The students at St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School were thrilled to hear that they placed third for top fundraising school in the City of Greater Sudbury’s Nickels for the North Easter Seals Kids Campaign. With a total of $775.89 raised, Principal Carmela Pitman expressed her pride for their outstanding fundraising efforts. “Working together as a school, we are always dedicated to helping support such a worthy cause and I am very proud of all of our Thunderbirds!” Easter Seals raised a total of $16,008.82 through this year’s campaign to support children with physical disabilities.
Category: Schools
Breaking Bread – B.A.C.C.S.S. Annual Breakfast Club with Parents
For the second year in a row, students and staff of Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School invited parents and community partners to join them at the school’s morning breakfast club program on December 9th, 2010 to see how the program is growing in leaps and bounds. The school’s chaplain, Jennifer Geddes helps with the set up, cooking and clean-up for the program and is enthusiastic about its growth. “Compared to last year, the breakfast programs now feeds approximately 1/4 of the school each and every day.” Geddes stated. B.A.C.C.S.S. teacher Dennis Duchaine really feels it is making a different in the performance of many of the students. “I see big changes in a lot of the kids, “Duchaine said. “ They are more alert and are participating so much more because they are no longer tired and hungry – having the breakfast available to them makes it easy to fuel themselves in order for them to learn. Even teacher participation has grown and staff are often found in the breakfast club room, helping out and ‘breaking bread’ with students and fellow co-workers.” The school invited parents and community partners in to show them how positively the program impacts the students and allows them to see the difference it is making for the school.
“God truly gives his gifts to the poor and always does right”
The spirit of altruism is alive and well at St. Charles Catholic School in Chelmsford. The yearly food drive for the needy was a huge success for the entire community. Students and staff collected 5 092 food items for La Maison d’Amitié/Friendship House. Mme Bouzane’s Gr. 5/6 French Immersion class co-ordinated this yearly endeavour from start to finish. Although they encouraged everyone to bring in canned goods, their class contributed over 1 000 cans to the food drive, making them the winners of this school-wide friendly competition. These champions are the recipients of the “Golden Can” Award. Way to go RAMS!
St. David School Community Celebrates outgoing Mayor’s Contributions to Local Youth
Outgoing Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez was honoured by local school community in the Donovan area. Rodriguez visited St. David Catholic School during one of their HOUSE activity days. It was during this school assembly that Rodriguez was presented with a school sweatshirt signed by every child, teacher and staff member in the school to thank him for his many hours of dedication to the community, both as the mayor of the city of Sudbury and as the past vice principal of the school.
Rodriguez addressed the students during the celebration and thanked the community for their support and generosity. Rodriguez told students, “they have a responsibility to care for each other and through the HOUSE program they have the opportunity to learn how to be part of a team. Teamwork and responsibility are important skills that we all need to be successful in our world.” He gratefully accepted the gift of appreciation and was proud that the HOUSE program started by him during his days as vice principal of the school still is alive and well in the school today.
The students continued to cheer and sing even as Rodriguez left the gymnasium. St. David Catholic School community was honoured to have the opportunity to display their spirit and give back to a member of the community that has given of himself for the good of others so many times in the past!
Painting the Town Red and Green – BACCSS at Tom Davies Square
With paint and brushes in hand, students from Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary school’s grade 10 visual arts class readied themselves to paint the windows at Tom Davies Square with Christmas murals. For the third year in a row, city staff invited a group of secondary school students to take part in this new tradition. This year it was Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School’s turn. Over the weekend, a group of volunteers including the class teacher, Marah Plozzer and some city staff members prepared the windows with stencils of the students’ designs so that the area would be ready to go and the kids could get all of the project completed in one day. Paint, brushes and other materials were provided for the students by the city as well as some healthy snacks. The students’ teacher, Marah Plozzer was thrilled when she was contacted about this opportunity for her students. “They rotate between the French and English boards each year and this year our school’s name was pulled out of the hat,” Plozzer said. “It really is a great, fun day for the kids to use their artistic skills, as well as get involved in the community. As a class we are hopeful there will be more opportunities like this one in the future.”
Getting into the Holiday Spirit at St. James
This past weekend parents and children of St. James Catholic School in Lively were invited to generate some Christmas spirit by decorating gingerbread houses. Proud of his creation is JK student Cole MacKenzie. Equally proud are the cake decorators Alexis Etheir (left) and Kathryn Condotta who provided professional cake decorating tips and an afternoon full of Christmas fun.
A Very Timely and Meaningful Holiday Message from St. Raphael Students
The students at St. Raphael School have been busy decorating brown bags to warn adults about the dangers of drinking and driving. The one thousand bags will then be distributed to LCBO customers in New Sudbury during the month of December.
Students in grades four to eight are involved in the project which ties into the substance abuse curriculum, as well as art and media literacy. The goal is to remind adults that drinking and driving don’t mix while teaching the adults of tomorrow this important life long lesson.
St. Bernadette Stands Up for Peace
Students at St. Bernadette Catholic Elementary School took part in several creative activities in honour of Bullying Awareness week. Each class discussed how every single student has an important role to play in fostering a safe and caring school environment. Some of the week’s activities included a mass, taking the anti-bullying pledge and taking part in a live demonstration of peace by creating a student-body peace sign on the school’s front lawn.
Sudbury Hosts Bolivian Students
Ten students from Bolivia are in Sudbury until the end of January on an exchange program through an organization called Canada World Youth. Ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-six, the students arrived in Canada on November 1 and Sudbury on November 3 and are taking part in St. Albert’s Adult Learning Centre’s English as a Second Language Program to better adapt their communication skills while in the city. The school was contacted by the organization to see if they would be willing to accept the students into their E.S.L. class and the staff at St. Albert readily agreed.
The students are living with host families and, as well as school, also do volunteer work in the community three times a week. Their volunteer work allows them to learn about themselves and their new community, increases their involvement in local and global issues and give them tools to contribute to the well-being of the city as well as taking them back with them when they return home. Some of the volunteer locations for these students include Habitat for Humanity, Eat Local, the Friendship Centre and the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY).
Mai Hellak, the ESL teacher at St. Albert was thrilled to learn of the students’ arrival in her class. “I have been teaching ESL with the Catholic Board since 1996 and it is always so much fun,” Hellak said. “When you have students learning English as a second language, you are teaching at multiple levels and it makes for a lot of hard work but it is very rewarding. I also have another teacher named Claire Kamber who volunteers in the classroom and helps with the workload tremendously.”
Cassandra MacGregor, Principal of St. Albert was also excited to learn about the Bolivian students taking part in classes at their school. “We are delighted to have these students here as it allows us to learn about their culture while we are supporting their learning – and it also promotes diversity in our community.”
Exchange student, Cecilia Montalvan is the Bolivian co-ordinator and said that the group is really happy with the weather here so far as it is very hot in Bolivia and they can’t wait for snow. As well, even though they have been in Sudbury only a short time, they are thoroughly enjoying themselves, their host families, and are looking forward to exploring the city. “We have planned group activities every Wednesday afternoon,” Montalvan said. “ This is the time that we get together and take part in a more organized events and we are really looking forward to all of the different opportunities open to us.”