Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Pies for Rice at St. Charles Elementary

Staff and students at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School have been on a mission to raise money for a good cause. On October 16th, students attended a presentation by Tammy Pomroy, a former Sudbury resident who now lives in Cambodia. The presentation was about a school that Mrs. Pomroy founded called ABCs and Rice. This school is a reverse tuition school where some of the poorest students in the area are not able to attend because they must stay at home to help earn money. At ABCs and Rice, students get paid in rice at the end of each month for their attendance.

Students and staff were moved by the presentation and chose to do a fundraiser to help the students at ABCs and Rice out. Students and staff had a hat day, and brought in donations of a toonie to wear a hat in class. The staff decided to set a goal of $600, and if the school met that goal, Ms. Neuts, an EA would get a pie thrown in her face. Then Ms. Swain joined in and raised the goal to $1000 and she would get pied as well. Next, Mr. Peplinski agreed for $1100 and finally, Mr. Belanger for $1200. Vice Principal Laura Stirrett said she was very proud of how staff and students joined together to support ABCs and Rice, and a big part of that success was due to the enthusiasm of staff in helping us reach those goals along with the generosity of the families at St. Charles Elementary. In all, showing true RAM spirit, staff and students raised over $1400 for ABCs and RIce!!

Mrs. Pomroy was excited to get the news, stating that “With a donation of $1400, St. Charles Elementary has sponsored every child in the school to have rice for the next 2 months!”

Way to go RAMS!

For more information about ABCs and Rice, please go to: www.abcrice.org

St. Ben’s In the Pink for October

Several weeks ago, Lindsey Jones, former St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School student, now employed by the Canadian Cancer Society (Sudbury) contacted her alma mater to see if they were up to a challenge. She asked the school if they would accept the challenge to “pinkify” their school and support a breast cancer fundraiser for the month of October. Never ones to back away from a challenge, the students and staff set a goal to raise $ 2500 by the end of the month. For every $500 raised, the students got to select one staff member to “pinkify”. The school raised money through daily donations, a pink cupcake bake sale and a football buy out game in which the Junior boys football team played the girls flag football team. Both teams also paid 5 dollars per member to take part in the game. In the end, the students surpassed the challenge goal and presented the Canadian Cancer Society (Sudbury) with a cheque for over $4000. On October 30th, as part of the presentation assembly, student council members each “pinkified” 6 of the St. Ben’s staff with lots of pink hair dye and pink feather boas. In addition, St. Ben’s grade 9 student, Willow Nadeau had her head shaved in front of the entire school and donated her locks for the third time. Nadeau volunteers every day afterschool at the Canadian Cancer Society and wanted to show her support alongside her classmates.
“We are completely overwhelmed with the response from our student council, student body and staff with this October Breast Cancer Challenge,” explained James MacNeil, St. Ben’s teacher. “The students wholeheartedly accepted this challenge. We are so proud of our St. Ben’s Bears and are grateful to be part of such a supportive school community!”

Cards Do It – Largest Single Donation to the Sudbury Food Bank for a Five Day Drive

The goal was to raise 60 thousand cans in five days. The result was astounding. Students and staff, along with the support of its feeder schools and the community raised 125, 452 cans to line the shelves of the food bank heading into the holiday season.

The breakdown is twenty thousand dollars in cash collected and 25, 000 cans. Students will spend the day assisting with the transport of the food to the food bank warehouse.

The St. Charles College food drive started thirty years ago and has been a yearly tradition with its feeder schools – St. David’s, Holy Trinity, Pius XII, St. John and St. Paul schools.

Principal Patty Mardero says “in thirty years this is the largest donation to date. The students really upped the ante for next year.”

“Game-On” SCDSB Students Learn Equity and 5-Sided Soccer

On Wednesday October 21st representatives from The Ontario Soccer Association and The Ontario Blind Sports Association visited both St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School and St. James Catholic Elementary School to deliver a clinic on 5-sided football. 5-sided football is actually 5-sided soccer. It is the game of soccer adapted for the blind and partially sighted. Sudbury Catholic Specialist Teacher of the blind & partially sighted Adriano Simonato made the arrangements for this interactive presentation as he want to provide an opportunity for the visually impaired students as well as the sighted students to learn this sport. “It is another opportunity to narrow that gap between the sighted and visually impaired, increase empathy, and again, focus attention on what a visually impaired person can do,” explained Simonato. “It also simply reinforces the fact that virtually all sports can be inclusive and an opportunity for the visually impaired and the sighted to play the same sport at the same time…together!” The event took place at two venues where there are visually impaired students – St. Benedict high school (morning session) and St. James elementary school (afternoon session).
St. James principal Cara Soehner was thrilled that this opportunity was provided to her students. “At Sudbury Catholic Schools, we have a real focus on equity and inclusivity for students and staff,” Soehner explained. “Having our students, as well as some of our secondary students learn about 5-sided soccer is a great example of this focus. Learning about adaptation of this sport enables our students to recognize the importance of equity in our communities.”

Cards ‘can’ do it! 

Members of the St. Charles College Student Council are selling tees in the main foyer of the school this week to support the Sudbury Food Bank.  The t-shirts which are retailing for twenty dollars go to supporting the school’s annual food drive.   That means the sale of one shirt equates to 100 cans to line the shelves at the food bank.

The blue shirts were designed by students in teacher Beverly Belanger’s leadership class.  Student Jordan Sutton designed the image on the front of the shirt while Tyler Michaud came up with this year’s slogan:  “Cards ‘can’ do it! 60, 000.”

The goal for this year’s food drive is to collect sixty thousand cans and they are doing it with the support of feeder schools – St. David’s, Holy Trinity, Pius XII, St. John and St. Paul schools. 

The food drive is an annual tradition dating back to almost thirty years ago.

Flames and PumpkInferno

St. Francis Catholic Elementary School Flames students in teacher Christine Boudreau’s Grade 1/2 French Immersion class were very excited to decorate pumpkins for Dynamic Earth’s “PumpkInferno”. PumpkInferno is an enchanting outdoor award-winning exhibit created by Upper Canada Village, featuring thousands of hand-carved pumpkins set against a glowing Sudbury back drop on the grounds of Dynamic Earth. Their pumpkins will be displayed along the walkway leading to Dynamic Earth from October 9th-30th. Visit sciencenorth.ca for further details.

Immaculate Conception “Green Squad” Enjoying the Fruits of their Labour

Teacher Sara Lotter’s Grade 3 Class at Immaculate Conception is proud to be the 2015-16 Green Squad. The students began in September by harvesting the vegetables in the garden. Some of the beautifully ripened tomatoes were used to make salsa. The salsa was made and enjoyed by Mrs. Hayden and Mrs. Lotter’s classes. The Green Squad has prepared the vegetable beds for winter and they look forward to planting in the Spring.

Pius XII Staff Supporting Students Through Outdoor Art

With a focus on the importance of having fun at school, the staff at Pius XII Catholic Elementary School decided to make the school yard more appealing to students. Staff put their artistic and creative skills to the test and painted the cement slabs, large rocks, and wooden ramps with dynamic colours and themes. While playing in the yard students can read positive messages promoting peace and cooperation. They can imagine themselves in a game of Minecraft or stand on a turtle’s back and go for a ride! The staff and students at Pius XII are definitely having fun!

Deputy Mayor Proclaims October as Learning Disabilities Month at Holy Trinity!

The Right to Learn, The Power to Achieve! October is Learning Disabilities Awareness Month. On Friday, October 16, 2015, Special Education Resource Teacher Martina Reynolds organized two workshops for students to highlight that everyone learns differently and that all students should use their unique abilities. Students in grades 2 to 6 were active participants in two presentations entitled “Be Cool in School” and “LD 101” delivered by Jarah Preston of LDAS. Deputy Mayor Joyce Landry-Altman was on hand to make the Official Proclamation, along with LDAS Board Chair Liz Brett-Dickie. Students also heard from Matthew Turcotte, a grade 11 St. Charles College student and Honorary Chair of LDAS. Matthew is an encouraging example of someone who has overcome a recognized learning disability.

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