St. Catherine of Siena Parish

THE FALCON

Having a true day off (as opposed to a professional development day) is always nice, but boy it seems to put me a day behind on everything. Thus, for the 2nd week in a row, my parent bulletin comes to you on a Friday. That way the bad news won't seem quite so bad either! Actually, this week is mostly good news from what I can tell, as things continue to get busy, and we march on toward longer days and warmer weather.

THE LATEST

• Trivia Night is only one week away. The registration form is available here. It sounds like tables are starting to fill up fast, but there is definitely still room. In addition to participants, we need a few other forms of help:

1) If you can assist as a 'runner' to take drinks to and from tables or just offer your help in general between 6 and 11 PM, please call Kelly S at 288-2808.

2) If you work for a business that would consider donating $50 to sponsor one of our trivia rounds, please call Char M at 231-8851.

(In the event you have difficulty getting ahold of either person, just call the office and we'll pass the message along.)

Remember a few other events coming up that we may need your assistance. If you have many service hours to do, please don't put them off too long. By the time April or May come around, there is not often that much left we can offer:

-Kindergarten Info Night, 3/2. We need help with child care from 6-8 PM. Your children (say age 12 or older) may assist as well.

-Spring Musical, 4/15 and 16. The help will be needed in March as we prepare sets and costumes. More information to come, but go ahead and let me know if you enjoy painting and other artistic endeavors.

-Sacred Heart Fish Fry, 3/19: 4-7 PM. Sign-up sheets will be available after Masses this weekend. Those who work on behalf of the parish (including Sacred Heart events) definitely can count that time.

-Playground improvements. At some point we will be conducting some large scale improvements to the playground, once the weather thaws. We'll let everyone know.

-Race for Education, 5/28. We need help the day of, but we also have a lot of behind the scenes prep work that will occur between March and the day of the event. Some of it can even potentially be done at home.

• Hand sanitizer donation

Goshen hospital had to get rid of some hand sanitizer bottles which reached their labeled expiration date. However, the actual shelf life of a product like this (so they say) is closer to 10 years. It may not be good enough for hospital use, but they did offer to donate several crates for our school to use. We plan to give a bottle to each student. We would encourage the younger students to take them home. Some of the older students may want to keep them in their lockers or use them at school. We will also be leaving several extras in the classrooms (we have already had it readily available in the lunch room).

Now that the big H1N1 wave seems to have subsided, you don't hear the emphasis as much, but there is always something to be guarding against. I think I'm on my 5th cold of the year, for example. They won't be the cure-all, but another nice preventive that can be used if soap and a sink aren't conveniently available.

We have only met almost 60% of our school's quota, nearly 50% of the overall goal for sales. This is good progress, but realistically, there is only another week left to sell as far as what counts for individual, class, and school-wide incentives.

Our top selling families are at about 180, 80, and 40 books respectively. For 2nd or 3rd place especially, that's not a very high number, so there is still potentially some competition out there. There are still books left for those who want to make a final surge. We hope to run out soon, but definitely assume they will be here until you hear otherwise.

3rd, 4th, and 6th are all in the 50% range as the leading grades. The first grade to reach 100 percent and the grade with the highest percentage per student will receive the ice cream dessert, but this will have to be within a week's time to officially qualify. Please do what you can, then we can let the whole thing be for another year.

• Monday will be your last day to register for the Young Authors' Conference at Marian High School (on March 27). This is a very good quality event for grades K-6. Every student in those grades has had the opportunity to compose one or more creative stories, poetry, or other non-fiction this year. Let's get involved this year and give your children a chance to learn from real authors and to interact and share ideas with their peers from other Catholic schools. So far we have about 10 students attending. It would be nicer to show a contingent of 20 or more. Schools even smaller than ours have had as many as 30 or 40 students participate, so I know we can do it.

• REMINDER. Financial aid applications for 2010-2011 are now available at www.factstuitionaid.com. If you do not have good internet access, we can provide access to a confidential computer here at school, even before or after school hours. Here is what we will be expecting of families who request (and would eventually receive) aid for next year:

1. You must be an active, registered, and participating member of the parish or a non-parish family in good standing (parish families always receive first priority; we do our best to support all).

2. You must be paid up to date with this year's tuition (or have a catch-up plan in place with the business office). You will need to be paid in full by June 30 to receive final approval.

3. You must be willing to apply for free/reduced lunch in the fall (it used to be encouraged; it will now be required).

4. Families with 3 or more children total spread among any of the Catholic schools in our diocese must apply and verify your tax data by May 1 in order to receive consideration by the Large Family Fund (download to see official rules). If you do not apply to LFF, you will not receive additional consideration from the parish.

• We have received all Christmas DVD orders and will begin processing them. We may have them in a week's time or so.