans were placed at the businesses by the student’s teacher, Cheryl MacRury. The students chose a penny because it was the only piece of money that most of them recognized. Although a penny doesn’t seem like much, the donations collected have really been “paying off”! Within the first two weeks and with the help of Mrs. Belanger’s English Grade 7 class, the older and younger students were able to count and roll out over 1300 pennies. If the fullness of the donation cans is any indication, the second round of collecting promises to be double that of the first. The students have chosen to make their first donation to the Wild At Heart Animal Refuge. Using counting charts, the penny values of items, and real life pictures of objects from the refuge’s list, the young Catholic students will choose which donations they can afford to purchase and present them to the Center as Christmas gifts for its injured wildlife. Who says little people can’t make a difference? Christmas for the English Kindergarten children at St. Anne School allows them to tell everyone that the “spirit of giving” feels great!
St. David Enjoys “The Adventures of Sparky the Traveling Fire Dog”
Mitch Theriault, Public Safety Officer with the Greater Sudbury Fire Services visited St. David Catholic School to launch the pilot of a new fire prevention program called “The Adventures of Sparky the Traveling Fire Dog”. The program is geared to grade 1 classes. The students have the opportunity to take a stuffed animal, a talking Sparky doll home for one week. During this week, the children are asked to complete a fire safety checklist with their parents and add a page to Sparky’s journal that outlines his adventures in the homes of different families.
“This is a fun new way to get our safety messages into the homes of young children and families” said Theriault ” The entire family follows a checklist that asks them to do things like test their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, practice a fire escape drill, and make sure candles are in a safe place among other tips.”
McKena Houston in Mrs. Cimino’s grade 1 class stated that when she brought Sparky home, her and her mother started their adventure by reviewing the fire safety tips in the booklet. McKena was quoted as saying “Sparky is awesome!”
St. Anne Students “Author” Their Way Into Christmas
The English Early Learning Kindergarten students at St. Anne School in Hanmer welcomed parents and grandparents into their classroom to begin getting into the mood for the start of the Christmas season. The Kindergarten children had been working on creating and writing all kinds of “non-fiction” stories throughout the fall. They authored books on Garden Harvests, Baking Apple Pies, and Caring For a Classroom Pet. With a bare classroom Christmas tree sitting within the room, the children and their family members worked on creating, decorating, and hanging their ornaments. Junior Kindergarten student Celyna Anzil was overheard saying “I love working with sparkles.” What was the result for the students within the Sudbury Catholic System? One beautifully decorated tree and a step by step picture sequence for the class’ newest non-fiction story. When asked what title the story should have, their was only one choice of course. “A Christmas Tree Decorating Special Classroom Day!”
St. James Community Generously Supports the Sudbury Infant Food Bank
The St. James C3 (Catholic, Community and Culture) Student Council decided there was no better way to celebrate the Christmas season than by helping other children in need. Upon hearing that the Sudbury Infant Food Bank is running a Christmas campaign to help raise funds and supplies for Greater Sudbury’s most vulnerable; babies and young children, the students planned a theme day in support of this campaign. The generosity of the families of St. James School is evident in the carloads of donations of diapers, baby wipes, baby food jars, baby cereal, gift certificates and money donations.
“Come Read With Me” at St. Bernadette
St. Bernadette Catholic School hosted a COME READ with ME parent workshop on the evening of December 7th, 2011. Parents and students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn reading strategies that they can use at home with their young students. Teachers were on hand to provide descriptive feedback to parents as they honed their newly accquired skills and parents left that evening with a goody bag of reading activities to use at home with their children to extend the learning.
Ms. Salvador, Principal of St. Bernadette Catholic school, commented that, “We are thrilled when home and school can partner up in this way to work towards the literacy success of each of our students. Research indicates that when parents are actively involved in their child’s education great strides can be achieved. and we look forward to hosting many more such teaching/learning evenings for the parent community.”