St. James students Paige, Torance and Ava celebrated their first day of school with new backpacks. These backpacks were graciously donated by Costco Wholesale, Sudbury.
Category: Community
St. David Catholic School Celebrates National Tree Day by Visiting Proposed New School Site
September 26, 2012 marks the third National Tree Day in Canada. National Tree Day is a celebration for all Canadians to appreciate the great benefits that trees provide us – clean air, reducing energy demand, wildlife habitat and connecting with nature. National Tree Day is the celebration of trees and forests in all neighbourhoods across Canada. As part of National Tree Day, the grade 3 and 4/5 classes from St. David Catholic School, in the Donovan, took their classrooms outdoors to visit the proposed site of their new school to observe trees in the area. Students were able to identify and describe the various trees that they saw incorporating language and science into their outdoor activities. The outdoor lessons focused on how the natural environment functions and how as human beings we can live in balance with nature as long as we remain committed to responsible behaviours and actions that protect our local ecosystems.
PIus XII Students Celebrate National Tree Day
Pius XII Catholic School, Grade 5 class celebrate National Tree Day on September 26th. The students in the Gr.5 class lead the school in ‘Dearness Conservation’ initiatives that support, promote and foster stewardship fo the earth and the wise use of resources; such as recycling, reusing and reducing. Classroom teacher, Amanda Schiafone says that “National Tree Day is a day when everybody can appreciate the great benefits that trees provide us – clean air, wildlife habitat, reducing energy demand and connecting with all of nature around us.”
Hair Cut for Cancer Event at Immaculate Conception
On Monday, September 24th, 2012 Louisa Bianchin, principal of Immaculate Conception Catholic Elementary School kicked off the Student of the Month assembly with something special. Grade four student, Dennica Hallett, had her hair cut in front of the whole school in order to donate it to make wigs for people who have lost their hair as a result of cancer treatments. Brenda Morrow, Dennica’s aunt was the hair stylist on hand who prepared and cut her hair for donation.
“It takes approximately 12 donations of unprocessed hair and costs about $1,200.00 to craft a single hand-sewn wig for a child” (http://www.cancer.ca-Cuts for Cancer Fundraiser).
Bianchin expressed her gratitude to Dennica in front of the school community. “We are so proud of Dennica’s kindness and compassion for others; the staff and students at Immaculate Conception School would like to support Dennica and have raised additional revenue for the Canadian Cancer Society. As of today, we have raised $700 to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society”
Patricia Clizia from Canadian Cancer Society was on hand to accept the donation from the school. Clizia echoed Bianchin’s comments, and thanked both Dennica as well as the other students for their generosity. “We are so pleased that our young students at Immaculate Conception School are reaching out to others and “Joining together in the fight againstt cancer”.
S.C.C. Student Braces for Event of a Lifetime – WE Day 2012
WE Day is an annual event that encourages student leadership, and it brings empowered youth together to show them they are not alone in their journey to impact local and global change. A student from St. Charles College is lucky enough to be attending one of the WE Days held in Toronto, at the Air Canada Centre. David DiBrina, president of the St. Charles College student council, as well as student trustee for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, has been selected to be one of the 20,000 students from across Ontario to have the privilege to be a part of the monumentous event. Speakers will include the likes Al Gore, Nelly Furtado, Hedley, and many more celebrities. This televised event is taking place on Friday, September 29th, 2012, and will be streamed live online. As a representative of the Sudbury Catholic Board, DiBrina will be tweeting live throughout the event on the Sudbury Catholic Twitter account and can be followed @ SCDSB throughout the day. When asked about his expectations of the event prior to his departure, DiBrina stated, “ I am sure that I will leave Toronto with a wealth of knowledge that I can bring back and share with my peers, as well as a renewed passion and increased confidence to make positive changes locally, as well as globally!”
St. Raphael Student Supports S.C.C. Annual Food Drive Challenge
Sara Perry, Grade 3 student from St. Raphael School, poses with the 27 non-perishable food items she collected all by herself to kickoff the Annual Food Drive with St. Charles College. Sara says “I collected them from some of the people on my street for the Sudbury Food Bank”. Students from St. Charles College visited the elementary school on September 21 to get the students excited about this industrious challenge. The goal this year is to collect 60,000 food items, in order for Mr. Jim Silva to be let out of the bus he will be on for a week. The St. Raphael Royals are ready and eager to help with the challenge!
“We Stand Up to Bullying at St. David Catholic School”
September 28 is International STAND UP to Bullying Day. To date more than 3100 schools and workplaces representing more than a million people have taken part in this celebration. St. David Catholic School celebrated STAND UP TO BULLYING day by asking all students and staff to wear pink. School staff reinforced that bullying can be verbal, social, physical or can happen on the internet. Students were reminded that if they witness any bullying in the school yard, it is important that they report it to their teacher or school staff immediately. Teachers reinforced how to protect yourself from being bullied and how to support friends who are victims of bullies. “Wearing pink today represents our school message to all bullies: We are standing up as a community againstt bullying –so we are wearing our pink shirts with pride and confidence recognizing that each of us has the power to make a difference”, stated Mrs. Jennifer Gran, St. David School grade 4/5 teacher.
Ensuring Bike Safety for Students in Killarney
One of the major signs of summer is the visible presence of bikes on the roads. This is the same in Killarney. To ensure the safety of all of her students, St. Joseph Catholic Elementary teacher Irene Dembek invited O.P.P. officer Rodney Petroski and Sudbury and District Health Unit Health Promotion Worker Daniel Prévost into the school to talk about bike safety. All of the school’s students were encouraged to bring their bikes in and each bike was inspected to ensure a safe ride for the student. “With all of my students, I want to ensure that their safety is first and foremost,” Dembek stated. “With our community partnerships with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sudbury and District Health Unit, we work together to make sure our students understand the importance of bike and road safety – it is something I do every year.”
Wild at Heart Animal Refuge Inspires Students to Make a Difference
Students in Cheryl MacRury’s Early Learning class and Kathy Belanger’s Grade 7 class at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School have been inspired. For the past year, these two classes have worked together to support the Wild at Heart Animal Refuge. What started out at as a proposal from the two teachers, resulted in a successful grant application from the Canadian Federation of Teachers to support the students learning about, and helping animals in the wild.
The students decided to call themselves the ABC’S – All Because of Caring Students, and decided that this project was about making a difference in the world, despite being a small group of young students. The project involved contacting and visiting community businesses to begin a fundraiser for the animal refuge. Knowing that ever cent makes a difference, they began a penny drive to help out the animals. Throughout the year, the classes had contact with Wild at Heart Animal Refuge veterinarian Dr. Jouppi and learned about what the centre does to support, protect and care for wild animals.
On June 20th, 2012, the students got on a bus, and visited each of the community business that helped them collect for one last collection, and the last stop on the road trip was at the Wild at Heart Animal Refuge where they got to see the facility and meet with Dr. Jouppi. Dr. Jouppi explained to the students that the centre should be ready within a year to be an educational facility – set up to educate groups about the animals – with an average of about 700 animals visiting the site each year, usually with 150 at the centre at any given time. Dr. Jouppi thanked the students for their donations and support and encouraged them to continue in their efforts to support the care of wild animals. “Living in Northern Ontario, it is our duty to treat animals with respect and to learn to live in harmony along side the animals as they were here first.” Jouppi said. The veterinarian also encouraged the students to tell others about the centre as they are in constant need for volunteers, not only to support the animals, but to help with the construction of the renovations to expand the centre, as well as with fundraising and education.
Both teachers have thoroughly enjoyed working on this year-long project with their students as it has positively affected the classes in numerous ways. “Not only did our students learn about protecting our environment and all the creatures that God has given us,” MacRury stated. “They have learned numeracy from counting the money, they have learned to be stewards of the earth, they have learned communication skills, technology skills in creating multi-media projects, and they have learned empathy in being more aware of what is happening in the world around them.” Kathy Belanger echoed MacRury’s comments and added that they two different classes working together has been a great experience for all the students as well. “Have students in different grades partner up and work together has given them both a different perspective and allowed for a really enriching mentoring opportunity. The younger students really look up to the older students and have been encouraged to be role-models. All of our students rose to the occasion and the whole experience was outstanding. I think this project will impact them for the rest of their lives as it was more than just a fundraiser, it allowed them to have more of a global perspective as it reinforced the importance of thinking of others before themselves.”
At the end of the penny drive, the students had raised over $200 for the centre as well as donated a newly built crate for the animals, a basket of fruit and other food items for the animals.