CPR Does Work!

Mass at His Way Retreat Center

Thanks to the Bartlett Fire Department, all St. Ann staff members have been CPR certified. Never ever thought that exactly one month to the day we were certified we would be using that CPR training to save a life. We were taught that CPR would pretty much only work if you administer CPR immediately and not 5 or 10 minutes after it is needed. Basically, you have to be there when the crisis occurs.

Fr. David Knight

On Friday, we had our staff retreat day at His Way Retreat Center in Frayser with Fr. David Knight. Fr. Knight was his usual great self. We enjoyed his presentations all morning long. At noon, we celebrated Mass together before lunch.

During Mass, Fr. Knight continued his presentation through the Mass. Right before he consecrated the host and wine, he said, "If I pass out, please make sure you receive communion." We all thought that was a pretty bizarre thing to say. Consecration took place, Fr. Knight sat down, and passed out. As he was falling from the chair, several St. Ann staff members ran up and caught Fr. Knight before he hit the ground, and carefully laid him down. Abe Abuelouf quickly took Fr. Knight's pulse, and could not find a pulse. Abe is an anesthesiologist who teaches our 8th grade confirmation class. Taking a pulse and checking for vital signs is an every day thing for him. If he could not find a pulse, there was something terribly wrong taking place.

Gathering Before the Retreat

Abe quickly started applying some serious chest compressions to shock Fr. Knight's heart into starting up again. About five of our staff members were right there on the ground surrounding Fr. Knight making sure his air-passage was clear, and probably praying. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911. I went outside to find the address for His Way Retreat Center. Our CPR training kicked in for all of us.

After several chest compressions, Fr. Knight opened his eyes. His pulse was weak but his heart was beating. Abe continued to monitor his pulse and blood pressure. Slowly, Fr. Knight started to become more alert, getting some of his color back, and he was covered in sweat. This was no ordinary school spiritual retreat day.

If you are going to need CPR to keep you alive, what better place to be than in a chapel with 20+ people certified in CPR. I am extremely proud of the St. Ann staff members for using what they have been taught and reacting so quickly in a crisis situation.

Fr. Knight refused to go to the hospital. He was feeling a little bit better but still extremely weak. That's when a few of our staff members reminded the group what Fr. Knight had said before passing out. He said, "If I pass out, please make sure you receive communion." So, Annmarie Ghio and Priscilla Williams served as our Eucharistic ministers, and we all received communion.

Mass with Fr. Knight

Garibaldi's Pizza catered our lunch that day. Mike Garibaldi delivered the food for the retreat and stayed around to celebrate Mass with us. He was there for the ordeal. I think Mike was the first one to realize Fr. Knight was passing out and yelled, "Catch him!" So many people reacted so quickly that Fr. Knight was caught and gently laid to the ground. I was on the other side opposite of Fr. Knight. I was able to see the whole thing taking place. It was a wow moment in so many ways.

Mass at His Way Retreat Center

Part of having a great retreat is having great food. Since lunch was there (thank you Garibaldi's) and Fr. Knight was feeling better, we proceeded to lunch while a group of folks led by Abe continued to monitor and comfort Fr. Knight. Pasta, ravioli, pizza, spinach, and salad! What a treat. After what took place earlier, sharing a little down-time together was much needed.

We decided to end the retreat after lunch. Everyone pitched in to clean up the chapel, dining room, and kitchen. Someone fixed a big plate of Italian food for Fr. Knight and put it in the refrigerator so he would have some dinner once he was ready to eat.

Retreat with Fr. Knight

I called Fr. Knight Saturday morning to check on him. He was upbeat and extremely happy. He ate the dinner we left him and was feeling strong. He said that even his cold was gone. I told him his cold was gone because of all the prayers coming his way from St. Ann. He agreed with that.

Anna Slattery made a big to-go food package of pizza, bread, bagels, cream cheese, and chocolate for the Missionaries of Charity on Keel Avenue. After the retreat, I took the food over to them. They were so happy especially for the chocolate. I learned many years ago that if no one takes them food, they don't eat. They told me it was providential (heaven-sent) if they had food. Their providential meal that evening was courtesy of St. Ann. If you don't know the Missionaries of Charity, you are missing out on an incredible religious experience. Try walking in their shoes for one day. I've done it. I'm not strong enough to do it much more than one day.

Our Breakfast Table

Back to Fr. Knight. Before leaving, we monitored Fr. Knight for the next couple of hours. We slowly got him to his room. He lives at His Way Retreat Center. His pulse was still weak but slowly improving. Abe and I stayed with Fr. Knight waiting for his doctors to call back, which they all did. He is scheduled to see his doctors on Monday. We had the chance to just sit back and share time together. Fr. Knight actually taught Abe and me at CBU. It was good to be together again. Fr. Knight felt will enough to walk to the kitchen and brew a cup of coffee. He said he wanted a cup of coffee and to get some sleep. After Fr. Knight went to bed, Abe and I closed up His Way.

Abe said to me that he thought Fr. Knight was gone when he could not find a pulse. I texted Abe Friday night and told him that "You saved a life today. You are a hero." I love Abe's response. "Oh...! Please...! As I was putting my 200 pound weight on his chest I was praying with every pump on his chest, oh God..please not now!"

Abe is a hero as are all the St. Ann staff members who were there to help, pray, serve communion, support, and went through the CPR certification course. The Bartlett Fire Department personnel who trained us are heroes. Amy Fielder from Bartlett City Schools is a hero because she agreed to pay for our staff to be trained in CPR.

Fr. Knight was disappointed he could not finish our spiritual retreat. He hopes to come out to St. Ann at a later date to finish what he started. He had nothing but great things to say about our team. And, I agree with him 100%. We have a great team at St. Ann. I wouldn't trade them for moon rocks, pixie dust, or a 3-legged chihuahua (It is an inside joke). Just like the folks at Dunder-Mifflin, we are a family. We came together when it was most important to do so.

End of a Long Day

Abe went to Mass this morning at the Poor Clare's Monastery as did Amanda Bannister and her family. Abe texted this to me a little while ago: "He (Fr. Knight) is doing wonderful, he gave a great homily. I enjoyed seeing and talking to him."

I met Fr. Knight back in the mid-90's when I used to go out to His Way Retreat Center during the CBHS senior retreats. I was one of the retreat leaders. CBHS seniors still hold their senior retreats at His Way. I would also bring my students from Helias Catholic in Jefferson City, MO for mission trips to Memphis. The first two trips, we were guests of Fr. Knight at His Way. My Missouri students got to meet Fr. Knight and loved him, especially his explanation of the Mass.

Glad Fr. Knight is going to be around for a bit longer. Well, he has to finish our retreat! I hope the spiritual retreat part II is a bit more boring. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Amen!

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
St. Ann Catholic School

The Meaning of Success

Success means something different to each of us, and our meaning of success changes from day to day. On this beautiful Sunday, success to me means an incredible 2018 St. Ann Fall Fest. Wow, what an incredible Fall Fest we had this past Friday and Saturday!

The Sky Over Fall Fest- Beautiful

Hats off and a standing ovation to Stephanie Nichols, Jamie Coggins, and Kathy Schiavone. Over the past year, these three ladies have given up a good chunk of their lives to make sure the St. Ann Fall Fest would be a success. Ladies it was a huge success. Thank you as I bow to you for what you have done for St. Ann Catholic Church and School. Starting with the golf tournament and ending with the Wolfchase Hyundai car give-away and 5th Kind playing great 80's music, the Fall Fest could not have been any better. And yes, there was great music in the 80's.

My Golf Team

American philosopher Dennis Myers once said, "Some dream of success while others work hard to make success happen." Thank you Stephanie, Jamie, and Kathy for working hard to make success happen.

Personally, I enjoyed every Fall Fest event. On Friday morning, my team took second place at the St. Ann Golf Tournament shooting 15 under. I know how to stack a team. I recruited the St. Ann golf coaches Paul Mann and Mike Kauker as well as Derrol Jowell of the Jubilee Schools as my teammates. We were 12 under after 12, and that's when we started parring some holes. We actually parred an earlier hole but followed it up with an eagle to keep up our birdie pace.

The Best Auction Prize

The Italian dinner and auction were a hit. The food was awesome especially the meatballs. I'm craving some right now. Selina Trouy and I start our diet on Monday, so no more meatballs. I'm getting hungry just thinking about dieting. Something is wrong with that.

The silent auction was absolutely huge. The best item was a lunch with the principal. I look forward to hosting that lunch. There goes the diet.

I had the privilege of being the emcee along with Fr. Ernie at the live auction. I hope I'm included in the dinner and shooting with Fr. Ernie. That's one pretty creative auction item, and another diet breaker.

I want to send out a special shoutout to all the St. Ann staff (church and school) members who volunteered to help at Fall Fest. I love it when the people I work with take ownership of the organization. That's what the great folks at St. Ann do; they take ownership of the place, which makes St. Ann a great place to work.

4th Grade Coders

This week's shoutout goes to several students. First shoutout goes to 4th graders, Tomas Gomez and Shannia Bailey, for being the first in their class to complete the Hour of Code (coding assignment) in Mrs. Slattery computer class.

7th Graders at Memphis

The second shoutout goes to Cassie Richardson, Logan Wymore, Zach Griffith, and Luca de Jong for their participation in the University of Memphis Engineering Day. They participated in the water filtration competition. Alex Yong, Johnathan Clowney, and Chloe Ngyugen participated in the bridge competition. These young folks participated in the competitions on a day off from school. Thanks for your dedication. Thanks also to Stacey Griffith and Angela de Jong for leading our students at Engineering Day.

6th Graders at Memphis

St. Ann alum Justin Abart returned to show our middle schoolers how businesses use drones. I taught Justin World Geography at CBHS. I must have had some influence on him because he became a geographer. He earned a B.A. in geography from Tennessee and an M.S. in earth sciences from Memphis. I'm hoping that we can have some influence on the current students to study geography so they can help make a positive difference on global warming, deforestation, desertification, pollution (air, water, and land), rising sea levels...  Justin plans to return to continue helping our students in the areas of science and social studies.

I started off the week at the AdvancED conference at Middle Tennessee State University. The two day conference was to help schools preparing for the accreditation process. Our school is accredited every five years, and the accreditation process changes every five years. The conference helped me get more organized and become more knowledgeable in the new process. We have formed our school improvement committee to help lead St. Ann into the future. Our team members are Lori Locke, Liz Wehmeyer, Susan Hunt, Fr. Bill Parham, Teresa Ferrante, Annmarie Ghio, Angela de Jong, and I. Once we develop the school improvement plan, we will present the plan to Fr. Ernie for his approval. Once we receive his approval, we will present the plan to the St. Ann community, and start working on the improvements and school accreditation.

Justin Abart Returns to St. Ann

This week, we also celebrated Awards Day. We honored the students who made the Faculty Honor Roll, Principal Honor Roll, Father Oglesby Character Award, Student of the Month, and the Colt Star Employee of the Month. This month's Father Oglesby Character Award winners are Rock Garrett (K), Anna Tran (1), Taylor Hill (2), Emily Morales (3), Shannia Bailey (4), Cassie Harmon (5), Johnathan Clowney (6), Zach Griffith (7), and Louis Vidal (8). The Student of the Month is Logan Wymore. The Colt Star Employee of the Month is Susan Hunt. Congratulations to all who worked hard to earn an award.

Chili Cook Off Judges

It was an extremely busy week. Glad I spent most of today resting. Part of the relaxation for me was attending 8:30 Mass at St. Ann this morning and then 11:00 Mass at St. Michael. Nothing like a double shot of spiritual uplifting at two great parishes.

I wish all of you a fantastic week ahead, and start off by making Monday a great day.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
St. Ann Catholic School

The Cool Things

Carvalho Family After
Gustavo's Confirmation

The hardest part of writing a blog is just getting started. For this week's blog, I decided to just start with the cool things that happened this week. It was a short week but a very cool week.

The coolest thing took place this morning at 11:30 Mass. One of my former students from Holy Names, Gustavo Carvalho, was confirmed into the faith, and I was honored to be his confirmation sponsor. The Carvalho Family moved to Memphis from Recife, Pernambuco in Brazil so one of Gustavo's sisters, Gabriella, could receive medical treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The Carvalhos are an incredible family, and we are fortunate to call them St. Ann parishioners. Thank you Fr. Bill for today's confirmation ceremony.

If you want to see a beautiful city, Google images of Recife in Brazil. I've never been there but would add it to my bucket list if I had one.

With Fr. Bill and Gustavo

It is amazing how many people at St. Ann are a part of the St. Jude story including me. The reason my family moved to the United States is because my father was the first oncologist at St. Jude. We have a number of school parents who work at St. Jude in so many different capacities.

Three St. Ann students have spent the last week training in soccer at the Juventus Academy in Turin, Italy. Ruby Langford, Jack Langford, and Brett Battle were part of a team representing Lobos Rush Soccer at Juventus. The 10 day trip included trainings at the Juventus Training Center with the academy coaches and matches against local teams affiliated with the Academy. The trip culminated in a 1-1 tie against the Sisport Scuola

Rudy, Jack, and Brett in Italy

Calcio Juventus Academy team. They also toured the area around Turin, including Cantalupa, Vivono, Milan, Lake Como. They saw the Shroud of Turin, and the remaining wall from when the Romans ruled.  Congratulations Ruby, Jack, and Brett on representing St. Ann, Lobos Rush, and the US Soccer Federation successfully!

The third session of Extracurricular Exploration (EE) began this past

Brett at the Shroud of Turin 

week with many new activities. The coolest thing about this session is that two students are teaching a session. Lauren Truelove and Ruby Langford are teaching the sewing EE class. Thank you to Mr. Vince Migliaccio for helping our students with making Rosaries in the Rosary EE. We are looking to add volleyball to the fourth EE session starting in January. 

New Pyle Speakers
Mounted in the Library

Another cool thing that is taking place is the number of Pyle speakers being donated for the students and teachers to use in the classrooms. So far, 16 of the 21 sets of speakers we need have been donated. I just checked the school's Facebook page and it appears that 3 more sets have been ordered to bring the total to 19! Thank you to all the donors, which includes students, grandparents, parents, teachers, and friends. One of the friends, Philip Schulte, comes from St. Martin, MO. He is a good friend of mine who read my blog, and was the first person to order speakers from Amazon for us.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCYK12M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now it is teacher brag time. I have been doing classroom observations for nearly two decades. This past Friday, I observed two of the best classes, ranking right up there with some of the best I've ever seen. The two classes were 5th grade with Mrs. Metaxas and 4th grade with Mrs. Williams.

Kevin and Tavarius
Singing a Duet

The 5th graders were working in groups on their building projects (spaghetti, marshmallows, and tape). It was neat to see some of the groups succeed and some not succeed. Hey, we all learn when we don't succeed. The extremely neat part was the student collaboration taking place as they were doing the math to figure out how much they spent on their project, and if they were able to complete the building project. The whole time, Mrs. Metaxas was guiding the students in her calm and patient way. I greatly enjoyed this observation.

In 4th grade, some students were reading in a group with Mrs. Williams using ReadWorks on their iPads. (https://www.readworks.org) The students were reading Jenna and the Black Cat. The students not reading with Mrs. Williams were reading Jenna and the Black Cat or Holes on their own, doing vocabulary words, or working on handwriting (cursive). Students were focused, helping each other when needed, and transitioned quickly and quietly when it was time to do so. They were using the iPad, novels, textbooks, and workbooks. This is the way today's classrooms need to look. This class was pretty close to perfect. 

I noticed at Mass this past Thursday that Mr. Ryan Cooper was getting more students involved in the duets. I thought that was pretty awesome. I enjoy listening to our students share their talents.

Looking forward to two events this week. The first one is Donuts with Dad this Wednesday. The second one is the Fall Fest! I hope to see big crowds at each event. Let's support our students and school!

Also want to thank the Fall Fest planning team for allowing me to represent St. Ann on the Channel 24 Local Memphis Live with Chelsea Chandler. Thanks to James Dean from Wolfchase Hyundai for joining us on the set to talk about the car raffle. I hope your kindness and generosity pays you back ten-fold.

Support St. Ann

Please keep St. Ann Catholic School, our students and staff, and this week's events in your daily prayers. We need and greatly appreciate your support.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
St. Ann Catholic School

A Doozy of an Epiphany

30 Years in Education
20 Years in Memphis Diocese

I often forget that this blog was meant to be more than just about my work. I started this blog to share my thoughts. Even though my thoughts aren't always worth sharing, once in a great while I come up with a doozy. Today's doozy to me was more of an epiphany. 

My wife and I have gotten into a great habit of attending weekend Mass at both St. Ann and St. Michael. St. Ann is our parish, and we live around the corner from St. Michael. We love Fr. Ernie, Fr. Bill, and Fr. Ben. So, going to Mass at both parishes is a treat. I know we are not supposed to go to Mass to be entertained, but to worship. At the same time, I want to leave Mass on a spiritual high. I not only want to know Jesus, I want to feel Jesus. I can say that I do experience that spiritual high at St. Ann and St. Michael.

Cross at St. Michael

At this morning's Mass at St. Michael, I experience that epiphany I mentioned earlier. While singing these lines of the Gloria, "Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, you take away the sins of the world," a vision came to me of Jesus taking away all our sins. I know it sounds crazy, but I could feel Jesus taking away our sins. This son of Mary, carpenter, radical, rebel, who challenged authority, associated with sinners, feared no one, took away our sins. He was crucified for our sins. I thought of what Jesus said in John 8:11, "Go, and sin no more." It was definitely a powerful moment. Almost brought me to tears. Those moments when epiphanies occur are few and far between, but they are incredible and powerful when they do come our way. Most definitely a spiritual high!

This past week ended with the annual Catholic Schools Professional Day at CBHS. This is a time for all Catholic School teachers and administrators to come together for Mass and professional development. This is also the Catholic Schools awards day, and St. Ann staff received numerous awards. The following staff members received the following awards.

St. Ann Award Recipients

Years of Service Award:
Didier Aur- 20 years
Kristen Sellers- 25 years
Carol Caesar- 30 years
Karen Otts- 30 years
Betsy Highland- 35 years

Patricia Cooper- Immaculate Heart of Mary Award
Angela de Jong- Good Samaritan Award

The Fall Fest needs your help with providing water (1 case) and soft drinks (12 packs) at our Italian Dinner. Your student will receive an “out of uniform” pass for the donation. Each grade has an assigned item. 
PK3 & 4 - Water bottles
K - water bottles
1st - Sprite
2nd - Sprite 
3rd - Diet Coke
4th - Diet Coke
5th - Diet Coke
6th - Coke
7th - Coke
8th - Coke
The Fall Fest volunteers will be collecting the donations on Wednesday, October 10th at drop-off. They will hand out “out of uniform” coupons at that time. The Fall Fest planning committee would like to thank you in advance for your donation to the Italian Dinner.

20 Years of Service

The 3rd Extracurricular Exploration session begins on Wednesday with many new offerings. Here is a list of the EE classes for the 3rd session:All West Band (John Baum)Robotics (Stacey Griffith)Sewing (Ruby Langford, Lauren Truelove, and Justin Kissell)Karate /Soccer (Angela de Jong/Didier Aur) Every other dayAnime/Dance (Katie Jones/Tracy Angotti) Every other dayCreating Rosaries (Annmarie Ghio)

Pyle Speakers

We would like to purchase Pyle speakers for the classrooms. Using the iPads through the projectors works well except the speakers on the projectors are very small, and it is hard to hear using those speakers. We purchased one set of Pyle speakers to see how they work in the classroom. We installed them in the 5th grade classroom. Mrs. Metaxas is extremely happy with the speakers, and said the speakers work well with the iPad.

The cost of the Pyle speakers is $50 a set. We would like to purchase a set of speakers for each of the classrooms since the students use the iPads, and they are making more and more presentations as we move more towards project based classes in our STREAM program. Fr. Ernie tasked me with improving the quality of education we offer our students. Having the right tools to aid in instruction is critical. This is a relatively inexpensive way to help the students and teachers. The speakers will last for many years. You can give online via our website. Just designate your gift in the comment section for classroom speakers. Also, specify if you would like to donate speakers to a particular classroom.  https://stannbartlett.weshareonline.org/St.AnnSchoolAnnualGivingSociety

The speakers may also be purchased via Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCYK12M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Support St. Ann

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It takes time to write a blog, but it gives me time to reflect on the work we do. We are making many improvements. We have some big plans for the future of the school. Improvements take time, lots of planning, and many people coming together to support. This is happening, and it needs to continue to happen. We need your support and prayers to get to where we need to be.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal
St. Ann Catholic School