St. Charles Catholic Elementary School

Indigenous Celebration Held

The Diocesan Centre is planning an inclusive day of celebration based on indigenous culture, and would love a big turn out at this event. All students, staff, families and friends are welcome and encouraged to attend! It looks to be a great day planned!

INDIGENOUS CELEBRATION
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Fielding Park

5:30 am. Sunrise Ceremony ~

8:00 am. Pancake Breakfast ~

9:00 am. Teaching Carousel – Stations will be set up to be rotated through – 6 stations with 20 minute presentations at each~

a) Children drumming station~

b) Craft – decade of the rosary with four/six colour beads + leather OR~leather bookmark

c) 7 Grandfather teachings

d) Legends – Elders telling the stories~

e) Medicines and Wheel

f) Sacred Elements (fire keeper, tobacco, stones, feather, pipe, drums, smudge, animals) ~

11:00 am. Healing Circle – prayers, scripture (trilingual), blessing~

1:30 pm. Feast – “pot luck”

3:00 pm Travelling Song/Blessing~

For more information and access to resources, please consult:

http://arise-ssm.weebly.com

“The Blue Dot Movement” at St. Charles Elementary

St Charles Catholic Elementary School participated in the National Day of Action with “The Blue Dot Movement” from the David Suzuki Foundation on April 17, 2015 All 344 students wrote their wishes for the planet Earth on their own blue dot and watched a video about Canadians wishing to make a difference for our country and our Earth as part of the monthly virtue of Stewardship. The students are excited about celebrating Earth Day as they will also be signing a letter addressed to the mayor and Sudbury council asking for their support in adding the following 3 items to the Charter of Rights and Freedom:

1) The right to clean air
2) The right to clean drinking water
3) The right to pesticide free food

“We want our students to understand just how important it is to be stewards of the earth,” Dave Soehner, principal of St. Charles. “Through this Blue Dot Movement, our students have really come to understand how important these basic necessities are to the entire planet and that it is everyone’s job to help make it happen. They understand that they have a voice and can help be a part of the change.”

Anyone can join from coast to coast to protect the people and places we love. Find out more at bluedot.nationbuilder.com

Sporting a ‘Stache for a Cause at St Charles Elementary

After questions about all of the moustaches the students have seen lately, FDK FI students had a discussion about Movember. Students had the chance to sport a “moose-stache” for the day, along side principal David Soehner, as he read them the story Moosetache, by Margie Palatini. Students were entertained with all the crazy antics that Moose does to get his out-of-control moustache tamed!

St Charles Elementary Comes Together to Share Who They Are

Staff and students at St Charles Catholic Elementary School began the school year by reflecting on who they each are as individuals and what gifts and talents they bring to the school community. Everyone completed an “I am…” statement to share with the school.

Pictured are Jodie-Lee Clance and Emma Carpenter. Emma Carpenter, a grade 5 student explained, “doing this activity tells everyone about yourself and helps people get to know you. You can see that everyone is unique in their own way and this makes our school a special place!”

Ten Year Anniversary for Johhathan Hetu Walk at St. Charles Elementary

For the past nine years, students and staff of St. Charles Catholic Elementary have taken part in the Johnathan Hetu walk. Johnathan 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.). This year, students and staff once again participated in the walk and raised an outstanding amount of $7112. 77 bringing their grand total to close to $60,000 for their ten year anniversary of the walk. Once again, Johnathan’s family joined the school for the walk and the entire school community celebrated Johnathan’s spirit and inspiration.
School principal, Dave Soehner, was overwhelmed with the school’s spirit once again. “I am extremely proud of my students and staff for continuing to honour our former student and his family through this walk and their donations,” Soehner stated. “The Johnathan Hetu walk brings us closer as a school community, allows us the opportunity to celebrate one of our own, as well as give back to our own city in a very positive and direct way through N.O.F.C.C.”

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!”

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 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.

Bags for Beds at St. Charles Elementary

As part of the Dearness Conservation Program, students from St. Charles Catholic Elementary School in Chelmsford collected milk bags once again this school year to donate to the “Bags for Beds” project. A total of 1600 bags were brought in over a four week period.
The opportunity to participate in this project supports students to deepen their understanding of how a seemingly simple recycling activity results in a profound improvement in the quality of life for others.
Azilda resident, Ms. Rolande Nault , picked up the bags and explained that she and four of her friends meet twice weekly to cut the bags into strips which they then crochet into mats. The mats are donated to developing nations, such a Haiti, where they are used as beds.

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