Build a Cross and Spread the Faith

I am constantly on the lookout for new, fresh, and innovative ideas to improve our schools. Every chance I get, I visit schools to see what good things are happening and figure out how I can take those good things and apply them.

Last year while visiting my daughter in San Antonio, I stopped by St. Pius X Catholic School to look at their facilities. In the middle of their courtyard, they have a seven foot tall cross made of tiles and each tile was created by one of their students. Like that State Farm commercial where the lady said, "I saw it and I was just like I have to have it."  I saw the cross and I was just like I have to have it!

St. Pius X in San Antonio

I took several pictures of the cross and texted them right away to Carrie Sealey.  Carrie is a teacher at Memphis Catholic.  She is very artistic and highly creative.  I knew she could organize the students and staff to design the tiles.

I'm that guy who comes up with all these ideas but need lots of people to help to make the ideas come to fruition. Well, Carrie took the idea and ran with it.  She recruited her father, Cary Mills, to build the cross and Cary recruited Billy Truemann, a Memphis Catholic graduate, to help him. McKenzie and Pair Glass Company donated the aluminum for the frame of the cross and Paint a Piece donated everything else needed for the construction of the cross including the tiles.

Memphis Catholic Students Creating the Tiles

The cross consists of 276 tiles painted by the students and staff.  Once the tiles were painted, they were fired at Paint a Piece. The tiles were painted as part of a Catholic Schools Week activity. The
students and staff were asked to paint what the mission of Memphis Catholic means to them and how they plan to carry out that mission.

Fr. Kirk Blessing the Cross

Even though the conception of the idea occurred last year, the actual work began in February with the painting of the tiles and ended in May when Fr. Thomas Kirk blessed the cross during a Mass at the Memphis Catholic outdoor chapel. It has taken great teamwork to accomplish this project and now the community garden is almost complete.

The picnic tables  and benches of the outdoor chapel were stained by the seniors as their legacy project from the Class of 2017.  The seniors donated money for the project and the Midtown Home Depot and Behr Paints made a very generous donation to this project.

The outdoor chapel has been completely rebuilt. An altar, ambo, and credence table were added as well. A ninth grade initiative, led by teachers Rebecca Rosa and Tim Hankins, raised the money to add these to the outdoor chapel. Derrol Jowell, the super-talented maintenance man, built everything from scratch.

Memphis Catholic Cross

After all work was completed, we decided that two more items are needed to really make the project complete.  We need to add electrical power next to the altar and cross by running lines underground to these two areas. When a large number of people are present, we set up our sound system so everyone can hear the Mass. It would be a lot easier if we didn't have to run extension cords every time we have Mass.

And, we would like to add lights to the cross so that it is visible 24/7 by everyone visiting the school and/or driving down McLean. It would be a great way of making Christ visible to all. You never know when you will touch a heart. Kind of hard to touch a heart in the dark.

"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." - 1 John 1:5

Cary & Patsy Mills

We want you to join us. It is never too late to be a part of this project. It is a great way of evangelizing our faith. A couple of hundred people have come together to make this happen. This is my invitation to you to join our team. Please click on Catholic Tree to donate to Light Up The Cross! and accept my invitation. All are welcomed!

"Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 5:16

God bless you,
Didier Aur

Catholic Tree: A Crowdfunding Website for Catholic School Educators!

You can now help fund classroom and school projects for Catholic Schools. Through a Blue Streak Scholarship Fund initiative, we have developed a crowdfunding website for Catholic School educators.

Often, educators use their own money for classroom supplies, special projects, book purchases, extra-curricular activities for the students, etc. Most times, educators don't mind spending our own money because we want what's best for our students. Sometimes, we just don't have the funds to pay for special projects, materials, so forth and so on. Many times, especially in Catholic Schools, there is no extra money in the budget to help fund these special projects.

Catholic School educators now have a source they can turn to for funding support: Catholic Tree.

Public school educators have Donors Choose to help them and that is fantastic. Donors Choose is for public school educators only so Catholic School educators need not apply. That's fine and we support their efforts because in the end, it is about the students no matter where they go to school.

The focus of Catholic Tree is to support Catholic Schools and those who choose to work in them. If a need arises for a Catholic School educator, they now have Catholic Tree they can turn to to request funding.

There are also many donors out there who want to support Catholic School education. Catholic Tree will hopefully simplify their search on how they can possibly fund a need. They can support according to project, teacher, school, and/or location.

Our plan is to reach out to all Catholic School educators to offer our support. Site registration and project posting are free. Once an educator registers, we verify the registration.  After the registration is accepted, we will verify the project to make sure it is a legitimate request and supported by that particular school's administrator. When a project is fully funded, Blue Streak Scholarship Fund will send the funds to the school in support of their request.

We have been up and running for about four days and the first project has already been fully funded and Blue Streak has delivered a check to the Jubilee Schools for Resurrection Catholic School to purchase two iPad charging stations.

If you know a Catholic School educator, share this blog with them. We can team up and help support their school and students. We hope to use Catholic Tree to fund most every project, which would save all our Catholic Schools a lot of money to better serve students. It is another way of funding the schools.

God bless you,
Didier Aur

We Can Make a Difference! Blue Streak 1,000 Club!

I read a report today by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) that stated "68 percent of the population of Memphis lives in economic distress."  EIG arrived at this number by blending government data on educational attainment, housing vacancy rates, unemployment rates, poverty levels, median income levels, changes in employment, and the percentage of businesses opening and closing within certain zip codes.  Memphis ranked second of the list of most distressed large city, between Detroit (94 percent) and Milwaukee (55 percent).

With that in mind, I believe it is time to have another 1,000 Club membership push.  We all know people who are looking for a great opportunity to help the children of Memphis.  There is probably no better way of helping the children especially those living in "economic distress" than to give them hope for a better tomorrow.  The way to do this is by giving them the academic and spiritual education they need to succeed.

Pele', the world's greatest soccer player, once said, "Success is no accident.  It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."  As we all know, this is what is taking place in the Jubilee Schools; the students are working hard, studying, learning, and persevering.  This leads to success and brings our students out of "economic distress."

Blue Streak was created to help the Jubilee Schools give the children and their families hope.   In order to continue to serve the Jubilee Schools, we need Blue Streak members who are active members and we need to continue to grow in membership.  With the creation of the 1,000 Club, we want members who year in and year out actively participate in making sure our children have hope for a better future.

If you would like to make a difference and become a member of the Blue Streak 1,000 Club, please contact me and I can answer any question(s) you may have.  If you are already a 1,000 Club member, please invite a friend to join up.  Also, check out the Blue Streak website at http://bluestreakmemphis.net/ for more information about our organization.

We are currently 140 members strong in just six months.  The 1,000 Club has pledged over $86K for 2017.  We are on the right path and it is necessary for us to continue to grow so that our good work can positively impact more children.

Let's work together to eliminate the 68 percent economic distress.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

God bless you,
Didier Aur