Category: Community
St. Benedict Students Contribute to Earthquake Relief
Bears and Regals Support Sudbury Food Banks
As part of an annual coordinated food drive at Marymount Academy and St. Benedict, members of the St. Benedict Bears football team recently assisted Marymount Catholic Charities Council and students from Marymount Academy in helping to load 6,000 food items into U-Hauls and vans to be transported to the Inner City Home on Elm Street. With the 5,000 items collected at St. Benedict, this left other students with the task of unloading more than 11,000 food items at Inner City Home.
“This food drive is an annual event involving the St. Benedict Bears and the Marymount Regals,” stated Dennis Kennelly, Chaplain for both schools. “Students from each school keenly look forward to the good-natured competition to see which school can collect the most food items in the two-week period. This year the girls win the bragging rights but the Bears students claim they will regain the title next year.” The St. Benedict Bears and Marymount Regal high schools would like to thank Spencer Furniture and U-Haul on Highway 69 South for donating the vans and trucks for transporting the food items to the Inner City Home.
“Just a Little Off the Top Please”
Lucy Gautheir, a Grade 7/8 teacher at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School had her hair shaved in support of cancer research on Friday. Cheered on by the school’s entire student body, Linda Lamothe (owner of RAY-ZOR Cuts) went about the delicate task of cutting Mrs. Gautheir’s hair while students shouted for a “Mohawk cut.” In the end they settled for a “close shave.”
Mrs. Gautheir challenged the students that if they raised $2,000 during the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope held at their school the previous week, she would shave her hair. Through hard work and determination and an incredible fundraising effort, the students at
St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School raised an amazing $9,188.32 and as result Mrs. Gautheir’s hair is now history.
Home of the Bears?
Students and staff at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board and adjacent Marymount Academy had an unexpected visitor for lunch on Monday afternoon as a bear cub made its way into the school grounds and up a tree. A curious crowd of well wishers quickly gathered around the tree as the Ministry of Natural Resources personnel were called in to dart and sedate the bear.
The little cub, (weighing less than 20 pounds) was placed in a metal carrying cage and transported to an animal shelter in Wahnapitae where it will be cared for over the winter and released into a remote area in the spring. Marymount students who witnessed the event came to the conclusion that the cub had probably wandered into the wrong high school and was in fact looking for their sister secondary school, St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School which as everyone knows is the “HOME OF THE BEARS.”
(On a more serious note, the SCDSB would like to remind all students and staff that bears are now foraging for food in all areas of the city before hibernation and therefore please be cautious on the way to school and on school property).
Bishop Carter Students Recognized by Canadian Blood Services
The results of Canadian Blood Services’ Bloodstock 2005 campaign are in and the lives of more than 600 Canadians have been improved by the kindness of the region’s everyday heroes.
As a result of the recruiting efforts of 19 local students (from Grades 11 and 12) registered with the Canadian Blood Services’ Bloodstock 2005 campaign, 452 individuals signed up to donate blood. Of these, 273 made appointments from July 4 to September 2, 2005. Considering one unit of blood can save up to three lives, these donations suggest that the lives of over 600 Canadians have been enhanced by this generous contribution.
Forty-nine per cent of the donors associated with Bloodstock 2005 are new. This is a significant success story, as a recent Ipsos-Reid survey reported that 52 per cent of Canadians indicate that they or a family members were in need of blood or blood products for surgery or medical treatment. In spite of this fact, less than 4 per cent of the eligible population donated blood last year. Given that the demand for blood is constant, an important objective of Canadian Blood Services is to continually build its volunteer donor base to ensure the necessary quantities are available.
“Engaging young people to assist in recruitment efforts has provided Canadian Blood Services with champions from an important demographic,” says Liz Spooner-Young, Senior Clinic Coordinator for Canadian Blood Services North/East Ontario & Nunavut. “Even though you can become a blood donor at the age of 17, approximately 80 per cent of our donors are over the age of 25. We need to reach out to youth so that they see the value in becoming an everyday hero in our community.”
For their efforts, students participating in Bloodstock 2005 who successfully met various recruitment goals had their names entered in a draw for educational bursaries provided by local business sponsors. Students who did not reach a milestone goal but contributed to the Bloodstock 2005 campaign through increased public awareness were recognized with a Canadian Blood Services watch.
SCDSB Staff, Students and School Communities Step Up for Hurricane Katrina Relief
A number of SCDSB schools have organized relief efforts for the victims of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Students, staff and entire school communities have drawn on their living faith to make a difference in the lives of others.
- St. Joseph School in Killarney has raised $900.00 for the Katrina relief
fund. The school held a spaghetti lunch in order to support the victims of
the hurricane. All members of the community were invited. Fun was had by all!
Thank you to the staff and parents of St. Joseph School, The Killarney Bay
Inn, The Killarney Mountain Lodge and Gateway Marina for their hard work and
commitment to this cause. St. Bonaventure Church will collect the money and
forward all funds to the Red Cross. - St. Charles College will be doing mission collections during the month
of September to help with the Katrina disaster. Early totals have already
hit the $450.00 mark. - St. Francis student council will be organizing a basket raffle in October.
- Pius XII School recently hosted ‘Cool to be Kind’ dynamo Errol Lee, and
will donate some of the proceeds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. - Bishop Alexander Carter CSS will be collecting a loonie or twonie from
students, and teachers have promised to match the amount. - Immaculate Conception will be holding a loonie collection over 2 weeks
and donating the profits from the next pizza day. - Marymount Academy will donate proceeds from a concert featuring one of
the school’s bands. - St. Theresa has solicited monetary donations from school families.
- The Provincial government has stepped up as well. Children whose families
have come to Ontario will immediately be welcomed into the province’s publicly
funded schools at no cost, Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy recently announced.
“We are opening up our school doors to help meet the immediate needs
of these children and their families,” said Kennedy. “By welcoming
these students and ensuring that they can attend school at no cost, Ontario’s
publicly funded schools are doing their small part to help children whose
lives have been completely disrupted just as the school year was beginning.”
E-Learning Introduced to Classrooms by SCDSB
Jody Cameron, Project Manager of mysudbury.ca, recently introduced Sudbury Catholic District School Board teachers to an electronic learning management tool. E-Learning using Microsoft Class S provides teachers with learning-management features to help manage curriculum on-line, assess students’ achievements againstt curriculum standards, and generate reports on the results.
“What is unique about Class S is its ability to create assignments that are aligned with the school’s curriculum standards,” stated Cameron. “Teachers can use this new electronic technology to grade assignments and evaluate a student’s work, even if the work is submitted on paper or as an oral presentation. Many types of questions, such as multiple choice or fill in the blank, can be automatically graded (autograded) in Class S,” concluded Cameron.
After the assignment has been graded, teachers can use the reporting feature to get a high-level view of the whole class or specific students within the class. These reports can also help identify individual student needs. Microsoft Class S will be introduced to Marymount Academy and Pius XII Catholic School this fall.
St. Charles College to Host Visitors from Labrador Straits
St. Charles College is once again involved in the YMCA Youth Exchange Program. The school’s students have been twinned with a group from the Labrador Straits in Labrador. Students from Labrador will be in Sudbury from June 26 to July 1, 2005 to visit Sudbury and take in some of the great sites our city has to offer.
The students from St. Charles College will be visiting Labrador
from August 22 to August 29, 2005 in return as part of the exchange
program. In addition, students from St. Charles College and Labrador
Straits are invited to a luncheon on June 30, 2005 at Respect is Burning on Durham Street. The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and will be hosted by Robert Gregorini, the owner and chef of Respect is Burning. Mr. Gregorini is offering the meal to the students at no charge as a way to give back to the community and to his former highschool as he is a graduate of St. Charles College.
After the luncheon the group will depart for Anderson Farm.
YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada promotes cross-cultural awareness and a
sense of national identity among Canadian youth aged 12 to 18. Travel
costs are funded by the Government of Canada through Exchanges Canada.
YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada sponsors exchanges between two groups of
equal size in different communities. Each group hosts the other.
During their stay in Sudbury, the youth will live with the families of
their twin group. Since 1976, thousands of young people have
experienced the cultural and geographic diversity of Canada through
participation in YMCA Youth Exchanges.