On Friday May 2, 2014 Para Olympic Gold Medal Cyclist, Robbi Weldon spoke to St. Charles Catholic Elementary School students. Robbi’s message was that of perseverance and with hard work and determination dreams can come true. We wish Robbi all the best of luck in Rio! Pictured here (left to right), Gage Robson, Kira Gouchie and Robbi Weldon.
St. Charles Elementary School Volunteers Recognized as Champions for Children
On Wednesday, April 24, a special group of people from St. Charles Catholic Elementary were recognized for their dedication to the school. The 2014 Volunteer awards for the Champions for Children were handed out by Our Children Our Future at an awards celebration and the volunteers for the school’s snack program won the group award for this event.
Vice Principal, Laura Stirrett explained that several days a week, the group of volunteers come in to wash, prepare the snacks, serve them to the students and wash up afterwards. They know that having a nutritious start to the day will help the students succeed. While most students do come to school with some form of snack, their eyes light up when the volunteers arrive with trays of fruit, vegetables and crackers arranged with the loving touch of a mom. Thanks to their unwavering support students are moved from a potential disadvantage to an advantage. “At St. Charles School, we are very lucky to have a core group of volunteers who run our Healthy Snack Program! Running a program like this takes a real dedication to the well-being of our students” says David Soehner, Principal. “We are very fortunate to have this group of ladies volunteer at our school, which is why we nominated them for this award”.
One of the award recipients, Kristine Belanger explained,” It is all about the children, and making sure they are happy and fed. Not everyone is as fortunate to have enough to eat every day so it is wonderful to see how excited the kids get when they get to experience different foods and are happy because they have had something nutritious to eat!”
Twin Day at St. Charles Elementary – Would the Real Mr. Soehner, please stand up?!
The RAM school spirit was alive and thriving at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School once again! Staff and students coordinated outfits to look like a twin or someone they admired. They were seeing double all day as they travelled the halls!
Buddy Luoma, a year one FDK student, wanted to dress like his principal, Mr. David Soehner. They both planned to dress the same. On the morning of Twin Day, Buddy stopped in at the office to show Mr. Soehner how he was dressed up just like the principal. Much to Mr. Soehner’s surprise, several students and staff also dressed up in the black pants, dress shirts and ties!! By lunch time there were 18 Mr. Soehners walking around the school, complete with ID badges and all!
Learning Bus Safety at St. Charles Elementary
Recently students had a special guest at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School! Buster the Bus came to see the students in FDK to grade 3 to talk about bus safety. Pictured, Ryan Cooney and Buster are practicing how to cross the street safely.
NOFCC Presents Plaque to St. Charles Elementary
On October 29th, Dayna Caruso a representative from the NOFCC visited St. Charles Elementary to award them with a donation plaque for the donations that have been raised from the Johnathan Hetu walk. The plaque shows the nine years of donations that St. Charles has been able to raise for the NOFCC. The walk to date has raised just over $50,000. The walk has flourished over the years with the first year donation being around $1,300 to the last years donation of over $7,400. The walk is in remembrance of former student Johnathan Hetu, who past away from cancer.
That’s a Wrap at S.C.C. – 112 Thousand Cans to Fill Sudbury Food Bank Shelves
Once again, the food drive at St. Charles College was a smashing success. Together with its feeder schools, 112 thousand cans were raised for the Sudbury Food Bank – smashing the goal of collecting 60 thousand cans in less than a week.
The food drive began more than twenty-five years ago, and its founder, former student Jim Szilva still takes part in the drive with his children at the school.
The school also teams up with Q92 and KISS 105.3 as well as the students at St. Raphael, St. David, St. Bernadette, St. Andrew, St. Paul, St. John and Pius XII Catholic Elementary Schools.
Students collect a combination of canned foods and cash – the cash portion totalled 15 thousand dollars this year.
St. Charles Elementary Kicks Off Hockey Season
There is no doubt that the students and staff of St. Charles Catholic Elementary School love hockey. What better way to celebrate the beginning of the 2013-2014 NHL season than with a school-wide jersey day. The St. Charles students were encouraged to wear their favourite hockey jersey on October 1 to kick off the NHL hockey season and show their support for their favourite hockey teams!
St. Charles Elementary Takes Part in 9th Annual Johnathan Hetu Walk
Every single student and staff member of St. Charles Catholic Elementary School walked for an hour under the bright sun on June 19, 2013 in memory of a former student. For the past eight years the school has kept up this tradition and taken part in the Johnathan Hetu walk. Johanthan Hetu was an exceptional student at the school and passed away in 2004 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Teacher David Nicholls, who was to have Johnathan in his class that next year, felt compelled to do something to honour Johnathan’s memory – thus the creation of the Johnathan Hetu walk. Students were asked to raise funds, and all the monies were donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (N.O.F.C.C.). Up until this year, the school has raised an astounding amount of money – over $43,000 through this walk and were inspired once again raise a significant amount with this year’s walk.
Joining the students and staff, family members of Johnathan’s, including his mother and father, walk the entire hour wearing Johnathan t-shirts. Nicholls explained that the family walks with them every year and makes the event that much more special for the school. “The students can walk with the family, talk about Johnathan, and for those who didn’t know him, learn more about him.”
This year’s fundraising total was revealed to the group at the end of the walk with over $7271 collected putting their nine year total at almost $51,000.
“What an outstanding school we have, “Nicholls stated. “We are truly a community school – there is a special connection in our community between students, staff and our families, and I am so proud of every single person for their support and commitment to honouring Jonathan, as well as raising money for such a great cause.”
As well as presenting the cheque to representatives of the N.O.F.C.C. the parents of Johnathan also present the Johnathan Hetu award to a student who showed characteristics similar to Johnathan; enjoy school, is out-going, and is a person that loves life. This year, the award was presented to two students- Cameron Parsley and Nathan Toeppner.
Every single student and staff member of St. Charles Catholic Elementary School walked for an hour under the bright sun on June 19, 2013 in memory of a former student. For the past eight years the school has kept up this tradition and taken part in the Johnathan Hetu walk. Johanthan Hetu was an exceptional student at the school and passed away in 2004 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Teacher David Nicholls, who was to have Johnathan in his class that next year, felt compelled to do something to honour Johnathan’s memory – thus the creation of the Johnathan Hetu walk. Students were asked to raise funds, and all the monies were donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (N.O.F.C.C.). Up until this year, the school has raised an astounding amount of money – over $43,000 through this walk and were inspired once again raise a significant amount with this year’s walk.
Joining the students and staff, family members of Johnathan’s, including his mother and father, walk the entire hour wearing Johnathan t-shirts. Nicholls explained that the family walks with them every year and makes the event that much more special for the school. “The students can walk with the family, talk about Johnathan, and for those who didn’t know him, learn more about him.”
This year’s fundraising total was revealed to the group at the end of the walk with over $7271 collected putting their nine year total at almost $51,000.
“What an outstanding school we have, “Nicholls stated. “We are truly a community school – there is a special connection in our community between students, staff and our families, and I am so proud of every single person for their support and commitment to honouring Jonathan, as well as raising money for such a great cause.”
As well as presenting the cheque to representatives of the N.O.F.C.C. the parents of Johnathan also present the Johnathan Hetu award to a student who showed characteristics similar to Johnathan; enjoy school, is out-going, and is a person that loves life. This year, the award was presented to two students- Cameron Parsley and Nathan Toeppner.
Mental Health – It Can No Longer Be Ignored
Students and staff at St. Charles Catholic School welcomed a great guest speaker: Paul Perry, Mental health nurse with CCAC and the SCDSB. They participated in an interesting session on anxiety and mental health. The information was delivered to students in grades 7 and 8, bringing messages of awareness, hope and where resources can be obtained.
Come Read With Me at St. Charles
During Catholic Education Week at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School, families in the Mme Martin’s JKFI, Mme Daoust’s SKFI and Mrs. Malafarina’s JK/SKR classes came together for a “Come Read with Me” day. At this engaging and hands on session, parents received tips about reading with their children and the importance of oral language. Mme Martin then modelled a read aloud and parents then selected a book from the teacher’s bins of favorites or guided reading books that the students are using and practiced the strategies they learned.
Teachers posted examples of student work around the room that showed parents how picture books are used in all subject areas as a rich and purposeful resource. Parents did a gallery walk to see the artifacts that students created throughout the school year using these books.
Families left with their own read aloud book, an activity, tips sheet for reading at home and a bookmark with reading strategies for young readers.