Tuesday, November 17, 2009
PLG Advent Wreath Making
Bring your family and join others from our parish for a festive afternoon of Advent wreath making on November 29 th, 1-3:30 pm in Fr. Spooncer Hall, with a short ceremony to bless the wreaths at 2 & 3:15 p.m. All materials will be supplied for $8. Please bring your own pruning shears and gardening gloves. It takes just 30 minutes to make a wreath so you are welcome to come and go as you like. Help is needed to gather greenery on Nov. 28 th, and to set-up, clean-up, and bring holiday treats on Nov. 29th. To volunteer, please contact Katie Boennighausen at 650-965-7882 or kt_ryan@yahoo.com
Food Collection for Christmas
St. Simon Parish will help 230+ families for Christmas.
Students in grades K-4 are asked to bring in a box of cake mix and a box of cereal. Students in grades 5-8 are asked to bring in a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jam. Please bring in these items during the week of November 16th. Thank you for helping these families in need.
St. Simon Parish / St. Vincent de Paul Society Food Drive
Each year, our Saint Simon parish St. Vincent de Paul Society helps to gather boxes of food full of complete Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in our community. To support this effort, we will be holding a Food Drive on Saturday, November 21st. Our own St. Simon parishioners will be volunteering, collecting frozen turkeys and pre-packed bags of non-perishable food at the Nob Hill Store at 1250 Grant Road from 9am to 5pm on that day. The first 125 frozen turkeys and 50 bags full of food that we collect will go directly to our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society. All other turkeys and non-perishable food will be donated to local food pantries.
Please consider a time during this Saturday that you might be able to come by the Nob Hill for an hour or so to help out. It is a great experience and we all have a lot of fun. If you are really lucky, you may even be able to work inside the store with our "star saleslady", Maria Crowder, who gives her heart and soul to the cause of selling those bags of food! No one gets by her!
Please contact Maura Farley at jfarley@pacbell.net , if you would like to volunteer.
Thanks everyone! Gobble gobble!
Weekly Gift Card/Scrip ordering
The holidays will quickly be approaching. Purchase Gift Card Scrip for friends, family, the Giving Tree, and more via the Tuesday envelope. Go to the school's Scrip and eScrip web page at http://school.stsimon.org/scrip--escrip. Both an order form and release form to have your Scrip sent home can be found on this page. Return your signed release and order form on Wednesday when you send your child's envelope back, and your order will be ready the following week for pickup or delivery. More information can be found on the school's Scrip and eScrip web page.
Congratulations to our eScrip contest winners! Our lower grade winner is Grade 3, Room 4 with 44.4% classroom participation, and our upper winner is Grade 7, Room 14 with 62.86% classroom participation. Both classes will receive Free Dress on Monday, November 23rd.
eScrip is a way to donate to Saint Simon when you make a purchase from participating vendors using your credit, debit, merchant or grocery card. Our goal is 100% participation in the Electronic Scrip (eScrip) program. Do your regular shopping, and eScrip will forward a contribution back to Saint Simon at no cost to you! To enroll, go to the eScrip website at http://www.escrip.com, and use Saint Simon's id #137106957. Have questions about the eScrip program? View the eScrip FAQ page or contact Karen Carrie.
Friendly Reminder
Just wanted to send a friendly reminder about the Faculty & Staff Christmas group gift. Please note that the deadline to contribute is Tues, Nov 24, which is a bit earlier than in previous years in hopes that we might utilize our scrip
program. Please feel free to contact us with any questions. Thank you, Pam Tomac & Marilou Verceles, Parent Coordinators
Financial Aid
If you are currently receiving Financial Aid or are interested in receiving Financial Aid for the 2010-11 school year, please contact Mr. Clossick directly to obtain a Financial Aid Application. All families interested in receiving Financial Aid next year, even if you already are receiving Financial Aid, must submit a new Financial Aid Application for the 2010-11 year.
The deadline for PSAS to receive Financial Aid Packets is February 1, 2010.
November 17, 2009
Dear Parents,
St. Simon School has a very proud and historic tradition of service learning and helping those in our parish, the San Jose Diocese, as well as our community. This Advent we will continue this tradition by supporting our parish as well as Catholic Charities. In doing so, we are called to teach and model three of the seven Principles of Catholic Social Teachings:
• Life and Dignity of the Human Person: The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. The Catholic Church believes that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.
• Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.
• Solidarity: We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers and sisters keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught that if you want peace, work for justice. The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.
This year, St. Simon School will participate in two Advent projects. Grades K, 2, 4, 6, and 8 will provide gift items by category for Catholic Charities and grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 will pick families from the St. Simon Giving Tree and will provide gifts by family. We will have two fundraisers: a PJ / sweats day, and a crazy hat/ sock day; each for $1.00. The money for these two fundraisers will purchase food gift cards for Catholic Charities. Separately, the faculty will be supporting the St. Simon Giving Tree with toys for all ages.
As part of service learning, it is important that the students earn the money to purchase these gifts through chores, allowance, or helping a neighbor. It is not our intention that the students’ parents write a check to take care of this. It will mean more to the students if they have done the work to provide this act of stewardship and kindness to those in our community that need their help. We ask for your support in helping your children earn the money and going with them to purchase the gift item. At our Advent liturgy service on Friday, December 18th, some students will have an opportunity to discuss what they learned from this experience and what they did to earn the money.
Catholic Charities: these items should not be gift wrapped, but put into a gift set. All items should be ready to be picked up by Catholic Charities on Friday, December 18, after Mass.
Grade K: Pajamas, for ages 2 – 10 years.
Grade 6: Pajamas, for ages 11 – adult.
Grade 4, Room 7: Mittens, gloves, scarves, for ages 5 - 8
Grade 4, Room 9: Mittens, gloves, scarves, for ages 9 – 11
Grade 2: Sweat sets, for ages 2 – 10 years
Grade 8: Sweat sets, for ages 11 – adult
St. Simon Giving Tree: Grades 1, 3, 5, and 7. These items should be wrapped, and marked with the family number, gender, and age. These gifts will be due the parish on Friday, December 11th.
Each classroom will receive a family or two (depending on the size of the family). Each student will be asked to provide one gift. The names will be provided to the students by Wednesday, November, 18th. Teachers will provide this information on Wednesday or Thursday, after we have received the information.
As always, if your family would like to give more than what your child is being asked to do we would welcome your support and generosity. Cash donations as well as slippers, socks, backpacks, and children’s story books are very helpful.
On behalf of the faculty, and the families we are helping this Advent, we wish you a blessed and joyous Christmas. Thank you for your support of our service learning program.
Blessings,
Steven M. Clossick
Principal
"Patience is the companion of wisdom." --- Saint Augustine
Posted on
Tue, November 17, 2009
by Steven Clossick