On Friday, June 12, 2009 from 9:15-11:45, over 400 students, teachers and parents from the St. John Catholic School community will rally together to help raise funds by holding a Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life at our school.
The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life involves participants who take turns walking, running or strolling around a track. Proceeds are used to fund cancer research and community services for people living with cancer and their families.
Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, John Beaucage will be visiting St. Charles College on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 from to speak to the students re the “Anishinabek Manifesto.”
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is very much appreciative of the fact that Grand Chief Beaucage is taking time from his busy schedule (as he has 42 Anishinabek bands under his leadership) to address the students on this very important topic. The Anishinabek Political Manifesto as part of its mandate states that the “Anishinabek Nation, under the authority of the Creator through the Grand Council Chiefs-in-Assembly and the Office of the Grand Council Chief have endeavoured to assert the inherent rights and reestablish the jurisdiction of the Anishinabek Nation.”
In October 2004, Grand Council Chief John Beaucage was elected to serve the 42-member First Nations of the Anishinabek Nation. Prior to his election as Grand Council Chief, Beaucage was the elected Chief of Wasauksing First Nation and has served in that capacity for the past eight years.
Chief Beaucage is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with degrees in English and economics, and he has done post-graduate work in First Nation planning at the University of British Columbia. Grand Council Chief Beaucage also played an instrumental role in the First Ministers’ Meeting in Kelowna, BC in November of 2005. Leading up to the First Ministers’ Meeting, Beaucage served as the Co-chair for First Ministers’ Working Groups for both Housing and Relationships.
In addition to his role as Grand Council Chief, Beaucage is also the President of the Anishinabek Nation Management Group Inc. and the Anishinabek Nation Seventh Generation Charities.
The Johnathan Hetu Day during Education Week was once again a success. Six schools: St. Michael, St. Mary’s, St. Francis, St. Raphael, St. Anne and St. Charles were able to Raise $1168.00 in support for the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer. The hat day is in memory of Johnathan Hetu who was a student at St. Charles school and passed away from cancer. So far St. Charles has organized two walks and two hat days since 2006 and have been able to help raise $13639.18 for the NOFCC. St. Charles will once again have their Johnathan Hetu walk on June 23 when they hope to break the $15000 mark. Thank you to all the students and teachers that participated.
On Wednesday, December 19 St. John Catholic School students and staff will gather in the gymnasium to show their support for Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan. The school has been collecting gifts for the troops (mouthwash, candy, sun screen, shampoo etc.) and has solicited corporate sponsors to donate as well.
The managers of COSTO, WALMART and GIANT TIGER (retired warrant officer) will also be present at the assembly as well as the parents of Captain Christopher Duncan, a Coniston boy who is with the TANK TROOP TF AFGANISTAN ROTO 5 (Royal Canadian Dragoons). The school will present the parents of Captain Duncan with a banner signed by students, parents and grandparents wishing their son, his troop and all Canadian soldiers a very Merry Christmas
The St. John Catholic School students have also been writing letters and making Christmas cards for the Canadian Troops. The Falconbridge Post Office will ensure the speedy, safe FREE delivery of the school’s messages and supplies.
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to announce that St. John Catholic School has been selected by the City of Greater Sudbury to participate in a school-based recycling project. Prior to the launch of the pilot project, only paper and cardboard products were being recycled at the school. As a result of this new initiative, students are now able to recycle the same waste products as they do at home in one convenient blue box without the need to sort! Some of the new products students can recycle include: plastic sandwich bags, milk cartons, and juice boxes-something schools have a lot of!
Madame Raymond’s Grade 3/4 French Immersion class has taken on a leadership role in helping to organize and support the project. Students are responsible for collecting waste reduction data and publically charting the results in the school’s front entrance on a weekly basis. St. John Catholic School is hoping to reduce the amount of waste sent to the local landfill site by at least 50 percent through this new initiative.
The Grade 3/4 French Immersion class is also working to integrate the project into all aspects of the curriculum from Mathematics to Social Studies. Further, a Waste Reduction Committee organized by teachers and run by students has been created with the purpose of raising awareness about the importance of recycling amongst students and staff alike.
St. John Catholic School is the third SCDSB school to participate in the City of Greater Sudbury’s recycling “pilot project” joining sister schools, St. Paul Catholic School and St. Charles College who embarked upon this project in June 2007.
Six thousand, five hundred! That’s the number of food items that students at St. John Catholic School raised in support of the Garson Food Bank.
Tricia Dowdall-Cirelli, Principal of St. John Catholic School is very proud of the efforts of her students in helping the less fortunate. “St. John Catholic School students are learning through Christ’s example to be selfless, charitable and champions of social justice,” states Cirelli. “The students are also being empowered through example to make a difference by affecting change not only in their own backyards but in our city, country, and world.”
Raise the Bar is an exciting new program designed to improve the quality of intramural programs in schools across Ontario. Supported by the Ministry of Health promotion, Raise the Bar offers students, regardless of previous experience or skill level the opportunity to become more engaged in the school community through sport and exercise. By their inclusive nature, intramurals provide St. John’s students with an even playing field allowing everyone the chance to play on a team and enjoy physical activities that are fun.
St. John Catholic School Grade 7 & 8 students have fun playing floor hockey as part of the schools’s Raise the Bar initiative – an intramural sports program which promotes Active,Healthy Kids! St. John Catholic School began the intramural season with floor hockey available to all grade 7 and 8 students. Currently, eight teams have signed up and participate every lunch and recess in the gymnasium. The school’s junior grades (grades 4, 5, and 6) will also have the opportunity to participate in Raise the Bar as their season is slated to begin in mid October.
The students and staff from St. Charles Catholic School in Chelmsford participated in the “Johnathan Hetu Walk For Cancer” on Friday, June 22, 2007 in and around the school yard. The students walked to remember Johnathan, a former student at the school who passed away from cancer and all other students who have cancer.
The school raised $5300 from the walk and $1800 from a previous “Hat Day” also decidated to Johnathan. That brings the two year fundraising total to more than $12,000 for the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer (NOFCC).
Students, parents, teachers and staff at St. David Catholic School could hardly contain their excitement as they waited for Mayor John Rodriguez to cut the ribbon that would officially announce the opening of their brand-new play ground and school yard recently. In
June 2006, St. David Catholic School was proclaimed the winner of the ‘Ugliest School Yard Contest’ and over the course of the last 12 months, the students, parents and staff at the school have worked alongside local suppliers and representatives from the Sudbury business community to re-green their playground.
As part of the winning package for the Ugliest Schoolyard, St. David received trees and shrubs, courtesy of Canadian Tire, Saturn of Sudbury provided a reading corner containing large trees, sod and benches with Hollandia Landscaping and CVRD INCO donating top soil for the project. ALLMAC Tree Service helped to plant the trees, sod and shrubbery.
The St. David entry was selected from fifteen schools that participated in the contest with the criteria consisting of submission of letters from the students, photos from staff, and a walkabout of the school by the panel of judges as to why their school should win the /Ugliest Schoolyard Contest./
St. David Catholic School would like to thank the following donor’s who made the re-greening school yard project possible; Saturn Sudbury, Canadian Tire, James St. John Landscape & Design, Freskiw Farms, CVRD INCO, Hollas Produce and Greenhouses, Hollandia Land & Environmental Solutions, Botanix Azilda Greenhouses, Brown’s Concrete, Gisele’s Greenhouses, Sudbury Horticultural Society, White Water Greenhouses & Yard Centre, Sudbury Master Gardeners, Adam & Eve Garden Centre,Ashley Landscape Supplies, WD Tree Removal, Southview Green Houses and Evans Lumber.
Students from St. John Catholic School were at Science North Monday to participate in the unveiling of the latest in webcasting technology and to hear Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Mr. Rick Bartolucci announce a $90,000 investment by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism in the project. The funding is part of the province’s Celebrate Ontario initiative, a one-time $4-million project that will help renew and revitalize the province’s existing festivals and events, with the goal of helping organizations enhance their products by creating new experiences to attract residents and visitors to Ontario.
“The Ontario government is a proud supporter of local festivals, events and attractions that boost tourism in all four seasons,” said Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci. “Supporting such events provides an economic boost to our area, and a memorable experience for our visitors.”
With the grant, Science North has created a webstudio that will reside in the Sudbury facility, and will ‘broadcast” over the internet to a travelling webstudio. The first stop for the travelling studio will be the Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane, where Science North has installed exhibits that are complementary to its current special exhibition – Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Penguins.
Science North and the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat will collaborate to create programming related to the Ends of the Earth polar exhibition and to the exhibits at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat. The programs, some involving live Arctic and Antarctic animals on loan to Science North from other institutions such as the Canadian Raptor Conservancy, will be broadcast in real-time over the internet to enhance the visitor experience at both facilities and attract more visitors over the summer season. The portable webcasting studio will be installed at the Habitat in the next few weeks, and stay at the Polar Bear Habitat until September 3, 2007, when a new location will be chosen.
Technically, the two studios will be outfitted in a similar way, although the webstudio at Science North will have a little more power, including the ability to control the cameras and equipment in the mobile studio. Each will have two cameras, lighting gear, audio equipment, and A/V switchers, all linked to powerful servers designed to send the signal out through the web effectively and efficiently. Any communication from one facility to the other can be made available on the web in real-time, or recorded and made available at a later date. Both web studios are suitable for webcasting and for video conferencing.
