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

Never an Uneventful Day

Fat Tuesday Alumni Party

One never experiences an uneventful day when working in schools. There is never a regular day where we can set our daily agenda and follow it. My daily agenda changes starting at 8:05 am. That's the time we usually finish the daily prayers and morning announcements. 9 out of 10 days somebody is waiting for me to discuss something, and you know that something is usually not about what a great job I'm doing.

Eisenhower Matrix

This makes me think of the Eisenhower Matrix of time management where I'm suppose to focus my time on the urgent and important versus the non-urgent and non-important. What the Eisenhower Matrix doesn't address is who determines what is important and urgent. What is important and urgent to my students, teachers, and parents is not always important and urgent to me. But, my job is to do the best I can for my students, teachers, and parents. So, starting at 8:05 am, I change my role from school principal to school fireman, and I do my best to put out fires. This week, the week before Spring Break, was definitely a firefighting week. Just glad this past week is behind us, and I can focus during Spring Break week on my list of urgent and important. In lieu of a raise for next year, maybe I'll ask Fr. Ernie for a fireman's helmet. :)

With Patrick Norman, St. Ann Grad

Just an FYI, I do enjoy putting out fires most of the time, and I don't mind dealing with unpleasant situations. I don't look forward to dealing with the unpleasant. It is just that I've been doing this for so long I know that it is a part of the job. And unfortunately, not everyone agrees with my methods or decisions of how I deal with the unpleasant or putting out fires. Not every day nor decision is rosy, but I do wear rose-colored glasses. So, I have that going for me.

With Virginia Norman, St. Ann Grad

Since last fall, we have been planning the Alumni Fat Tuesday Party. We had about 60 alumni RSVP and we were excited for such a great turnout. Our decorating committee, mainly made up of St. Ann alum, did a great job of decorating the gym. The Knights of Columbus stepped up as usual and took care of the food. Special thanks to Jack and Stacey Griffith for leading the charge getting the food ready. In the end, about 40 people attended the party. I am not a St. Ann graduate, but I had a great time, and do look forward to the next St. Ann alumni get-together.

Fat Tuesday Alumni Party

Parents and Students! Time for Colt Star Award nominations. The Colt Star Award recognizes faculty and staff members at St. Ann who exhibit leadership, participate in school and community projects, and foster good citizenship and high academic achievement at St. Ann.  CLICK HERE to download the Colt Star Award nomination form.

On Saturday, March 23rd, St. Ann will have a tent at the Jubilee Schools' Mardi Gras In Memphis Crawfish Boil and ETW 5K. We have a Memphis Catholic intern working at St. Ann every day. In return for their support, we are going to support the Crawfish Boil and 5K. Several of our St. Ann friends and alumni are also Memphis Catholic Chargers.

I am inviting all St. Ann folks to come out for a day of fun at Memphis Catholic. Bring your chairs and join us at the St. Ann tent. Admission is $5 with children 5 and under free. There will be live music, bouncy castles, face painting, and corn hole games included with admission. There will be food and drink available for purchase. A box of crawfish will be available for $10. My wing cooking friend from Jefferson City, Philip Schulte, will be grilling his "Soon to be World Famous Wings" and Mid-Missouri homemade sausage. We had a good St. Ann crowd at the Wings of Jubilee last fall. Let's have a great turnout for the Crawfish Boil and 5K.

Wiring for Security Cameras

The school security camera system is almost complete. When everyone returns from Spring Break, they will see our cameras covering every hallway, cafeteria, and gym. We are already working on installing speakers in the hallway. The final step will be the door locks. I might have to take a locksmithing class to get this done, but we need to replace the door locks throughout the campus.

Lastly for this week, the computer labs are being used more this year than ever before. Many of the computer programs such as IXL, ReadWorks, easyCBM, and Spelling Words used by the students require headphones. Many of the head phones we currently use need replacing. Amazon is running a special on the Califone headphones we use. We can purchase a set of 10 Califone headphones for $94.26. We are in need of two of these sets. Purchasing the headphones individually is roughly $13 a piece. If you can help purchase two sets of 10 Califone headphones for our students, we greatly appreciate your help.

Have a great Spring Break. I will be at St. Ann most of the week

Support St. Ann

working on summer camps. Hopefully, the fires will be few but know there will always be fires.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal

I'm Still the New Guy

Prayer Labyrinth with
Missionaries of Charity

We are already halfway through September; six-weeks into the school year. Field trips are being planned. 8th graders and their parents are putting in a lot of time and effort in raising money for the 8th grade trip to Washington DC. The Fall Fest is one month away. The students sold $38,460 (7,692 tickets) in raffle tickets for a 2018 Hyundai Elantra from Wolfchase Hyundai. 4th grader, Lexi Morrison, sold 563 tickets to take 1st place in sales. Volleyball, golf, soccer, Journalism Club, and Club Invention are in full swing. Gradebooks are filling up. We had our first dress-down day, prayer labyrinth with the Missionaries of Charity, and school-wide Rosary. The St. Fautina Youth Society has published their calendar of events.The first easyCBM assessment of the year is complete. Interim grades have been sent out. The choir is practicing for the Christmas concert. The band is preparing for their concert. Classroom projects are being presented. STREAM, LIFE, and SPARKS are in full drive. I'm on round two of classroom observations. Anna Slattery is working on becoming an iPad expert through Apple training. Kris Miller has become the best 3rd grade teacher ever. Deborah Harty became a certified Apple Teacher before me. Katie Jones went to an art convention in Little Rock. We completed the 1st week of the 2nd session of Extracurricular Exploration.

Rainy Morning Drop-off
Got to Make You Smile!

All of this and much more is taking place at St. Ann. Even though I've seen different versions of all of these activities at other schools, it is still new to me. People will ask me questions about everything that's going on. I always give the same answer: "I have no idea. I'm still the new guy." I'm going to try to milk that answer until the end of May. "I have no idea. I'm still the new guy."

Now for the unpleasant news:
Overall, things at St. Ann are going well. Financially, it is always a struggle. We have to pick and choose which bills to pay first, and which we can hold off on. MLG&W and payroll are always at the top. Got to pay those first. Speaking of that, payroll is this week, and I signed the MLG&W bills on Thursday. Our ability to pay our bills is directly related to tuition received. If tuition is paid on time, we are able to pay all our bills on time. Thank God just about all our families pay their tuition in a timely manner. There are always a few who don't take care of their responsibility, which causes us delay in paying our bills. We cannot pay with what we do not have. In the words of Fr. Ernie, "God doesn't pay the light bill. We have to do that."

Nicole G. Our New
Memphis Catholic Intern

Our budget is roughly $1.6 million for an enrollment of 210 students for 2018-19. When all is said and done, that is roughly $7,500 per student. No one pays $7,500. If a family pays full tuition plus fees without any discounts, they pay roughly $7,000. That's a lot to pay but still a bargain for a private education with lots of individualized teaching and learning going on. I would say that on average, our families pay about $6,000 (And, that is probably a very high guess. Maybe that's more of a wish).

In the end, we are going to have to raise about $300,000 from giving and development to make ends meet. That's a huge number. If all families pay their part, it is more like $200,000 that we have to raise. There is no fat in the budget. We plan as close as we can to zeroing the budget out at the end of the year. We plan for lots of HVAC repairs. We plan on MLG&W raising their rates. We plan on the insurance companies raising their premiums. We somehow plan for the unexpected. We even plan on those families who don't meet their financial responsibilities.

Tieraney S. Our New
Memphis Catholic Intern

If it weren't for the goodness and generosity of donors, most parish schools wouldn't exist. Unfortunately, not all parishes have those philanthropic folks who see beyond themselves. That's why so many Catholic Schools in our diocese have closed or are closing. Don't ever want St. Ann to be one of those. It is too good of a school serving a great need in educating our children in a Catholic/Christian environment. Hopefully, our parish has too many good people to ever see this happen.

Sorry about me getting on my soapbox. I believe in transparency. I want everyone to know what's going on. This parish and school belong to all of us. We should all be in the know, and not just about the great things taking place.

Now for some of the great things:
The Fall Fest will be here soon! This is huge for our parish. If you have signed up to help/participate, thank you. If not, please share your talents and gifts. The Fall Fest committee is putting on a festival that will be tough to ever match. I don't have much to offer so I'm offering my time. It is the most valuable thing I have. I want to share it with the great folks who have put their lives on hold to make this event a success for St. Ann. I have one golf team together, and working on a second one.

Justin Abart, Class of '95

Justin Abart, St. Ann Class of '95, is a former student of mine at CBHS. He earned a B.A. from UT in Geography and an M.E in Earth Science from Memphis. He is also a certified and experienced drone operator. He will be coming out to St. Ann to work with our students on using drones for inspections, aerial imagery, data collection, and mapping. This will be a great addition to our STREAM classes. I'm excited about my World Geography class learning from Mr. Abart since we are learning about land and water forms. Great example of an alumni coming back home to share their knowledge.

Girls' Self Defense Class

Here's a question for all you folks in the medical field. Every morning, I see so many parents who are doctors, nurses, and in other areas of the medical profession who are dropping off their children at St. Ann. How can we share your knowledge and talents through our STREAM and SPARKS classes? There has got to be a way. If you are interested in sharing your knowledge to help our students, please call me. I will set you up with Annmarie Ghio and Romana Wendenon. That goes for all you alumni out there as well. Somebody forward this blog to Thomas Slattery. I'm sure we have students who are interested in veterinary medicine.

I want to thank our development committee for their time and talent. We are working to get the word out about St. Ann. Nick Scully, Lori Locke, Sr. Connie Tarallo, Angela de Jong, and I are meeting weekly to plan a campaign to bring back the alumni. We do have several things we are working on, but we are not doing anything until after the Fall Fest. The Fall Fest is priority #1.

Jeff Blankenship
Blankenship Creative

Jeff Blankenship of Blankenship Creative has donated his time to produce all the brochures and packets we will need as we work to contact every alumni possible. Thank you Mr. Blankenship for your wonderful gift to St. Ann.

Nick Scully and Jeff Blankenship are neither members of our parish. They want to help ensure that St. Ann will be here for future generations. Thank you gentlemen for sharing with us your time, talent, and treasure. You are helping to make a positive difference in our community.

Sr. Connie and Lori Locke are providing us with alumni contact information. We are slowly but surely filling up our database. CBHS and St. Agnes are also helping us with alumni information. I've said this before, no private school can survive without alumni support and involvement.

If you are an alumni of St. Ann Catholic School and wish to receive updates on St. Ann, please contact Angela de Jong at angela.dejong@sascolts.org. We need your support.

Click Here to Support
St. Ann Catholic School

And finally, there are so many ways to support St. Ann. If you are interested in supporting in some way, please contact me at didier.aur@sascolts.org. Your gift could be in the form of time. Your gift could be in the form of a classroom sets of books. Your gift could be in prayer. Your gift could be in tuition assistance. Your gift could be in computers or iPads or printers. Your gift could be unrestricted for other needs. A gift to pay utilities isn't sexy, but it sure is necessary. Once again, contact me if you have any questions.

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

Great Things Are Taking Place!

Teresa Ferrante, LIFE Teacher

We are excited to announce the hiring of a LIFE teacher to join our St. Ann family. Well, in this case, our new LIFE teacher will be rejoining the St. Ann family. Teresa Ferrante is our new LIFE teacher! She is a graduate of St. Ann as well as a parishioner. Miss Ferrante comes from a long line of educators, including her grandmother, Rose Ferrante, who was my son's 2nd grade teacher at St. Dominic. Miss Ferrante received her Bachelor's degree in English from Christian Brothers University, and is working on her Master's in Education also from CBU. What is even better is that Miss Ferrante, as a students at St. Ann, was part of the LIFE program. God surely has his ways. Incredible! Thank you Miss Ferrante for saying yes to teaching at St. Ann. Welcome home!

Cierrah F.
Memphis Catholic Intern

Starting Monday morning, interns from Memphis Catholic High School, will be working in the school office. Memphis Catholic's internship program known as Education That Works is an incredible program where every high school student at Memphis Catholic has an internship in businesses, corporate offices, hospitals, non-profits, and schools throughout Shelby County. Senior Cierrah F. will work at St. Ann every Monday and rotate every fourth Friday. Junior Anna P. will work every Tuesday and rotate Fridays as well. The sophomore and freshman students have yet to be assigned. I am thrilled that St. Ann will be part of the Memphis Catholic internship program. This will be a great experience for our school, staff, and students. When you come by St. Ann and see our Memphis Catholic interns, please welcome them.

Anna P.
Memphis Catholic Intern

Morning carpool line is going great. I have two volunteers helping unload the cars in the morning. Having volunteers out there helps make morning carpool much safer and easier, especially with getting all the backpacks, lunches, gym bags, and musical instruments out of the cars. We are there to greet the students, and help everyone start the school day off on a positive note. Thank you volunteers.

After-school carpool line is also going well. Thank you for being patient, lining up properly, and being safe. Here are two huge NO-NOs for any carpool line: 1) DON'T BE ON YOUR CELL PHONE IN THE CARPOOL LINE! 2) DON'T GET IMPATIENT AND CUT THE LINE! Most of the children aren't looking both ways, and they trust all the adults to keep them safe. All it takes is one distracted driver for something really bad to happen. Let's put ALL the students' safety first, and not just the students in your car. Thanks.

John Hisaw, New SAS Parent

Parents' Night last Thursday evening was pretty cool. It was great seeing so many parents attending this event, and meeting the teachers. We have a plethora of fantastic parents at St. Ann. It is extremely uplifting seeing so many young parents attending Parents' Night. I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with the parents, especially the forward thinking, positive ones. And, most are forward thinking, positive parents. I hear many positive comments about the atmosphere we are creating at St. Ann. It takes all of us working together to not only create but maintain this positive atmosphere. I am grateful you entrust your children to our care.

The role of Home & School is to support the school. One way Home & School raises money to support the school is through selling of apparel in the Spirit Shop. A great way to show off our Colt pride is by wearing SA apparel out in the community. Please stop by the Spirit Shop, and support the school by supporting Home & School.

St. Ann Fall Fest takes place October 19th & 20th. Check out the Fall Fest website at https://stannfallfest.org/ and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stannfallfest/. Half of the proceeds from the festival go to support the school. We need to fully support the St. Ann Fall Fest. It is for our parish and our school! We have a St. Ann Fall Fest assembly on Monday at 2:30 in the gym to get the students ready for the Fall Fest. Looking forward to supporting this event.

Thanks to Mike Green for getting the 2nd computer lab up and running. It is great that St. Ann has two fully-functioning computer labs for the students. The students have access to Microsoft and Apple products. They are going to be well ahead of many students from other schools because of the technology available to them. My hope is they learn to code using the PC and Apple, and that they will also be taught Word and Pages, Excel and Numbers, and PowerPoint and Keynote. They will be getting the best of both technology worlds.

We now offer band and choir for 5th-8th grade five-days a week. We have music for PreK-4th grade every other day (A-Day and B-Day schedules). Art and PE are offered to all students every other day. PreK-5th grade also have computer every other day.

If you have participated in the St. Ann band, we want you to come back and play with our current band. Our band director, John Baum, and I want to have a concert where graduates of the St. Ann band participate. We also want to get parents who play an instrument to participate in this concert. If you would like to be a part of this concert, please contact Mr Baum at john.baum@sascolts.org. Our current band has over 30 students not including our 5th grade band. By the way, we now have a Jazz Band! Mr. Baum is considering taking the band to a band competition in St. Louis, MO. I hope this happens.

There are 50 students in the St. Ann choir! Their first performance of the year was at Mass last Thursday, and they were simply fantastic. Great work Mr. Cooper! Awesome leadership. I cannot wait to hear them in concert. If you want to hear excellence, attend Mass on Thursday mornings at 8:15. Our choir performs at the school Mass.

The 1st Mass of the year for our students took place last Thursday. You already know the choir was excellent. The lectors, servers, and gift bearers were well prepared, and did a great job. Looking forward to Mass next Thursday.

Sr. Connie
Scholarship Winners

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2018 Sr. Connie Passing on the Faith Scholarship. The purpose of the scholarship is to reward students who are formed and grow in the Catholic faith at St. Ann Catholic School. Congratulations to this year's recipients: Channing Gossett (2nd grade), Lexi Morrison (4th grade), and Maria Bair (7th grade).

To those wonderful folks who are stepping up to support the school, thank you! More donations are coming in to help make our school become even better. Donations are also coming in to help families afford a St. Ann education. We even have an alum who now lives in Michigan give a very nice donation to the kitchen renovation. It is his way of saying thank you for what St. Ann did for him. Several donors have signed up to become recurring donors. I love the recurring donations. As an administrator, recurring donations makes my life so much easier in so many different ways. We know the donations will be there to help the students. Please consider becoming a recurring donor in support of St. Ann and our students.

Support St. Ann Catholic School

Thank you.

God bless you,
Didier Aur, Principal

Community Coming Together

Welcome to Colts Country!

St. Ann Catholic School is coming together. Clean up has been taking place. Many volunteers along with the maintenance staff have been putting everything back in place and in order. There is still much work to be done before we are ready for our students. Being new to St. Ann, it is pretty neat watching the St. Ann community coming together to get the school ready. Many of the pictures in this blog are of the volunteers getting the school ready. If you are willing to help us, please contact Susan Hunt (susan.hunt@stannbartlett.org), the parish administrator, and please volunteer. We need the St. Ann community to continue to help us if we are to be ready on time. The first day of school is Tuesday, August 7th.

Once the school is cleaned up and in order, we will host an open house/walk through for all to see.  Date for the open house/walk through is Sunday, August 5th after the Masses from 9:30-10:30 and 12:30-1:30.

I mentioned in a previous blog, that we would hold a meet and greet so we could meet each other.  I want the opportunity of meeting St. Ann students, parents, parishioners, alumni, and supporters before school starts. That meet and greet will take place during the open house/walk through set for Sunday, August 5th. Instead of hosting two different events, we are combining the open house and the meet and greet.

Kitchen Clean Up

We have a number of students who are dyslexic. On Friday, August 3rd, Lyle Davis and Gay Landaiche from The Bodine School will present to our faculty on working with students with dyslexia. Parents are invited to this presentation.  Please contact me at didier.aur@sascolts.org if you would like to attend. Thank you to Priscilla Williams for organizing this presentation.

On Tuesday and Thursday, our staff will be attending active shooter training with the Bartlett Police Department at Bon Lin Middle School. Sad that we have to do this but it is a reality. We want to be prepared for the worst.

I met with Mayor McDonald at his office this past Monday. He is a super nice guy. Being the only Catholic School in Bartlett and being across the street from city hall, I want him to know who I am, and that St. Ann is alive and vibrant. I also invited him to the Fall Festival. I hope to see him there.

Our student enrollment is just under 200 students with several families still applying. If you are a St. Ann

Some Classrooms are Ready!

parishioner and are interested in a Catholic education in PK3 through 8th grade for your child(ren) or grandchild(ren), please contact Angela de Jong at angela.dejong@sascolts.org. We are also reaching out to the parishioners of Nativity and Ascension especially since they do not have a parish school. We have scholarships based on need available to help families afford a Catholic education.

Refinishing Kitchen Doors

For those of you who don't know, I have been involved with the Jubilee Schools since 2002. At the
Jubilee Schools, we don't turn families away if they cannot afford a Catholic education. If a family wants a Catholic education for their children, I believe it is our responsibility to do all in our power to make that possible. If you are interested in a Catholic education, and don't have the financial means, please contact Angela de Jong. Don't not inquire and miss out on a Christ-centered education for your child(ren). You never know what's possible.

The date we set for our staff spiritual retreat did not work out with Gary Wilbers. He is the speaker we were hoping to get for the retreat day. I'm now working on Plan B for our spiritual retreat.

A part of being the principal of a Catholic School is development. If there is a need, it is our

Cafeteria is Ready!

responsibility to figure out how to make it happen. In Catholic Schools, we have plenty of unbudgeted items. Those items become wishlist items. Many times, we make an unbudgeted purchase based on faith that donations will come in to help finance those wishlist items. In my time as a Catholic School administrator, God has always provided by bringing the right donors into my life. It is not a coincidence that this happens. God is a pretty good development director. I said in my last blog that I would have a wishlist.  So here is a partial wishlist of items we need.

Library is Ready!

WISH LIST
Bloomerang Database: $806.20 for the first year. The price drops in half for year two. We need a database to keep up to date with our alumni and donors. If we plan to be in existence in the future, we have to have a lot more support than just tuition paying families. Catholic Schools that depend on tuition only to keep the doors open eventually have to close their doors. Let's not be one of those schools. We are the only Catholic School in Bartlett. We need to be here for future generations.

Scholarship Donations: As Catholics, I believe it is our

Replacing Kitchen Ceiling Tiles

responsibility to help families afford Catholic education. It is not easy for a young family wanting a Catholic education for their child(ren) to pay full tuition. Please consider providing a quarter ($1,625), half ($3,250), or full scholarship ($6,500) for a student. Any amount will help a family.

Middle School Math Books: In order to improve our math offerings and our math scores, we are going with a different math book series. We ordered new math books for 7th and 8th grade. The cost of the new math books is $2,767.50.

Another Classroom Ready!

iPads: We would like to finish our 1-to-1 iPad initiative for PK-3 through 4th. Grades 5-8 already have 1-to-1 iPads. Cost of each iPad with Apple Care is $400.

Wireless Printers for the Classrooms: We would like to have wireless printers for all the classrooms. This would greatly help the students and teachers with their work. Each printer is $300.

We also have a lot of big ticket items like HVAC replacement,

Spirit Shop is Ready!

roof repairs, new windows, new blinds, renovate school bathrooms, finish the renovation of the St. Ann kitchen (everyone at the parish uses the kitchen), security doors, and security cameras.

Click to Support St. Ann!

If you are interested in helping with any wish list item.  Please contact me at didier.aur@sascolts.org or click on the St. Ann logo to support online. Please contact me if you have any questions.

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

Bringing Us Together Through Golf

Every year, many of us participate in a number of charity golf scrambles. I usually team up with my brothers and some close friends. I like to play golf, but what I really appreciate is spending time on the golf course with my brothers and friends while playing golf. Golf is what brings us together. Any chance I get to participate in a golf scramble, I'll do my best to be there if for no other reason than just to get together with family and friends.

Last week, we hosted the 13th Annual Memphis Catholic/Education That Works Golf Tournament at Irene Golf and Country Club. Instead of playing this year, I had the privilege of driving a beverage and snack cart around the course. I enjoyed it because I got the opportunity to meet everyone who participated in the tournament and to see some good and sometimes comical golf.

We host this event because it is a Fun-Raiser; it is a fun way of raising funds for Memphis Catholic. We need to raise money in order to do the best we can in providing our students the best education possible.

Our sponsors bring in the bulk of the funds raised. We focused this year on bringing in new sponsors to this event instead of soliciting our usual donors. We can drink from the same well too often. Don't want the wells to go dry. We were able to bring in many new sponsors for the tournament plus eight restaurants that provided all the prizes.

The company that probably sponsors more of our events than any other is Greystone. Billy Posey is a proud graduate of Catholic High as well as a Hall of Fame member. Greystone is also a supporter and promoter of the Education That Works program at Memphis Catholic. Every year, four Memphis Catholic students intern at Greystone. Billy and Greystone are improving the lives of many of our students as well is making our community a better place to live. We are all better for having Greystone's support.

Pediatric Dental Group (PDG) is another local business that supports everything we do including the 5K, golf tournament, and Education That Works.  John and Terry Acosta (Terry is a Memphis Catholic graduate) sponsor through PDG and personally. You would be hard pressed to find two nicer people. The Acosta and Aur families have been very close since the 90's with our kids started playing soccer together.

Health Choice has once again stepped up to sponsor our golf tournament. They also sponsored the Memphis Catholic 5K. We are very grateful to Mitch Graves and his team at Health Choice for investing in our students.

Michael and Silvia Hecht have been supporting the Jubilee Schools since 2002 when I was the principal of Holy Names. If there is a Jubilee event, Michael and Silvia are there to help. Wish we all had hearts as big as their's. I have known Michael since our teenage years out on the soccer field.

Neil Heins, owner of Neil's Grille and Bar and a member of the Memphis Catholic Hall of Fame, is always there to support the school be it the 5K, Wings of Jubilee, or golf tournament. He is proud of his alma mater and wants to invest in the future of our students.

Some of our newest sponsors include:

Danny Burke of Crye-Leike Realtors: Danny and I were classmates at CBHS. His father was a member of Catholic High Class of 1950. He sponsored because he wants to pay back the good he received while growing up. We could all use some help and Danny wants to provide the help we sometime need.

John Snyder, Managing Director of SVN/Investec Realty Services: John and I have spent many hours on the soccer field together; John was refereeing and I was getting yellow carded. John currently serves as the president of the Tennessee State Soccer Association and is a member of the East Memphis Rotary Club.



Richard Piretti, Jr of Piretti Home and Garden: Richard is a former student and soccer player of mine at CBHS. It is great seeing him support the education of our students. He is a fantastic young man.

Bryan Shaver, Vice President of Sales for Insurance Consulting Group, Inc.: If there is a Catholic (not just Memphis Catholic) event going on, you will find Bryan there in support. Thanks Bryan for supporting Memphis Catholic and Blue Streak Scholarship Fund.


Dr. Carl Schulter of Dental Implant Aesthetic Center: Dr. Schulter appeared out of the blue to support our golf tournament. We sent him a letter and he said yes. Dr. Schulter could not have been any nicer.

Dr. Bill Terrell of Memphis & Shelby County Pediatric Group: Dr. Terrell is also a member of the Memphis Catholic Hall of Fame. He could not participate in the tournament this year so he decided to sponsor it instead.

We received a special treat this year from Jerry Melton at Principle Toyota. He sponsored three hole-in-ones at the event including the chance to win a brand new Toyota Camry for the person who could sink a hole-in-one on number 4 at Irene. One person came within 10-feet but unfortunately, no one won the car.

Here is a great example of non-profit organizations helping each other. We have four students in the ETW program interning at JA. As a thanks to Memphis Catholic, JA has helped sponsor our golf tournament. We have a great relationship with JA, which will only continue to grow even stronger.

The team prizes for the tournament are all restaurant gift certificates.  We receive great support from the wonderful, hard-working restaurant folks. Our go-to restaurants are Bangkok Alley, Celtic Crossing, and Dino's Grill.

Thara & Dottie (Cull) Burana are owners of Bangkok Alley. Dottie is a graduate of Immaculate Conception. Her brothers are all graduates of Catholic High. Bangkok Alley has supported every Jubilee School event I can think of. They want what's best for the children and our community. My wife and I enjoy their outdoor dining at Brookhaven Circle. Great place to go to relax and unwind.

D.J. & Jamie Naylor are owners of Celtic Crossing. In my opinion, they serve
up the best fish and chips in town. Just like the Buranas, the Naylors support everything we do for the Jubilee Schools. They are very philanthropic folks and great friends to all. If you want to learn more about D.J. and Jamie, listen to them on cityCURRENT radio show. http://citycurrent.com/blogdetails/408/Radio-Show-Celtic-Crossing

Rudy Grisanti, owner of Dino's Grill, is a graduate of Catholic High. Rudy and his son, Mario, help us at all of our events. Mario is also a former student and soccer player of mine at CBHS. Dino's has some of the best lunch specials you will find in Mid-Town. Mario makes the best Tiramisu you'll ever eat!

Edward Cabigao, operating partner and co-owner of Interim, S.O.B. (South of Beale), and Zaka Bowl provided gift certificates from these three restaurants. I'm looking forward to dining at Zaka Bowl because I have not been there yet. Interim and SOB are both awesome restaurants

Our neighbors around the corner from Memphis Catholic, Frank,
Hazel, and Eric Vernon at The Bar-B-Q Shop also provided gift certificates for the winners. You've got to try their barbecue spaghetti but don't wear a white dress shirt when you do. I've made that mistake before. It was worth it.

Scott Smith at Holiday Deli & Ham Co. on Erin Drive also stepped up to support the golf tournament. Most of my planning meetings take place at that location so it was a nice way for Scott to thank us for the business we bring his way.

Our golf tournament not only brought together a lot of golfers but also a lot of local businesses in support of the work we do at Memphis Catholic. It takes a lot of great folks coming together to make our community better. Golf is just one means of bringing us together.

Thank you to all those who supported our 13th Annual Memphis Catholic/Education That Works Golf Tournament. Please support those great folks who support us. Together, our students learn and our community grows.

If you missed out on the tournament but want to support Memphis Catholic and Education that Works, click below to go to our donation page. You are the reason we can offer our students a better tomorrow.

Support Memphis Catholic

God bless you,
Didier Aur