Dear St. Therese Families.

It was a short week and a HOT one! Despite the heat, we had a ton of fun! We enjoyed getting reacquainted with old friends, meeting new classmates and new teachers! We began the week on Wednesday and our middle school students attended mass led by Father Gabriele. He highlighted to our students and staff the importance of not only academics and career achievement, but how and why we take care of ourselves spiritually, which is what we are called by God to do. He noted that is year is a fresh start, and that we as teachers are called to nurture that seed that God has planted in our students and ourselves, that seed of spirituality. It's incumbent upon us as educators and caretakers of your children to take that job seriously. We are encouraging each other and our students to keep our mission statement central, that we "are a diverse community striving for academic excellence, grounded in our Catholic faith."

Father Gabriele is more eloquent than I am, but what resonated with me during mass was that this year is a fresh start, an opportunity to make small changes to better ourselves, each other, our community and our school. If we have spoken this week, you've heard me struggle with enough adjectives to describe the atmosphere in the school. There is a real sense of renewal, optimism, and enthusiasm in the halls and the whole campus. It has really been a joy-filled week and St. Therese School just feels vibrant! We welcomed new students and families and I am as proud as I have ever been of our students' openness and readiness to open their arms and hearts to new classmates. It's so unique to this community, and in speaking to many of our new students, they have felt it also.

On that note, I want to introduce our new staff members. Please see below, if you have not yet had the opportunity to meet our amazing additions to the team! And not to worry, because Back to School Night will be here before we know it, on Tuesday September 17th.

Join us for mass this weekend and meet our new music teacher, Mrs. Emily Bavaro, who is fulfilling two roles as our musical director for St. Therese Church.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the warm evenings before we are missing them!

In Christ the Teacher,

Principal Schoning

ASAP: Register for Jog-A-Thon (Do it! It's super easy, and it directly benefits YOUR KIDS!

Monday Sep. 9: First Parents' Club meeting of the year, 6 pm at school. All are welcome, so join us!

Tuesday Sep. 10: Fall Sports Information Night. Bring your athletes and all your questions!

Tuesday Sep. 17th: Back to School Night in the MPC (gymnasium).

For our Jog-a-Thon this year, we're using Pledgestar, an awesome web based fundraising system that makes it easy for you to request pledges from your family and friends, and for them to make secure credit card dona?ons online. It's fun, it's easy, and people who use it typically raise twice as much as those who don't!

Remember, our Jog-a-Thon is Friday October 4th, so please register in Pledgestar by Thursday September 12th to help our school raise as much as we can for best-in-class language arts, social studies and religion curriculum for St. Therese students.

Using your computer's browser:

1. Go to hFp://pledgestar.com/sttherese

2. Click “Not Registered For This Year’s Event”

3. Enter your name and email address, then click “Submit”

4. Follow the instruc?ons on-screen to register Jogger(s) and select their t-shirt size(s)

5. Add friends and family and begin requesting donations!

Using your Android or Apple phone or tablet:

1. Go to the Apple App Store on IOS or the Amazon App Store on Android and search for

   "PledgeStar" to download the Family App, or go

   to hFps://pledgestar.com/sFherese/downloadapp.html

2. On the home screen enter your event code: “sttherese” to locate your event

3. Click “Not Registered For This Year’s Event”

4. Enter your name and email address, then click “Submit”

5. Follow the instructions on-screen to register Jogger(s) and select their t-shirt size(s)

6. Add friends and family and begin requesting donations

   Scan the QR Code to register and get started!

I cannot express the importance of our Jog-A-Thon adequately. We are a growing school and tuition dollars alone are not enough to sustain the investment needed for our school. Every year we explore new fundraising options, but, for now, the Jog-A-Thon is our primary and most important fundraiser. The money raised by students, with your help, go directly back into the school to benefit your children. Last year we installed a new sound system in the gymnasium and this year our plan is to put it right back into the hands of students – literally - in the form of new, top tier curriculum. 100% of the proceeds goes directly to the classrooms to enrich their educational resources at St. Therese.

Help us reach our goal!!

Thank you!!

Thank you all for adjusting to the new drop-off route. It's been seamless. This is for the safety of all, students, parents, parishioners, and staff. Change is possible and positive!

Please follow the link below to a letter from Father Gabriele regarding opportunities to become an altar server this year.

In Mr. Rymer's tech class, our 8th grade students were building on the skills they learned last year, and getting right into coding on day 1!! Look out for the Tech Fair this year, which is sure to impress!

***Please contact the office if you need support in purchasing school supplies.

There are some great opportunities for boys and girls to get involved in sports this Fall! Take a look and let us know if you have any questions!!

FALL SPORTS INFO NIGHT:

• Tuesday September 10th from 6pm - 8pm
• We will be here to answer questions for the sports, the season, registration, and scholarships
• Volleyball registrations will close at the end of this meeting

VOLLEYBALL:

• For the first time ever, CYO is offering volleyball for BOYS AND GIRLS in grades 3-8
• You can register to play for St Therese here: https://cyocamphoward.org/content/16643/st-volleyball
• 8 regular season games starting later this month through November
• 3 Tournament options along with the regular season games
• Registration deadline for teams is Tuesday September 10th at 8pm

SWIMMING:

• Registration is open for the swimming team, and it will be open through the end of September, register here: https://cyocamphoward.org/content/24610/st-swimming
  
• Swimmers ages 3rd grade through 8th grade can join the team, and should be able to swim across the pool (we are NOT instructors on how to swim)
  
• We have GREAT coaches who are all former swimmers led by our very own Dave Tabayoyon who coached last year
• We are partnering with FMES school to create a team
• Practices are still being scheduled, but we will likely swim at 7pm two nights a week at Parkrose pool
• Please contact athletics@stthereseschool.org with any questions!!

BEGINNER BASKETBALL (HOT SHOTS):

• All boys & girls in grades 1 and 2 are welcome to join our Hot Shots team for Fall, register here: https://cyocamphoward.org/content/18532/st-basketball-hot-shots

Attention 8th grade families: it is time to start thinking about Catholic High School! See the flyer below for upcoming dates for Open House, High School Placement Tests, and application due dates. Mrs. Baumbach will be hosting a Catholic High School Info Night. More information will come to you soon.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Registrar/Office Mrs. Barnett, barnetta@stthereseschool.org

Principal Schoning schoningc@stthereseschool.org

Vice Principal Baumbach cbaumbach@stthereseschool.org

School Phone: 503-253-9400