March 1 Hot Lunch ordering for April open
March 8 Early Release – 12:30 PM – NO After Care
March 11 Auction Committee Meeting – 7:00 PM – Margaritas
March 12 After Care in 1st Grade
March 14 STEM Day
March 14 STEM Science Fair – 5:30 – 7:00 PM – School
March 15 Stations of the Cross – 2:15 PM – 5M presenting
March 15 After Care in 1st Grade
March 18 St. Patrick’s Day Free Dress
March 18 Auction Committee Meeting – 7:00 PM – Margaritas
March 20 Lifetouch Spring Photos – Dress UP Day
March 22 Stations of the Cross – 2:15 PM -- 4D presenting
March 22 After Care in 1st Grade
March 23 AUCTION! – 5:30 PM – Sky Meadow Country Club
March 26 Bishop Guertin Catholic Schools Concert
March 27 Paper Wednesday News
March 28 STEM Day Snow Date, if necessary
March 29 Stations of the Cross – 2:15 PM – 5G presenting
March 29 After Care in 1st Grade
NEW! Thank You – This week’s thank you’s go to Karen Narkis, Sally Mitchell, Lorrice Bedard, Alison Nardone, and Mrs. Clarke for joining Fr. David at the Diocesan Hundredfold Vocations workshop this past Saturday. The daylong session covered the importance of vocations in the Church, especially those to the priesthood, consecrated life, and marriage. Combined, St. Christopher School and parish had the most representatives at the workshop!
UPDATED! Annual Fund– Just over a month left to get your donation in to the Annual Fund so it appears in the Honor Roll of Donors! All donations made before April 1st will appear in the Honor Roll published in the summer edition of the News and Notes. While we have had many wonderful donations, we are still a bit short of $34,000 goal…please consider making a donation today!
Donating to the Annual Fund is easy! You may make your donation using any of the following methods:
- Return the remittance envelope included in your Annual Fund letter along with a check, cash, or credit card number.
- Send a check or cash in to school in an envelope marked “Annual Fund”.
- Call Business Manager Murrayann Abucewicz at 882-7442, ext. 113, to have your credit card charged manually.
- Or donate online through Paypal HERE.
However you choose to donate, please know that we are MOST grateful!
Hot Lunch Ordering – Hot Lunch ordering for April is open! It will remain open through midnight on Friday, March 15 and no late orders can be accepted. Log into Boonli.com HERE.
Registrations OVERDUE -- If you have not yet completed the online registration for any child who will be a student at St. Christopher School in Fall 2019, your registration is now. We are currently drafting our budget for the next school year and tuition is based on the number of enrolled students for 2019. Because late registrations can not be counted towards our enrollment numbers in the budget, every late registration causes our tuition rate to be higher. If you are intending to send your child/children to the school in the Fall but have not registered, please do so immediately. Thank you!
THIS WEEK! Early Release – We will have an early release THIS Friday, March 8 at 12:30 PM so our teachers may attend a professional development workshop. There will be NO After Care.
UPDATED! STEM Day and Night -- Our fantabulous STEM Day will be, March 14…Pi Day! We have an exciting group of wonderful volunteer speakers from a variety of STEM fields who will be visiting with our students on the morning of March 14. In the afternoon, classrooms will be finishing up their STEM projects and setting up their displays for the evening STEM Fair.
Families are invited to return to school from 5:30-7:00 PM to visit the classrooms and see the projects, as well as visit with our STEM guests in the hallways, and do some fun STEM experiments! Since it’s Pi Day, we’ll also have a “Pi” raffle at 6:30 PM! Come early to put your raffle ticket in to win one of two yummy pies! Please join us! (FYI – If our STEM Day is snow out like last year, we have scheduled a Snow Day for March 28!)
NEW! STEM Day Brunch Help – We always love to offer our special guests a delicious brunch when they come to work with our students, and STEM Day is no exception! Please see the SignUp Genius HERE to see what you can bring for our wonderful presenters!
After Care in 1st Grade – The parish is once again holding their terrific Fish Dinners on Fridays during Lent, so our After Care will be relocated to 1st grade on all Fridays during this period. This will run from March 15 through April 12. Please go to the 1st grade doors to pick up your children!
NEXT WEEK -- In addition, After Care will be held in 1st grade on March 12 due to a parish event in the church hall.
Stations of the Cross – Our weekly observance of the Stations of the Cross will begin after February vacation. Please check the calendar above for upcoming dates and times.
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Auction News -- Our 15th Annual St. Christopher School Auction will be here before you know it! The “St. Chris Rocks” Auction will take place on Saturday, March 23 at Sky Meadow Country Club…and we need your help! Please consider getting involved in any of the following ways:
Item Wish List: The Auction Committee has put together a “wish” list of items they need for this year’s Auction! If you are looking to donate, but just don’t know what to give, please consider any of the following:
- Southwest Airlines Gift Card (any amount) to add to our Girls Weekend package!
- $20 - $30 Uber/Lyft gift cards (also for the Girls Weekend package!)
- Bruins Tickets
- Tupelo Music Hall tickets HEREfor John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (of the 1983 Eddie & the Cruisers movie fame!)
- $25 - $50 gift cards from Exxon, Mobil, Shell, or Irving
- $10 - $25 Target gift cards
- $15 - $25 Michael's or AC Moore gift cards
- $25 - $50 restaurant gift cards (local or chain)
- Yeti tumblers, bottles, mugs, bottle openers, etc. (no cooler needed!)
- Pampered Chef items
- Rodan and Fields items
- Norwax items
- Launch and Altitude gift cards of any denomination
- Baskets from our Basket Sign-Up Genius HERE(or a custom basket!)
Donations this week include:
1 Week in North Woodstock Condo…sleeps 10-12!
$25 Gift Certificate to Giogio’s
$50 Gift Certificate to Alec’s Shoes
Lilly Pulitzer Necklace
Poker Basket from Chasers Poker Room and Casino
And more! Check out the list HERE!
Business Participation: We love to have local and national businesses participate in the Auction through item donations, program advertisements, and sponsorships! This is a great opportunity for businesses to reach over 200 potential patrons! Chat with your boss, ask your barber, talk with your dry cleaner, reach out to your dog groomer….almost any local business is happy to participate! If you need an Auction information packet to pass along to a local business, you can download the Auction packet on the school website HERE or contact Marta at [email protected] for a printed copy. Thank you!
Thank you to these current sponsors:
The A-Team...Auction Committee Parents – Gold Sponsor
The Aquino Family – Silver Sponsor
St. Joseph Hospital – Bronze Sponsor
Catholic Medical Center – Copper Sponsor
Center for Physical Therapy and Exercise – Copper Sponsor
Drs. Franklyn & Francesca Liberatore, DDS – Copper Sponsor
The Valade Family – Copper Sponsor
Business Cents Back Office Solutions – Copper Sponsor
UPDATED! Advertising -- Program advertising runs from $50 to $250. Every Auction attendee receives a program for the evening. Because the program describes EVERY Live Auction item in detail, these are guaranteed to be read by everyone!
Thank you to our current advertisers:
Platinum Tan
Forcier Contracting and Building Services
Kalil and Kress Dentistry
PAL Force Football and Cheerleading
Women’s Wellness & Fertility Center at Catholic Medical Center
Literacy Learning Solutions, LLC
Knights of Columbus Insurance – Kevin Brown
Frasca & Frasca Attorneys at Law/Frasca Title
Nashua Catholic Regional Jr. High School
Ticket Purchases: Seats are selling fast…and we are limited to only 225 guests! Get your seat today! To reserve your seat, return the RSVP card to the school with your payment (and be sure to make your meal selection on the reverse side of the RSVP card!) or you can also click HERE to purchase your ticket online. Tables of 10 or 12 can be also reserved ahead of time by sending a list of attendees to Marta at [email protected] or Ellen Valade at [email protected].
UPDATED! Ticket for a Teacher Sponsors – Aren’t our teachers GREAT? Thank them for a job well done by being a Ticket for a Teacher sponsor! Our teachers work hard all day, every day in the classroom…they deserve a night out! To be a Ticket for a Teacher sponsor, simple complete the RSVP form HERE and select Ticket for a Teacher. Many thanks to those who have already sponsored our teachers:
Mark & Jane Gill
Patrick & Joan McCabe
Skip & Tara Stolz
Vlad & Theresa Yasevich
Tom & Mary Popik
Alejandro Mirles & Liza Tirado-Calzada
Donald Surprenant
Gregg & Marnie Gordon
Todd & Beth De Rego
Jeff & Kim Lafleur
Quang & Emily Uong
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St. Patrick’s Day – We’ll be wearin’ the green on our St. Patrick’s Day Free Dress day on Monday, March 18! Students should wear green and white!
NEW! Chess Club News – The Chess and Games Club will be holding the usual annual friendly Chess tournament in March starting on the 15th through April 5. It is a great refresher of the skills learned through the year and all participants will receive a certificate. It is the same time as regular club hours, 7:50 AM to 8:30 AM on Fridays. All attendees during those days will be tournament participants by default and no need for any additional sign up.
NEW! 5th Grade Great Books – We are in great need of a leader for the 5th grade Junior Great Books group! Leaders are given all materials and training necessary for the weekly meeting. Please contact Lorrice Bedard at [email protected] if you can help out!
Used Book Sale – It may seem a looong ways away, but our Parent Group wanted to remind parents to save used books, cd’s, and dvd’s for the Used Book and Uniform Sale in May! If you are doing a little after-Christmas cleaning (or pre-Spring cleaning?), please keep the sale in mind! We accept donations of both children’s and adult’s book and media. All books and media are sold for 50¢ each and all students will visit the sale! Donations can be brought to the school after April vacation!
Lifetouch Spring Portraits – Lifetouch will return on Wednesday, March 20 for our Spring Portraits. This is a Dress UP Day…all students should wear their Easter finest! No pre-orders are taken for these portraits and parents will receive proof copies of the photos later in April. This is a one-time event, so there will be no retakes for absent students.
Bishop Guertin Music in Our Catholic Schools Concert -- March is Music In Our Schools Month, so Brian Starck, band director at Bishop Guertin High School has organized a "Music in Our Catholic Schools Concert" to take place in the Bishop Guertin High School Gym on the evening of Tuesday, March 26th. The bands, Fiddle Squads and choruses from Saint Christopher will join with music groups from Nashua Catholic Junior High School, Presentation of Mary Academy, and Bishop Guertin. Each group will perform on its own, and the evening will conclude with all the student musicians performing together in a stirring performance of "What A Wonderful World."
Forgotten Lunches – Just a friendly reminder that students who forget their lunch receive a bagel and cream cheese, along with any available sides. To make it fair for everyone, there are no exceptions. Please do not count on your child receiving the Hot Lunch of the day as we only order the number of meals we need to accommodate those who order through Boonli. A charge for the meal will be added to your Boonli account. This long-standing policy helps us to monitor inventory and keep our costs down. Thanks so much for your help with our Hot Lunch program!
THIS WEEK! Yearbook Orders – All Yearbook orders are due by THIS Friday, March 8. The yearbook is a wonderful memento of the year at St. Chris and features portraits and photos of ALL students, from PreK through grade 6! Please click HERE to download the information and order form! Note: Yearbooks for 6th grade students are automatically included in the 6th grade graduation fee. However, any personalization, personal messages, or sponsorships must be paid for separately.
NEXT WEEK! Financial Aid Applications for 2019-2020 – As always, our goal is to make a St. Christopher education affordable for any family! To that end, applications for Financial Aid for the 2019-2020 school year are open and will run through March 15 and all families in need are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. All oldest and only students were sent home with a packet of information regarding the Financial Aid process today. The packet can also be accessed HERE. Please read the information carefully. All families interested in financial aid MUST follow the packet instructions or aid will not be given. If you have any questions, please contact either Mrs. Clarke at [email protected] or Business Manager Murrayann Abucewicz at [email protected].
NEW! Youth Ministry News:
Junior Group News – While there’s no Teen/Junior Group meeting this week, everyone’s invited to come to the 7th-9th grade Confirmation mass on Tuesday, March 12 at 7pm. Come support your friends who will become full Catholics!
Kid Group News – Food is very important to our bodies, but how do we feed our souls? That’s what we’ll be talking about at Kid Group this week. See you in the Pennell Center on March 9 from 5-7pm! All 3rd-5th graders are welcome to join us.
Middle School Youth Rally – We might learn a lot about Jesus, but what does it feel like to actually open your heart to Him? If you’d like to find out, come join us for the Diocese of Worcester’s Middle School Rally on April 7. All 6th-8th graders are welcome. Please return the permission slips to Emily or the parish office by 3/17 if you’d like to come with us.
For any questions, email Emily Murphy at [email protected].
Vacation Bible School Save the Date!!! St. Christopher Parish’s popular Vacation Bible School (VBS) with run from July 29-August 2, 2019! This year’s theme is ROAR! 2019: Life is Wild ~ God is Good. Registration forms are included in this week’s paper News ! Children ages 4 (entering pre-K) to Grade 5 are invited to come join us for a GRRReat time at Vacation Bible School this summer! We will travel to the African Savannah, a safari into the Bible, where we will sing, dance, create and play as we learn that even when our life gets WILD, God is always good! And we Trust in Him! We will need many adult helpers for the Safari trip of a lifetime! Please consider sharing your special talent! Email [email protected] for more information or to volunteer!
Happy Hearts Day Care Summer Camp Openings – Linda Rousseau of Happy Hearts Day Care, located across the street from the school, has openings for children age 6 to 11 in her summer camp. Activities include daily field trips, hiking, swimming, playgrounds, nature preserves, restaurants. $175 per week, lunch and snacks included. Please call Linda Rousseau at 880-6575 if interested.
NEW! Fish Dinners -- Knights of Columbus Council 11907 will be serving Baked Fish Dinners on the Fridays in Lent starting March 8 and continuing on the 15, 22, 29, April 5 and 12. The dinners will be served from 4:30 to 6:30 PM in the Church Hall. The menu includes a generous portion of baked haddock, baked potato, vegetable, coleslaw, rolls, beverage and selections from our famous home cooked dessert table. Cost is $12. Pizza slices are available $2.00. Take out orders can be placed by calling (603) 717-4980. Cash checks and credit cards are accepted and Gift Certificates are available. If schools are closed due to inclement weather, the Fish Dinner is also cancelled.
NEW! Free Lego Derby - On Sunday March 17th, after the 10:00 AM Mass, Cub Scout Pack 253 is making it’s Pinewood Derby race track available to the youth of the parish for a Lego Derby. Come build a racing car out of Lego and take it for some test drives on our brand new track! Event is free and all Lego for building the cars will be provided.
Hot Lunch Schedules – Thank you to everyone who stepped up to volunteer for the Hot Lunch program! Your help is MUCH appreciated. Volunteers for the next week are below:
Thursday, March 7
Lisa Campbell
Nadra Bell
Susette Parks
Friday, March 8
Early Dismissal – No Hot Lunch
Monday, March 11
George Torsian
Marilyn Hogan
Carol Cyran
Theresa Yasevich
Tuesday, March 12
Karla Chmoun
Staci Felder
Annette Cameron
Wednesday, March 13
Sasha Shaplyko
Alicia Maffei
Annie Wong
Erin Sarette