Just a Hodge-Podge of Information

Just a Few of My Over-55 Teammates

I would like to begin this blog with an apology for not publishing a blog last week. Every Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend, a group of my soccer buddies play in a soccer tournament somewhere. This year, it was in Orlando. We are the Memphis Blues over-55 team. We also took an over-40s team to Orlando. We look forward to this tournament every year. It is a great opportunity to relax with friends, play soccer, laugh a lot, and make fun of each other. Many of us have been friends since we were in our teens and early twenties. We are growing old together doing what we love to do, and that is to play soccer and spend time together. Seems like only yesterday that we were playing in over-30s tournaments. Next, we will be playing in the over-60s division.

Today was the start of Catholic Schools Week 2019! What better way to start this week than with our school choir singing at the 8:30 Mass. Thank you to the mother/son team of Tricia and Ryan Cooper for their work with the students in organizing this event. I would love to see this happen more often. It is my understanding that John Angotti used to have the school choir singing at the evening services. Would be awesome to not only have the choir sing but also the school band play at Mass.

We also had Preview Day today at school as part of the kick-off to Catholic Schools Week. We had about twenty families come visit the classrooms and tour the school. The Student Ambassadors did a fantastic job of giving tours to our visitors. Thank you to Jack Griffith and Jennifer Podesta for your help at Preview Day. Love it when parents get involved, and help at the different functions we host.

Speaking of volunteers, thank you to these great folks who have volunteered to help tutor our students in reading and math: Abe Abuelouf, Jean Bedwell, Cathy Bird, Jimmy Crews, Marla Ferguson, Nancy Howland, Trena Kilp, Laura Manning, Anthony Maranise, Mike Reynolds, Linda Sones, and Beth Williams.

We are still in need of more volunteers to help our students with reading and math. If you are willing and able, please contact Annmarie Ghio (annmarie.ghio@sascolts.org) or Teresa Ferrante (teresa.ferrante@sascolts.org). You need to have Virtus training and a background check. We will take care of those two things for you at the school.

1st Graders
Working on Science

We also need volunteers for the Mother-Son Virtual Reality Dinner on Saturday, February 16th from 6-8 pm. If you able and willing to volunteer, please contact the school office. This is a time for the Fathers to volunteer since the mothers volunteered for the the awesome Father-Daughter Dance.

In my last blog, I mentioned that we are still $2,098 short on purchasing and installing 20 cameras throughout the school as part of our school safety plan. I've had some people ask about the cameras, and have shown interest in helping, but no one has stepped up to make this a reality. We need to complete this part of the school safety plan before moving on to the next part, which is replacing the classroom door locks. It is going to be tough for an intruder to enter the school if we have the camera system in place. But, if one does enter the building, they should have a hard time entering the classrooms if we can install better locking mechanisms. We need your help to complete these projects starting with the camera system.

St. Ann Choir

The students have shown such great interest in our extracurricular exploration chess club that we have started a Chess Club. You can contact Annmarie Ghio if you would like some information about the Chess Club. Several parents and grandparents have offered to help mentor our future chess champions.

1st Graders in the Computer Lab

The interest in bowling is also picking up. We now have a St. Ann bowling team. Thank you Sally Fillion for taking this on. If you are interested in being a part of our bowling team, please contact Tracy Angotti (tracy.angotti@sascolts.org). This is open to the St. Ann PRE students as well. Remember that together, we are St. Ann Catholic Church.

This past weekend, Jonah Odum competed in Pat Smith's Battle

Jonah in White & Red

for the Rock in Little Rock, AR. Pat Smith was a four-time NCAA National Champion at the D-1 level. The tournament attracted just under 500 wrestlers from Arkansa, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, and Kentucky. Jonah competed in one of the toughest brackets in the tournament, where several of his opponents were nationally ranked. Jonah fought with the heart of a lion, and was able to earn second place, which was also the highest placing of any of his teammates attending the tournament. Congratulations Jonah! Sounds as if you should be nationally ranked.

There's a lot more information to share about what's happening at St. Ann. I might have to write another blog during the week just to catch up.  This blog is getting too long already. To everyone out there reading my blog, thank you. I greatly appreciate the comments you have been posting. They do help give me some motivation because writing a blog takes a lot of time. And, I end up putting a lot of time into writing the blog on Sundays.

Support St. Ann

St. Ann is an incredible place. Come be a part of what's going on at the school. We want and need alumni, parent, and grandparent support. If we are going to continue to improve the school for our students, we need your help. There is no limit to the ways you can support St. Ann.

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