St. Lawrence O’Toole School

The last few weeks have been full of many activities for students, families, and friends alike. The Wine Tasting/Silent Auction was a great opportunity for parents to get together and meet the parents of their children’s friends. It also was an opportunity to accomplish some early Christmas shopping and sample some great wines and foods. I want to thank the Committee. They did a spectacular job converting all the donations into such a marvelous array of gift baskets! Thanks to all the shoppers, too!

As you already know, the Yankee Candle orders have been delivered. Many of us took advantage of this opportunity to purchase some fragrant gifts. Congratulations to everyone for a successful Yankee Candle sale and securing delivery before the Holiday Rush!

Our students received their report cards and parents attended the first parent/teacher conference of the year. Remember, a report card is a snapshot reflecting where a child’s progress is at a particular time. Just as snapshots can change over time with a child’s growth or loss of teeth or the addition of braces, so too, a child’s academic progress can alter. The teachers and I are working at helping your child achieve academic success. Every child wants to succeed. Please call us if there is something we need to work on together to guarantee that success.

Our Middle Grade students joined the students from our local council of Catholic schools and celebrated the Bicentennial of our Archdiocese by attending a concelebrated Liturgy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish. The pastor, Msgr. Sandie, told them how very lucky they were to attend Catholic schools and reminded them of the sacrifices their parents made to keep them enrolled. He told them to keep their faith and to share it with everyone they meet.

Our school community helped the local community food pantry by not only donating foodstuffs but also by supplying the muscle power to deliver all the food to the community pantry! (Kudos to our Eighth graders, you did a great job!)

Thanksgiving Day and the day before was a time when people in our parish reached out to those in need. The Knights of Columbus and their friends prepared over three hundred meals. Our students volunteered their time to help be a part of this wonderful act of charity. We can be proud of all of them.

This coming weekend, we will have a marvelous opportunity to share the good news about our school with many visitors to our building who will attend Family Mass, the Santa Breakfast, and the Santa Shoppe sale. These visitors are the most likely candidates to join our school.

So, this weekend we are having a ‘targeted’ Open House aimed at families in Grades Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 3. I need volunteers to walk around and spread the ‘good news’ about our school. Tell our visitors how well your children are doing and how it is an opportunity they need to take advantage of for their children. Our teachers will be walking around ready to answer all questions.

Many of you are coming to the Breakfast; please consider coming a little early or staying a little later to help in our recruiting efforts. Tell our visitors why you chose St. Lawrence for your family. Please send an email confirming your time to help that morning. We also need some new recruits for our Marketing Committee. We meet once a month and exchange ideas on how to market our school. Call to join us and share your ideas! We are always willing to listen and try new things!

Last but not least, we are preparing for our Christmas pageant. So - if you are hearing the melodious sounds of Christmas carols, please encourage the singing!

A special Christmas project this season is for one of our alums, Bryan Stascavage, Class of 1998, who is serving in Iraq. Our students have ‘adopted’ his unit and are sending 250+ Christmas angels and goodie bags to his company. Our Student Council will coordinate assembling the goodie bags. Please help us by keeping Bryan and all our service men and women in your prayers.

See you on Sunday!

Fondly,
Mrs. O’Leary