Dear Families:
Last Friday we gathered together for our traditional, Blessing of the Animals. Father Colin was on hand to celebrate the event honoring St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, whose feast day is October 4th. Pre-Covid, we would gather with our school family and parents would bring pets of every shape and size to be blessed. This year, unable to join our community together, students brought pictures or drawings of their pets, and some, even a favorite “stuffy” for the blessing. We all look forward to the time when we can all be back together for the blessing. Hopefully, next year we will have our usual event.
The Move-a-thon is coming! On October 14th students will “move” around blocks surrounding the school to get some exercise, have some fun and raise money for our school. We are really looking forward to this event as it is outside and students can participate in a more normal fashion than some of our other activities. Due to distancing guidelines, we won’t be able to have all students participate at the same time. We will have two sessions of 30 minutes each, one for the middle school and one for K-5. There will be two courses and K-2 will run or walk through the north course onto the church parking lot and back to the school while the 3rd-5th graders will run on the south course that the middle schoolers run, rounding the block just to the south of the school. Mrs. Flora has sent an online form for students to collect pledges. She will also be looking for volunteers to help at the event. Please contact her if you can spare the afternoon between 1:00pm and 3:00pm on the 14th. Everyone needs to pray for sunshine and no rain for this fun-filled event.
On October 20th – 22nd we will be joining with schools across the nation for Unity Days when we will be celebrating inclusion, acceptance and kindness. Orange is the color of unity and we encourage all students to wear free dress orange to school on the 20th. Please see the post below from Mrs. Rousso on the events planned for the week.
Please join us the evening of Wednesday, October 20th when we will be hosting Dr. Janine Jones, professor of Psychology and an Associate Dean at the University of Washington speaking on “Raising Anti-Racist Children.” She is well-known for her works on multiculturalism and increasing tolerance in children. This zoom session will be held from 6:30pm -8:00pm and requires a reservation to participate. Attendance is limited 100 attendees. Please sign up using this link.
Finally, just a reminder that individual school pictures will be taken this coming Thursday. Please see the post below for details on ordering pictures. This is a free dress day for students.
Have a great week.
Thanks,
Mary
