Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Faith

Good Will is “Blooming” at Pius XII

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Usually at the end of the school year, classes are winding down, and students are getting ready for summer vacation. Not so in the grade 6 class at Pius XII Catholic Elementary School. For the last week, the class has been quite busy organizing and packing over 114 boxes set to be delivered to Genevra House.

For student Grace Tilbury, learning about inspiring people like Craig Keilburger over the past few months, sparked an idea that she really wanted to make a difference too. After some research, and knowing that she really wanted to focus on helping women and children, Tilbury asked her friend Abigail MacDonald if she would like to help her out with an idea that she had. The two girls decided on creating “Bloomability Boxes” to donate to Genevra House. The boxes would contain basic toiletry items that the women and children would need at the shelter as many of them arrive with absolutely nothing. The term “bloomability” was inspired from a book with the same name that Grace had read. One of the characters is learning English, and connects the word bloomability with the word possibility. Grace liked this idea as she thought that the boxes would give these women and children some new possibilities in life.

After approaching her teacher Wendy Morin, the girls the girls got the go-ahead and recruited the rest of the class to begin collecting items and money donations. A letter was drafted by the girls and sent home and items began to come in. Word spread with the other teachers and classes at the school, and pretty soon the entire school was on-board. As a result, the girls had enough items to put together over 114 boxes to donate.
“Our original goal for the class was to get enough items for 14 boxes,” explained Tilbury. “Many of our friends gave up their free class time and computer time to help us out with this project. We are completely overwhelmed by the generosity of our classmates, our teacher, the other students, staff, our families and the Pius XII community!”

Teacher Wendy Morin is extremely proud of her students saying, “These two girls have inspired an entire school. They have worked extremely hard on this project and I am very proud of their commitment and determination with this social justice initiative!”

St. Charles Elementary Takes Part in 9th Annual Johnathan Hetu Walk

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Every single student and staff member of St. Charles Catholic Elementary School walked for an hour under the bright sun on June 19, 2013 in memory of a former student. For the past eight years the school has kept up this tradition and taken part in the Johnathan Hetu walk. Johanthan Hetu was an exceptional student at the school and passed away in 2004 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Teacher David Nicholls, who was to have Johnathan in his class that next year, felt compelled to do something to honour Johnathan’s memory – thus the creation of the Johnathan Hetu walk. Students were asked to raise funds, and all the monies were donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (N.O.F.C.C.). Up until this year, the school has raised an astounding amount of money – over $43,000 through this walk and were inspired once again raise a significant amount with this year’s walk.
Joining the students and staff, family members of Johnathan’s, including his mother and father, walk the entire hour wearing Johnathan t-shirts. Nicholls explained that the family walks with them every year and makes the event that much more special for the school. “The students can walk with the family, talk about Johnathan, and for those who didn’t know him, learn more about him.”
This year’s fundraising total was revealed to the group at the end of the walk with over $7271 collected putting their nine year total at almost $51,000.
“What an outstanding school we have, “Nicholls stated. “We are truly a community school – there is a special connection in our community between students, staff and our families, and I am so proud of every single person for their support and commitment to honouring Jonathan, as well as raising money for such a great cause.”
As well as presenting the cheque to representatives of the N.O.F.C.C. the parents of Johnathan also present the Johnathan Hetu award to a student who showed characteristics similar to Johnathan; enjoy school, is out-going, and is a person that loves life. This year, the award was presented to two students- Cameron Parsley and Nathan Toeppner.

Every single student and staff member of St. Charles Catholic Elementary School walked for an hour under the bright sun on June 19, 2013 in memory of a former student. For the past eight years the school has kept up this tradition and taken part in the Johnathan Hetu walk. Johanthan Hetu was an exceptional student at the school and passed away in 2004 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Teacher David Nicholls, who was to have Johnathan in his class that next year, felt compelled to do something to honour Johnathan’s memory – thus the creation of the Johnathan Hetu walk. Students were asked to raise funds, and all the monies were donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (N.O.F.C.C.). Up until this year, the school has raised an astounding amount of money – over $43,000 through this walk and were inspired once again raise a significant amount with this year’s walk.
Joining the students and staff, family members of Johnathan’s, including his mother and father, walk the entire hour wearing Johnathan t-shirts. Nicholls explained that the family walks with them every year and makes the event that much more special for the school. “The students can walk with the family, talk about Johnathan, and for those who didn’t know him, learn more about him.”
This year’s fundraising total was revealed to the group at the end of the walk with over $7271 collected putting their nine year total at almost $51,000.
“What an outstanding school we have, “Nicholls stated. “We are truly a community school – there is a special connection in our community between students, staff and our families, and I am so proud of every single person for their support and commitment to honouring Jonathan, as well as raising money for such a great cause.”
As well as presenting the cheque to representatives of the N.O.F.C.C. the parents of Johnathan also present the Johnathan Hetu award to a student who showed characteristics similar to Johnathan; enjoy school, is out-going, and is a person that loves life. This year, the award was presented to two students- Cameron Parsley and Nathan Toeppner.

St.David Catholic Elementary School’s Summer Safe Day

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St.David Catholic Elementary School had its Summer Safety BBQ on Friday, June 14, 2013. This was put on by the Holy Trinity Men’s Club and SOAR (Steelworkers Organization for Active Retirees). All the students were treated to hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks and cake some of which was sponsored by Arctic Glacier (Lecoupe Ice), Dumas Independent Grocers and Sunbeam Meats. The students also got to visit with representatives from Gobbo Towing and The Greater City of Sudbury Fire Department, EMS and Police Services. Students learned about how to be safe this summer. SK students exclaimed, “This was the best day of our lives!” They had so much fun sitting in a police car, walking through an ambulance and seeing the inside of a fire truck. Some lucky students even got to operate parts of a tow truck!

St. Francis Teacher – Recipient of the 2013 SCDSB Chairperson’s Award

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Lise Malette, the French Immersion Senior Kindergarten teacher at St. Francis Catholic Elementary School is this year’s recipient of the Sudbury Catholic 2013 Chairperson’s Award. Selected by trustees, the award recipient is someone who embraces Catholic values, demonstrates initiative and ingenuity and contributes positively to the lives of students and staff. On June 12, Malette was presented this award by Vice Chair of the Board, Michael Bellmore. Bellmore, who is also a parent of a student at St. Francis told the crowd that he was thrilled that Malette was the award winner as he has seen first hand what an outstanding educator Malette is. As well, he has seen just how much more she does for the students on top of teaching in the classroom.
Nominated by the parents of student Karissa Kruk, Malette spent numerous hours helping her family by supporting them with multiple fundraisers. Kruk was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia, and the entire family was able to be with her in Toronto where she received treatment, through the financial support of these fundraisers organized by Malette. According to Terra Kruk (Karissa’s mom) “There are no words to put into perspective the generosity and kindness that Lise Malette has given our family. She has unceasingly demonstrated the Love of God by her continued acts of compassion with never a thought of anything in return. From the moment that Lise Malette found out of our tragedy, she began to pull support together from teachers, staff and parents from St. Francis where our children attend school. Lise Malette has gone way beyond the call of duty of being just a teacher but rather has been lead to be one of God’s servants to help others in our time of need. We are so blessed and thankful for the outpouring of support we have received because of this one very special teacher. Without her we would not have been able to stay together as a family all this time.”
A second nomination for Malette was also submitted by the Parent Council Chair –Cathy Kulos– on behalf of the entire school. Kulos explained, “Personally as a parent at St. Francis for the past eight years, I can attest to Lise Malette’s dedication to the students, staff and parents… Lise is a true inspiration to all who meet her – and I have never met someone more giving of themselves.”
Malette was quite overwhelmed upon receiving the award, and thanked her students, co-workers, family and the nominators for being selected as the 2013 Chairperson’s Award winner.

Perkins Family Restaurant Serves Up Pancakes At St. James School

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Todd Connors, Director of Operations for Perkins Restaurants prepared and served St. James Catholic Elementary School with a pancake breakfast recently. He graciously donated breakfast to thank the school community for their penny donations that went directly to support Pennies for Pediatrics. St. James School raised over $560 in pennies for this worthwhile cause.
“Pennies for Pediatrics is a fundraising drive to benefit children’s care at Health Sciences North.”
St. James students and staff would like to thank Todd Connors from Perkins for personally visiting the school and serving pancakes!

Panthers on the Run!

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On Sunday, May 12 2013, members of the St. Paul Running Club competed in the Sudbury ROCKS 5km Race, Run or Walk for Diabetes. Vice-Principal Tammy Lavalle, Educational Assistant Jennifer Palladino and Teachers Lucie Gautheir and Stacey Vendramin competed along with nine dedicated and energetic students who braved the snow and rain to take part in the race. To raise money for the event, St. Paul held a Spirit Day where students were asked to wear their favourite sports gear to school for the day. The school raised a total of $200.00 to donate to the Canadian Diabetes Association. The Running Club would like to thank the Knights of Columbus Council 6074, Evans Home Hardware and Coniston Guardian Pharmacy for sponsoring and supporting their race efforts. Way to go Panthers!

St. John “Fights Back” Against Cancer

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Despite the rain that poured down on May 10th, the students and staff of St. John Catholic Elementary School remained committed to their walk for their 5th annual relay for life with just one tweak – instead of walking outside, they decided to walk inside the school’s gym. Event organizer and teacher Irene Raymond didn’t miss a beat when the weather decided to be uncooperative and quickly made arrangements for each of the classes to rotate their walks in the school gym.

The day’s event was kicked off with a presentation of a banner from the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cathy Burns who wanted to publically acknowledge the school’s outstanding efforts in supporting their organization. Raymond received the banner on the school’s behalf and spoke to the students before the relay began. “Every single person in this room has been or will be affected by cancer,” Raymond explained. “Today we are honoured to have a group of survivors who will be joining us on our walk and we celebrate their strength and courage to fight back!” The students echoed Raymond’s message “Fight back” and it was the phrase that was shouted throughout the event. The students walked with the survivors as well as family and community members.

The school was visited by the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario Division) – Martin Kabat a few weeks earlier to kick of the school’s fundraising efforts for their event and he encouraged the students to continue in their support for such an important cause. As well, he thanked them for their fundraising efforts from previous years as they have contributed well over $15,000 to the Sudbury branch.

This year’s efforts have surpassed all other years for the school as the grand total to date is well over $7200 with more pledge money still coming in. According to Raymond, the students really outdid themselves this year and were completely focused on raising the most amount of money they have ever raised with one student raising close to $1000 all on her own. “I am so proud and thankful that the students, staff and parent community of St. John Catholic Elementary School are such giving and generous group,” Raymond stated. “We have shown once again that we care about each other and that we are committed to continuing to fight back againstt cancer.”

The event finished with the entire group gathering in the school’s gymnasium for the annual luminary ceremony.

St. Francis Students Celebrate the Month of Mary

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During the month of May, grade 3 and 4 students from St. Francis Catholic Elementary School are celebrating the Month of Mary. Students are learning about Jesus’ mother Mary and the special role she had in His life. Each student was given their own rosary from their teacher, Ms. Graziella Visentin, to keep and use during daily morning prayers on the announcements and prayer after lunch in class. Students are developing an appreciation of the rosary as a special way of praying to God that honours Mary, the Mother of Jesus. As students recite the prayers of the rosary, students will reflect on certain stories in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The class is developing a greater awareness that Jesus will be with them in the joyful times of their lives and in times that are sorrowful. The events from the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries are reminders of this as students learn that the rosary can also be used to pray during Advent, Lent and during Ordinary Time in the liturgical year.

Celebrating Catholic Education Week

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At St. Francis Catholic Elementary School, the students and staff have embraced this year’s theme “Growing Together in Faith” in a very creative way. To bring the school community together as one, teachers Christina Bedoya and Lise Malette took all of the student photos and designed a “growing tree of life” which included a picture of every single student and staff member, including teachers, EAs ECEs, the custodian, administrators and the parish priest, Father Larry – all are all part of the tree. The arrangement was created to match the poster for Catholic Education Week. School vice-principal Krista Sarmatiuk was very proud of their creation. “What a wonderful tribute to our school and our faith,” Sarmatiuk stated. “This tree of life represents us as a school, and as part of the Catholic family – it is a wonderful embodiment of us as the St. Francis community – rooted in our faith!”

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