You'll Never Walk Alone

Our Friends from Missouri

In 1963, Gerry and the Pacemakers sang You'll Never Walk Alone. Liverpool F.C. adopted the song title as their club's motto. I'm thinking the Catholic Diocese of Memphis needs to also adopt this motto. Maybe we can expand on it a little to make our motto With God, You'll Never Walk Alone.

The Catholic community of our diocese is a pretty tight knit group of people. I've been told that we make up only about 5% of the population in the Memphis area. I would have never guessed that because everywhere I go, I am surrounded by my Catholic brothers and sisters. Even though we make up such a small percentage of the population, we are never far from our Catholic family. In good times and bad, our Catholic community is there together supporting each other.

Carla Bray

After leaving school last Friday, I drove straight over to Memorial Park for Carla Bray's visitation. I met Carla many years ago through her husband Mark. Mark Bray was one of my mentor teachers at CBHS starting back in 1992. Kathleen, their daughter, is a teacher at Resurrection Catholic School. Carla's visitation was a bit of a CBHS and Resurrection reunion. The line of people there to pay their respects was all the way down the hall almost to the door by the time I left. No, Carla and the Bray Family will never walk alone. The Catholic community was there walking together.

On Saturday, we celebrated Mardi Gras in Memphis. It was a crawfish festival at Memphis Catholic celebrating the Jubilee Schools. St. Ann was out there celebrating with the Jubilee Schools. Not only were we out there celebrating with our Jubilee brothers and sisters, we had the biggest turnout of any school. In my short time at St. Ann, I've quickly come to understand to never underestimate what the great folks at St. Ann are capable of getting done.

The St. Ann tent had about 36 lbs of crawfish, 10 lbs of grill wings, 5  lbs of Missouri sausage, 10 lbs of pork steaks, Brazilian caipirinha, and 20+ people enjoying a great time. This is not including all the people who came by to sample our food. By the way, we took 2nd place in the gumbo cookoff! Do you think the St. Ann Fall Fest folks will let us grill some wings at the next fall fest? I had leftover wings for dinner tonight.


I did something new and different today. We had friends from Missouri in town this weekend to attend Mardi Gras in Memphis together. We decided to go to Mass this morning at the Poor Clare's Monastery with Fr. David Knight. Then we attended Mass at St. Michael with Fr. Ben Bradshaw. After my friends left to return to Jefferson City, MO, Kelley and I attended Mass at St. Ann with Fr. Ernie. Don't think that I have ever attended Mass three times in one day. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and might have to do it more often. I was truly with my Catholic brothers and sisters all weekend.

We have a Knowledge Bowl team at St. Ann. They practice several times per week and compete against other schools. Ryan Cooper is the Knowledge Bowl moderator. He informed me that they are in need of a new buzzer system. The one we currently have is about 20 years old and having some problems working properly. Using the buzzer system, each team player has their own light and hand held unit. It makes it possible to easily identify the team and player who buzzes in to answer a question. The system we need is a Quik Pro Deluxe Q614 for 2 teams of 6 players each. The cost is $618 plus $23 for shipping. If you can help us purchase this buzzer system for the Knowledge Bowl team, we greatly need your help. Please and thank you. Here's the link to the site. http://quikprosystems.com/buzzers1.htm

Thank you to:
Susan Garts for donating the 20 headphones we requested last week for the computer labs. The headphones are scheduled to arrive this week. Anna Slattery and the students will be very happy.

Carol Fister and Thomas Lewis for their gift that enabled us to make the school security camera system a reality.

Student Shoutout:

Cadence Orban, Isabella Stuart, and Eriel Wilkins just finished their volleyball tournament in Bowling Green Kentucky. They played in the Vette City Challenge for their Memphis Metro volleyball teams. Way to go girls! Looking forward to watching next year's St. Ann Volleyball Team compete.

Grace Odum is no ordinary dancer. On Saturday evening, she had a late
night of dancing for her solo for the first time this year. She won platinum for her solo and was invited to New York for a dance intensive with the Rockettes. This is a Rockettes dance camp she will be participating in. We are proud of you Grace!

Please continue to pray for our students and staff as we continue to grow and move forward.
Praise God, from who all blessing flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen

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

Thanks for Another Successful Jubilee Event!

Mardi Gras in Memphis turned out to be a fantastic 2-day event. We were blessed with the perfect weekend weather-wise; not a cloud in the sky with temperatures in the mid to low-70's.

The crawfish were spicy and almost all gone by the end of the first day. I'm not a crawfish lover, but I do love the sausage and corn on the cob boiled with the crawfish. Pineapple and green beans were the secret ingredients added to our crawfish boil this year.

I really like the format of the people's choice gumbo cook-off. Anyone who wanted to judge the gumbo did so. The gumbo tent was packed with judges. By the end of the judging, most of the gumbo was gone.

The winner of our first-ever gumbo cook-off was St. Joseph Catholic School despite protests from the competition claiming St. Joseph did not use Roux in their gumbo. Leslie Harden, New Orleans native and St. Joseph principal, refuted their claim and laughed off the protest by showing off the championship trophy with a victory lap. Nothing like a little touting to quiet your opponents.

The Risky Whiskey Boys, David Pool (Memphis Catholic '85) and Jimmy Smith along with guest soloists Fr. Michael Werkhoven (Memphis Catholic '84) and Philip Schulte, entertained the crowd on Saturday with their repertoire of classic rock, pop, and current music.

Memphis' own one man band, Charvey Mac, wowed the crowd on Sunday with his acoustic arrangement and vocally driven sounds. He is a former student of mine from CBHS. I love listening to him perform because his voice is so smooth and very relaxing.  Never seen that man not smiling.

This event could not have taken place without our many volunteers. The best volunteers were from St. Patrick Catholic School. They arrived early and stayed late. They worked the food tents throughout the entire event. Thank you to the St. Patrick volunteers: Susan Pittman, Jackie Brown, JoAnn McKinney, Jennifer Santes, Chad Martin, Kendra Masters, Yaschia Dillard, and Sheree Wilson.

I want to send out a special thank you to Heidi Ames, Mercedes Durham, Anita Whitthaus, and Philip Schulte for driving from Jefferson City, MO to volunteer at the Mardi Gras in Memphis. This was Heidi's first time in Memphis, but the other three have been volunteering for years.

Mr. Richard Jones volunteered once again to cook all the hamburgers and hotdogs for the 2-day event. Not easy for a strict vegan to do, but he did it and did it well!

Mrs. Lolita Miller put in her 20,000 steps each day of the event. No one works harder than Mrs. Miller, and she does so with a smile on her face.

Thank you volunteers! Here's a long list of volunteers who helped put on this event not including the dozens of students from Memphis Catholic and St. Patrick: Angela Fox (event coordinator), Terri Carney, Landaria Saulsberry, Nancy Eddins, Kristi Baird, Tunia Sangster, Lola Scarlett, Debra Robinson, Deacon Ted Schreck, Eda Fain, Victoria Moore, Rebecca Rosa, Dawn Rose, Eric Harper, Chip Pankey, Katie Trivitt, Erin Celeste, Erica Crabtree, Rosie Jupson, Michael Ash, Sherrie Justice, Consuelo Martell, Andrew McDougal, Carolyn Pinkston, Beth Niedzwiedz, Yolanda Scott, Derikah Scott, Deacon Henry Littleton, Esmeralda Martinez, Leticia Gonzalez, Antonio Hinton, Ruth Bowlin, Kelley Aur, Jonathan Aur, Brittany Aur, David Justice, Jeff Justice, and D.J. Harden.

Thank you to our crawfish chef, Shannon Runnels. Geaux Tigers!

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the Jubilee Schools at the Mardi Gras in Memphis. We had a great time celebrating the Jubilee Schools.

We thank the crewes that set up teams and invited their family, friends, and co-workers to come out to enjoy great food, music, and company.

We have already debriefed and have started making plans for next year's Mardi Gras in Memphis.

Our next event will be our 3rd Wings of Jubilee this fall. We have tentatively set the date of Saturday, September 29, 2018 for the Wings of Jubilee. My team is ready and in place. We used the Mardi Gras in Memphis to perfect our wings!

My next blog is going to be a shout-out to all our sponsors.

Thanks again!

God bless you,
Didier Aur

Mardi Gras in Memphis!

Mardi Gras in Memphis is the newest fundraising festival for the Jubilee Catholic Schools.  This festival combines the Tails of Jubilee (Jubilee Crawfish Festival) and the Memphis Catholic 5K (Education That Works Out 5K) to create a 2-day Jubilee celebration taking place on April 28th & 29th at Memphis Catholic located at 61 N. McLean Blvd, Memphis, TN 38104.

This event benefits the nine Jubilee Schools and 1,600 students supported by the Jubilee Fund.  For more information about the Jubilee Schools, click on http://jubileeschools.org.

Mardi Gras in Memphis takes place on April 28th & 29th from 1-5 pm. Admissions is $5 with children 5 & under are free.  There will be live music, bouncy castles, face-painting, and games included as part of the admission.  Purchase tickets online at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras.

The Crawfish Boil begins at 1 pm on both Saturday and Sunday.  Each box of crawfish (roughly 2 lbs.) is $10.  You can pre-order crawfish at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras

We will also be serving hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, water, sodas, and beer.

At 2 pm on Saturday, the People's Choice Gumbo Cook-Off begins.  It is free to enter a pot of gumbo for judging.  Register online at http://jubileeschools.org/mardigras to enter the Gumbo Cook-Off.

Live music on Saturday will be performed by the Risky Whiskey Boys. https://www.facebook.com/Risky-Whiskey-Boys-879415615534581/

Live music on Sunday will be performed by Charvey Mac. http://charveymac.com/

The Education That Works Out 5K takes place on Sunday.  Registration and beer tent open at 1 pm with the race beginning at 2 pm.  All racers receive a Mardi Gras in Memphis shirt, 2 food/beverage tickets and festival entry.  Register for the 5K at https://racesonline.com/events/etw5k.

Bring your chairs, blankets, and umbrellas and join the party.  If you need more space for your crew and would like to bring a tent, we do have spaces available.  10x15 spots are $150, which includes 10 free admissions (worth $50), 10 boxes of crawfish (worth $100), and entry in the gumbo cook-off.  Reserve a spot for your crew at https://jubileeschools.org/mardigras.

If you cannot make it to the event but would like to invest in a Jubilee student, you can do so online at https://www.jubileeschools.org/invest.

For questions, please contact me at (901) 373-1226 or didier.aur@jso.cdom.org.

Hope to see you there!

God bless you,
Didier Aur