Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary School

The sky is the limit for canned food collecting at St. Charles College

Since the mid eighties, St. Charles College student council has been organizing a fall food drive in support of the Sudbury Food Bank. Every year it just gets better and better.

The students were given the task of collecting sixty thousand cans this year. Teacher leaders Paola Gutscher and Bev Belanger were happy to report that the students smashed their goal with raising more than 126 thousand cans. Year after year, it has become the largest single donation to the Sudbury Food Bank warehouse.

The leadership students cannot do this alone. It is supported by all the 7-12 students at St. Charles College along with feeder schools — Holy Trinity, St. Paul, St. John, St. David and Pius.

The wrap-up event today highlighted the accomplishments of the students but also the staff had to hold up its end of the bargain complete with staff pie in the face showdowns, shaved heads, dyed heads and waxed legs.

Principal Patty Mardero says it is also important to recognize the citizens of Sudbury who graciously donated to the drive when the students knocked upon their doors. The food collected over the course of the last week was delivered to the Sudbury Food Bank warehouse today. Mardero says “This visit to the warehouse to unload is critical in helping students see the fruits of their labour as they lift each box of canned food and fill the shelves of the warehouse”.

SCDSB Trustee Deni Among the First Cohort of Trustees to Successfully Complete OCSTA Course

In 2015 eight universities in Ontario collaborated with the Ontario Catholic School Trustee Association (OCSTA) to create the OCSTA Certificate Course in Leadership & Good Governance. This is a 12-week online course that is provincial in scope but also includes local Catholic issues specific to a trustee’s own regional district. The course provides a trustee with many benefits such as developing a greater understanding and appreciation of the history of Catholic education in Ontario along with a greater understanding of the role of Catholic social teaching in our modern society. The leadership lessons of Pope Francis are also explored in the course. Topics include youth engagement in Catholic education, the role of the trustee as a public advocate for Catholic education, our support for Ontario First Nations, Metis and Inuit education and an examination of trends in Catholic education throughout Canada and the rest of the world.

Sudbury Catholic Trustee, Nancy Deni took part in this program. As part of the program, trustees are required to work on a practicum project that ideally could benefit their school board. Deni chose to focus on the home-school-parish triad relationship and ways that this triad can be strengthened. As part of her project, she sought and received feedback from parents, principals, priests and laypersons in the Church as she feels very strongly that the strength of this relationship is the key to keeping Catholic education alive and well in Ontario.

“I feel very privileged to be amongst the first cohort of trustees to complete the program,” Deni stated. “It was an eye-opening experience and I recommend the course to all trustees who want to be strong advocates for Catholic education in this province. This course really strengthened my belief that a Catholic education provides students with a really special and unique educational experience. We really do educate the mind, the body and the spirit in our schools.”

St. Charles College Ugly Sweaters Team Up with Holy Trinity Grade One students in PJ’s

The grade nine French Immersion students at St. Charles College are currently studying a unit on “Les Contes” (short stories). One of their assignments was to create a “conte” and develop vocabulary words and comprehension questions about their “contes”.

The students collaborated with teacher Colette Perrin’s Grade 1 Immersion students to read the “contes”, and assist them with their French reading and understanding.

The small students also happened to be celebrating pajama day and were divided into stations for story time with the big SCC students who were celebrating ugly Christmas sweater day.

St. Charles College and Holy Trinity Join Forces in Song

Students in the Early Learning Kindergarten program at Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary School visited the music room at St. Charles College recently to be entertained and wowed by senior music students.

The students learned about percussion, different instruments and music therapy.  The senior students also treated the students to a couple songs such as the Spiderman theme song.

Mrs. Demore feels it is important for students to learn to appreciate music at a very early age.

Cards Do It – Largest Single Donation to the Sudbury Food Bank for a Five Day Drive

The goal was to raise 60 thousand cans in five days. The result was astounding. Students and staff, along with the support of its feeder schools and the community raised 125, 452 cans to line the shelves of the food bank heading into the holiday season.

The breakdown is twenty thousand dollars in cash collected and 25, 000 cans. Students will spend the day assisting with the transport of the food to the food bank warehouse.

The St. Charles College food drive started thirty years ago and has been a yearly tradition with its feeder schools – St. David’s, Holy Trinity, Pius XII, St. John and St. Paul schools.

Principal Patty Mardero says “in thirty years this is the largest donation to date. The students really upped the ante for next year.”

Cards ‘can’ do it! 

Members of the St. Charles College Student Council are selling tees in the main foyer of the school this week to support the Sudbury Food Bank.  The t-shirts which are retailing for twenty dollars go to supporting the school’s annual food drive.   That means the sale of one shirt equates to 100 cans to line the shelves at the food bank.

The blue shirts were designed by students in teacher Beverly Belanger’s leadership class.  Student Jordan Sutton designed the image on the front of the shirt while Tyler Michaud came up with this year’s slogan:  “Cards ‘can’ do it! 60, 000.”

The goal for this year’s food drive is to collect sixty thousand cans and they are doing it with the support of feeder schools – St. David’s, Holy Trinity, Pius XII, St. John and St. Paul schools. 

The food drive is an annual tradition dating back to almost thirty years ago.

St. Charles Cards on Annual Mission to Fill Sudbury Food Bank Shelves

This week, students at St. Charles began visits to feeder schools to get students amped up and motivated about this year’s food drive.

The goal is to raise 60, 000 cans for the Sudbury Food Bank, along with support from its feeder schools – St. David’s, Holy Trinity, Pius XII, St. John and St. Paul schools. 

The food drive began almost thirty years ago with the student council at the time initiating the drive.  Founder, Jim Szilva continues to help the school each year with the annual mission.  The school is also supported by Kiss 105.3 and Q host Melanie Dahl on the airways.

In the past, donations from St.Charles College each fall have made for the largest single donation in Sudbury Food Bank history.

The drive wraps up on October 27th when final results will be tabulated and unveiled at the assembly.

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