Lots of Events. Lots of Thank Yous.

St. Ann Student Ambassadors at Preview Day

Sure is a lot going on at St. Ann these days. It seems as if one event ends and another begins. There is no slowing down. Actually, one event begins before another even comes to an end. There are some folks I would like to thank for their hard work to make all these events happen for St. Ann.

Last  weekend was the All-West band competition in Jackson, TN. I would like to congratulate Chloe Nguyen and Jonathan Clowney for being selected All-West two years in a row! Making All-West once is an incredible achievement. Making it twice is just unbelievable.

St. Ann All-West Band Members

I want to give John Baum a special shoutout for the time he gives to our students. He makes St. Ann a better school. His love of music, dedication to the students, and strong Christian faith are always front and center. As I said to the ladies in the front office, "John brings a lot of good to St. Ann."

While All-West was going on, so was the Allen Green Basketball Tournament. This tournament is an annual four-day tournament at St. Ann. Thank you to Tracy Angotti, St. Ann Athletic Director, for running such a big and awesome event. She gave her heart and soul to make sure the tournament was a success for all the teams, players, coaches, and families. If you have never run an event like the Allen Green Basketball Tournament, you have no idea how much time and effort it takes. It is pretty all-consuming running such a tournament.

Thank you to Lance Jolly for his leadership in being the tournament director. Thank you to Dawn

St. Ann 7/8 Grade Tournament Champions

Lewis for helping to run the tournament and being at the tournament the whole time. Thank you to Brian Kargauer for helping to run the gyms during the tournament. Thank you also to Emma Jolly, Beth Kargauer, Sarah Kargauer, Justin Wehmeyer, Mary Clowney, Emma Clowney, Maribel Green, Jason Lewis, and lots of SBA students for all the volunteer hours they gave to help make the Allen Green Basketball Tournament happen. A four-day basketball tournament takes many volunteers. A sincere thank you to all of the volunteers.

The next event was the Knights of Columbus Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser this past Wednesday in the school cafeteria. This was a fundraiser to help raise money for the K of C Scholarship Fund. The K of C Scholarship goes to help several St. Ann families with tuition assistance. It is a needs based scholarship and goes to help our parish families. Thank you to all who came out and supported the K of C and St. Ann School. Thank you Knights!

Our Knowledge Bowl team is gearing up for competition. Thank you to coaches Jane Gillespie and Linda Garvey Meisler for giving of their time and energy to lead our Knowledge Bowl team. They do great work in leading our students to higher academic learning. Knowledge Bowl is kind of like super-enrichment for our students.

Into the Woods, our spring musical, is in full practice mode. Thank you to Ryan Cooper as he leads our students and gets them ready for this production.

Putting on a play is not cheap. There are costs associated with anything worthwhile. We project it will cost roughly $4,000 to put on the musical. At this point, we are $600 short of our $4,000 goal. If you are interested in sponsoring Into The Woods, please contact me at didier.aur@sascolts.org or Angela de Jong at angela.dejong@sascolts.org. We would greatly appreciate your support in helping us reach our sponsorship goal.

I want to thank our sponsors who are making this production possible.  Thank you to Little Caesar's Pizza, Juice Plus, Boyle Investment Company, Fantastic Sams Germantown, Pendergrast Insurance Company, Michael & Silvia Hecht, and Jonathan & Brittany Aur. We cannot thank you enough for your support of our students and their work.

Click on Image for CSW Events' Calendar

The Journalism Club has been working on getting the yearbook ready. Thank you to Angela de Jong and Jennifer Podesta for leading the Journalism Club.

The Student Council has put together Catholic Schools Week events and activities.  Thank you to Billy Gage for coordinating this week's events with the members of the Student Council.  Please check our Facebook page for a list of the events. I invite you to attend our school Mass with Bishop David Talley this Thursday at 8:15 am in celebration of Catholic Schools Week. Following the Mass, we will celebrate Grandparents' Day.  The Scholastic Book Fair takes place all week. Come by our library to support our Book Fair.

This is just part of what's going on at St. Ann Catholic School. Come join in on all the excitement. Great things happen when great people come together for the benefit of the children. Funny how that works.

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

Happy New Year St. Ann!

I remember back in my youth thinking that I would be 38 years old at the start of the 21st century. The year 2000 seems like yesterday. Actually, my youth seems like yesterday. At the same time, yesterday seems long ago. Time is funny like that. Now, it is 2020. Where did 2019 go?

I started 2020 by watching the documentary film Pope Francis- A Man of His Word. If you haven't watched this documentary, it is worth the time. I watched it on Netflix. Listen, smile, grow, and love. "We have so much to do and we must do it together." - Pope Francis

Kelley and I spent Christmas break in Orange Beach with family. Nice to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the holidays and just relax where the most important decision we had to make was where we were going to eat. Dining at The Gulf, Picnic Beach, The Steamer, and Fin & Fork makes vacation time easy.

Got a lot of reading in while at the beach. Reading, especially non-fiction, is one of my favorite things to do but it is hard to do during the school year because I spend most of my reading time reading articles and blogs on education. Go figure.

Our View of Orange Beach

I read Unlearning God by Philip Gulley, Rediscover the Saints by Matthew Kelly, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (actually, I re-read this book for the study skills class), and currently reading Engaging Your Team by David Zanca. The next book on my list is Make Your Bed by Adm. William McRaven.

I want to take this time to say thank you to all the St. Ann families for the many, many, many Christmas gifts I received. You were much too kind and I appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity. I'm enjoying my time at St. Ann. I'm surrounded by wonderful people all day long. This includes the students, staff, and families. St. Ann is a blessing to us all, and I'm blessed to be here.

Sunset at Orange Beach

I have been able to share many of the gifts with those around me especially the food. I have chocolate especially chocolate covered cherries to last till Christmas 2020. I've worn my new U of Memphis cap everyday since receiving it. Have it on right now as I write this blog. Go Tigers! The Barnes & Noble gift card is going to the purchase of Make Your Bed. My wife confiscated my new throw blanket to stay warm. She thanks you. The Folk's Folly gift card went to purchase enough tuna salad, egg and olive, and chicken salad to feed us breakfast and lunch while at the beach. The Starbuck's gift cards will be used for some time to come. I want to use the Amazon gift cards to help purchase a bicycle. I love riding but haven't in a number of years because I need a bike! I live one block from the Greenline. Time to start riding again. Any food item I received was consumed at Christmas parties and on vacation. The blueberry pie was last night's dessert. The doggie treats I will share with my own puppies and the puppies in carpool line. The champagne? That's for me to know. The Visa card will go to a Friday Night Date Night with Kelley. I want to use my Subway gift card right now because I'm hungry, but I left it at home. The Buffalo Wild Wings gift card will be used soon enough. That might be a solo lunch date for me. The farm fresh eggs are the best. Kelley took those as well. Farm fresh eggs at the Aur house is more precious than silver and gold. The homemade raviolis and sauce were the best I have ever eaten. We had those with a pound of steamed shrimp from Blalock Seafood. That meal was a little bit of heaven.

Thank you once again for the Christmas gifts. I think the best part of receiving the gifts is seeing the expressions on the faces of the students when they give the gifts. They are smiling and happy. Where there is a smile, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is love. And, LOVE is what our faith is all about.

May God's blessings always be upon you. And, may all of us continue to share our blessings with others. If we grow a little poorer by helping others, let that be a sign of our love. Wish you much love and happiness for 2020!

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