On Tuesday, January 11, 2011 Marymount Academy hosted a Wellness Day for all students in grades 7 – 12. The day was a student driven initiative planned by teacher Allison Simpson’s Grade 11 Peer Leadership and Support class. The students had been working on this day for several months and wanted to bring health and wellness experts to the school to allow their classmates the opportunity to learn about positive life choices in health, life and careers.
Some of the 35 experts included several different types of health professionals, journalists, chefs, and fitness instructors. The students were also treated to a visit by Greater City of Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk who spoke to entire student population about her personal life and career experiences, as well as women in non-traditional roles. Teacher and wellness day co-ordinator Allison Simpson was really pleased with the day’s events and felt that the students thoroughly enjoyed listening to the experts and learning about ways to make positive changes in their health and well-being. “For the students who organized this event, I am really proud of their hard work and development of their leadership qualities which is what this course is all about,” Simspon said. “And the entire student population benefited from this class’ hard work and were able to take advantage of this great experience through different workshops and guest speakers – all in all a great day for the Regals!”

Sudbury Catholic is going green – and not just with its capital projects. In order to align all initiatives with the Board’s strategic commitment to live a culture of respectful relationships, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board is on the verge of creating and maintaining a high quality, healthy environment for students, staff and visitors, through the use of effective, environmentally responsible, certified products/equipment and cleaning processes. As a result, the Board has created a Green Clean committee comprised of administrators, facility services staff, principals, vendors, custodial staff and students. Team members are: Principals Laura Kuzenko and Judith Way, Custodians Rick Boudreau and Dan Deault, students Joey Fyfe and Nick Cassio, Operations Foreperson Mark Vincer, Facility Administrator James Morgan and Communications Officer Gina Tullio. This committee will begin to support and promote the development, implementation and ongoing monitoring of a Green Clean Program as set out by the Ministry of Education of Ontario.

The SCDSB Facility Services Department put the team together in order to help create and promote the vision of practicing environmentally conscious and low impact cleaning processes to the betterment of all internal and external stakeholders. The program will be piloted at St. Francis Elementary School as well as St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School beginning in the spring of 2011.

Catherine McCullough, SCDSB Director of Education commended the newly formed team for their commitment to this very important initiative and looks forward to its full implementation throughout the entire Board. “I am very proud of this initiative for Sudbury Catholic, “McCullough stated. “It speaks to our strong commitment to the environment as well as the well-being of our students, staff, parents and community partners. With the support of the Ministry of Education, our Board will continue to ensure that we are champions of the earth and Green Clean is one very important way for us to do this.”

The students at St. James school brought in Christmas ornaments and decorations and were thrilled to use them to dress up their teachers as Christmas trees. The event was organized by Mrs. Rocca and the St. James Student Council members. There was much Christmas spirit as staff and students assembled in the gym to view the final results.

The students and staff of St. Mary Catholic Elementary School in Capreol recently celebrated Advent Mass with Father Pat Woods and the parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Church. Later in the day, the Capreol Knights of Columbus held their annual Children’s Christmas Party at the school. St. Mary students, the children of Learning Hearts Day Care (which is housed at St. Mary) and children of the Parish were treated to a special pizza lunch at the school. Several special guests were in attendance, including Barry MacDonald, School Board Chair and Catherine McCullough, Director of Education at Sudbury Catholic Schools. Santa and Mrs. Claus made a surprise appearance and were able visit with the children as well. Each child had the chance to sit on Santa’s knee, talk with him and receive a bag of treats. The staff of St. Mary would like to thank the Capreol Knights of Columbus for their support of Catholic Education. Thanks to Santa and Mrs. Claus for finding the time in their extremely busy schedule to visit Capreol and St. Mary School.

Students, parents and other community members recently gathered for an author’s breakfast at St. Mark School. Students were given an opportunity to share some of their most recent pieces of writing created during class.

The group was given an opportunity to hear Mrs. Reimer, local author of children’s books. Mrs. Reimer is one of our student’s grandmothers, who wrote a children’s book about a story her husband shared with her. The story is about his childhood and the book is called, “Paul’s Toothy Earache.”

Mrs. Reimer shared her writing experience with the children and discussed how she came up with the idea for a book, how she designed the illustrations, and she also gave advice on the writing process for young authors.

She also encouraged the children to pursue their dreams if they want to become writers. While listening to Mrs. Reimer the whole community shared in a nutritious breakfast.

The school staff remarked, “We really want to encourage the children to become confident writers, so we felt Mrs. Reimer would motivate our students with her enthusiasm for writing children’s books.” Madison Reimer said, “ I’m proud of my grandmother’s book.” She also looks forward to producing her own book one day.
Why not carry on the family tradition?