OLG Newsletter – June 11th

June 11, 2015

Dear OLG Families,

What a year it has been! We have so enjoyed working with you and
your wonderful children and seeing them grow in so many ways. It has been a full year for our students and staff, as we celebrated our strengths and set new goals during our accreditation process, dove into implementation of a new math program, successfully launched our extracurricular program thanks to School Fund Drive donors, painted our salmon in the school stairwells, and experienced community through our Faith Family Groups. On a regular basis, I witnessed articulate and engaged students asking in-depth questions; creative and purposeful teaching; faith-filled reflection and service; academic curiosity and perseverance when challenges were faced; joyful learning; parents, grandparents and community members volunteering; and many acts of kindness and compassion.

We’d love to see you at the 9:00 end-of-the-school-year Mass tomorrow morning to celebrate with us!  Please also consider attending the event on June 18th at 7:00 pm, here at OLG, to celebrate the Papal Encyclical on the Environment. Information and details about this event, “Praised Be:  Pope Francis calls us to care for creation,” can be found on the flyer in today’s FCE envelope or on the parish website. A week later, a special event with Nimo Patel will help us to be connected in heart, mind, and spirit, as we deepen our ecological awareness grounded in faith, and our commitment to care for the Earth.

From Miss McKamey: 

The Kennedy Catholic Elementary Band Program wishes to thank all the band students and their parents for a wonderful year!  God’s blessings to you all!
                                                        – Miss McKamey
P.S. Hope to see many of you at camp!!  If you have not registered….the time is NOW!  Be a part of something special!!
 
Pick up medication that is in the school office!
If your child has medication in the school office, please stop by to pick it up before summer vacation. Thank you!
 
Does school supply shopping cut your summer fun short?
As we’ve shared, Chantille Henry is moving on from the
development/marketing part of her position to start her own business. Over the years working in schools, she noticed the amount of energy, time, and sometimes avoidance that goes into school supply shopping. She decided, as is typical of Chantille, to create a solution! Check Done School Supply is her new company! Check out the website and note that she already has our supply lists and earthquake kit loaded in and priced, for families who would rather order from the deck or beach chair than shop! Best wishes in your new venture, Chantille. (Chantille will continue on at OLG with tuition billing and collection.)

It’s that time of year again for THE WEST SEATTLE GRAND PARADE! We’ve had a terrific, award-winning entry in the parade the last several years and it’s time again to show the rest of West Seattle what a great parish and school community we are!

DATES TO REMEMBER: The date of the parade is Saturday, July 18th. Be there at 10:00 am, if you want to participate! The parade officially starts at 11:00, and you should assume you’ll be there at least until 1:30 p.m. We meet at 44th and Lander (just south of the playground of Lafayette School), and end at California and Alaska. In preparation, we will create a whole bunch of posters and artwork to use in the parade, and practice dance moves, on Sunday, July 12th, at noon (right after Mass, sandwiches and drinks provided). We needs lots of people to make this work, so please plan to be there!

WISH LIST: Our theme this year is: Bringing West Seattle a “Higher Power!” … and we’re going to show off how our new solar power system is benefitting us and our community. So, we need a few things:
1.       Extension cords of 10′ in length and 25′ in length.
2.       Someone to drive a good-sized pickup truck for the parade that we’ll decorate.
3.       Lots of kids/adults who can jump rope.
4.       Energy, enthusiasm, and ideas!

CONTACT: Email Brian Callanan at or call 206-937-2855 (email preferred, so I get a good electronic list going). Thanks for your support, and go OLG!

 
School Supply Drive for High Point Youth Tutoring Program
The OLG School community has helped provide school supplies for the High Point Youth Tutoring Program for the past two years. Please see the flyer below for information about this year’s drive:
School Supply Drive 

Have a wonderful summer! I am so grateful for the energy, commitment, and care that you bring to our school community. I wish you a relaxing and enriching summer and plenty of fun family time!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Special Highlights and Memories from our Classrooms this year:Preschool & Pre-K 

  • Field Trips
  • Picnic at Alki
  • Performing the Mitten and Very Hungry Caterpillar plays
  • Free choice Show-n-Tell
  • Making new friends!

Kindergarten 

Kindergarten is great! We loved Birthday celebrations, playing with friends, the talent show, and math. Watercolors, science experiments, the field trips, time outside for recess, and learning about sea creatures. The parties, square dancing, sign language, iPads, P.E., stories, and station time. What fun we had.

First Grade

  • We love God! We like making cards for Mt. St. Vincent residents and making prayer candles, books, and rugs blessed by Father Jack!
  • We love each other! We like doing our class covenant, playing games, singing in concerts, doing the Jog-a-thon, and creating art!
  • We love science! We like raising butterflies and salmon and releasing them in the wild. We love doing the Salmon Chant!
  • We love our 6th grade buddies! We like going to Mass with them and releasing the salmon with them!
  • We love learning all kinds of cool things together!

Second Grade 

  • Growing in our Faith through: celebrating First Communion & First Reconciliation, making First Communion banners, sharing our Baptism stories, visualizing the Gospels, making rosaries, cleaning the church, having prayer time in the Small Chapel, & leading the Mass all by ourselves.
  • Writing paragraphs & creating our very own “Small Moment” books.
  • Learning about Japan, South America (South America projects), Plants, and  Solids & Liquids.
  • Painting fish in the hallway with Miss Heidi & doing fun art projects with Mrs. Bellia.
  • Having fun with our friends & amazing teacher on field trips (Kubota Garden, Arboretum) with WOW parties & popsicles on the playground, and Topping-It at the jog-a-thon.

Third Grade

  • Water rockets and solar system projects
  • Saint projects
  • Crayfish and bess beetles
  • Mustache Thursdays
  • Ms. Savio 

Fourth Grade

  • Oregon Trail StoryPath
  • Pirates from Grammar Island
  • Washington State Map project with our families
  • Oral Presentations on people that impact Washington State
  • Earning our marbles

Fifth Grade

  • When Ms. Hobbs drew a very elaborate example of Mount St. Helen’s erupting and exploding on the white boards during our Landforms science unit, but accidently used bright orange    SHARPIE instead of a whiteboard marker, and didn’t notice until the drawing wouldn’t erase!
  • The Colonial America projects and presentations! “Those we so fun!”
  • Bad Joke Tuesday/ Punny OR Funny Tuesdays
  • Tickets, raffles and candy as incentives and rewards!
  • The Over 65 Dinner!
  • Learning about, making, flying and racing airplanes!
  • Band! “We loved beginning band and Miss McKamey!”

Sixth Grade

  • Two sad and lonely students lost in the middle of the night at Camp Hamilton
  • Mr. Franck singing in the mornings
  • 1st grade buddies
  • Cheeto fires in science!
  • Greek Mythology
  • Dance party in the 3rd grade

Seventh Grade

  • The new things, like dances
  • The ways they helped, like Angeline’s
  • The ways they grew, like speech class
  • The ways they led, like Stations of the Cross
  • And all the things that made them laugh, like Semu and his mushrooms, Shakespearan insults, Shaq, scowls, bbq sauce, and Ms. Hieger’s jokes, which cannot ever be taken literally.

Eighth Grade  

  • Being a cool cat in the 8th grade musical, Aristocats.
  • Eating dim sum at House of Hong and learning about the Cathedral.
  • Our 8th grade talent show at the Mount.
  • Putting together our Rudegoldberg Projects and our Green Apps
  • Gates Foundation, Seattle University, Guad Talks and the completing the Juan Diego Project.

Erin Stampe

Parent Org Chair

Thank you to all of you, our parents and guardians, for making this an amazing year! Through all your dedication and hard work, the Parent Org was able to reach our fundraising goal and meet our commitment to the school! The year has gone by so quickly, but when you look back at all we accomplished, it is easy to see that it was a full, busy school year!

We enjoyed fun times together throughout the year at events like Halloween Carnival and BINGO night, just to name a few. We added to our parental toolkits, as we learned about internet safety at our parent education night (and we look forward to our Family Nutrition Night coming this fall). We showed what a close, supportive and involved community we are throughout our school’s accreditation process by offering unparalleled hospitality! Finally, we enjoyed record breaking fundraisers as we danced the night away at our Sparkle! Auction and shared laughs (as sunscreen) as our kids ‘Topped It’ at Jog-A-Thon! What a year! It’s been a pleasure sharing this year with all of you and I look forward to another great experience this coming school year. I wish you and your families a safe and relaxing summer break!

There is still time to join the Parent Org Team for this coming school year!

Don’t miss out on a great opportunity! We can do this together; it will be great!

The Parent Org has the following positions available for the upcoming 2015 – 2016 school year:

1)     Light the Night Chair & Co-Chair (automatic 50 hours) – Plan OLG’s annual Christmas lighting event in December. Use your creativity to continue to make this night a fun and memorable holiday event for our school and parish families!

2)     Halloween Carnival Co-Chairs (automatic 50 hours) – The Parent Org needs two co-chairs to help the current Halloween Carnival Chair plan and organize this coming year’s event in preparation to take over Halloween Carnival in 2016/2017. This is the perfect position for two creative people who love to plan events and get the school community excited and involved! Our current chair will share all her knowledge and planning materials with you, so when you take over, you can hit the ground running! This is a great position for those of you who would like to meet your volunteer commitment at the beginning of the school year!

Email Erin Stampe if you are interested in either of these positions, or if you have further questions.

Are You A Gardener?

Coming this fall, the Parent Org is holding a Bags & Bulbs Fall Fundraiser! That’s right, folks! In addition to bringing back our very popular Mixed Bags sale, we are also going to offer high quality flower bulbs that will arrive during the peak of the fall planting season! So, instead of buying those cheap bulb packs from Costco at the end of summer, or those expensive varieties from the nursery, consider purchasing your bulbs during OLG’s Fall Fundraiser campaign this September. You can support our school AND prepare your yard for beautiful blooms come springtime!

 

Ready to Move On?

Wow, what an amazing year! There were so many activities, so much hard work, and so much accomplished. I won’t try to recap it all here. In our weekly newsletters, Mrs. Ramos beautifully documented what unfolded throughout the year. Instead, I invite you to look back over the school year as it impacted your child.

Remember the first day of the school this year? Think back to your child’s nervous anticipation. How did they adapt to the long day, to focusing in the classroom, to making friends and getting along with classmates? Have they grown more eager to learn, to play, to share their insights and experiences? Are they ready to move on to the next grade?

As school counselor I feel honored to work with students on a personal level. I add support as they work through confusion, sadness, perhaps self-doubt, as well as ah-ha moments and wonderful successes! I’m also fortunate to spend time with them in the classroom when I teach personal safety and social skills. As the recess supervisor I witness their play, which can be bumpy at times, but has slowly evolved into greater inclusion and problem solving! Sharing time with 5th Grade doing Crossing Guard each morning and afternoon, gives me a sense of what lies ahead for them that day, and what went on over the weekend… I feel I know OLG kids pretty well! They sound ready to move on…

Our recent “Jump-Up Day” allowed our students a chance to visit next year’s classroom, to sit at a slightly bigger desk, and listen to their future teacher talk about next school year’s challenges and activities. It was an important glimpse ahead, a prep for their transition in the fall. Walking down the hallways I looked into classroom after classroom and saw eager faces, students sitting up straight, listening intently, and looking at one another as if to say, ‘This will be great!” They seem ready to move on…

Students continue to reach and stretch to know who they are, what they’re passionate about, and what their strengths and gifts might be. They’re finding their voices, discovering what’s important to them, and developing personal values. They are defining their role within their own families, within their classroom and circle of friends, and within their community. It’s been amazing to work along side students as they add their very unique creations to the fish mural in the stairwells. When asked what they think of this school-wide art project, responses vary. — ” It’s cool that we get to paint on the wall and not get in trouble. — Going down the stairs isn’t boring anymore. — This all shows how creative OLG is. — I like that people paint such different things. — We can come back someday when we’re older and find our fish.” And, as soon to be in 5th Grade Marc Christianson said, ” The school is the ocean, and each of us is a fish, and we’re all in the cycle like salmon. We start out in kindergarten, and when we graduate, it’s like the full cycle… I think that’s really cool.”       I know they’re ready to move on… and up!

I wish you all a safe and wonderful summer break. Take care!

Heidi Ehrenberg – School Counselor

Knights of Columbus Free Throw Champion!
OLG Mary won the state championship for the Knights of Columbus free throw shooting competition for 12 year old girls. She was awarded the 1st place medal at Mass a couple weeks ago by OLG Grand Knight Tim Mitchell. She made 22/25 in the championship round.  I have attached a picture with her medal for you. I hope you can put in the final newsletter this upcoming week. Thanks very much.

Helen Oesterle

Pastoral Associate

Summer Volunteer Needed to Help Organize Church Pews 

During the school year, we are blessed by the OLG School 2nd graders who clean out and organize our pews every week.  THANK YOU!!  But the task is year round and we need a few volunteers to take over during the summer.  Our hope is to get enough volunteers to make the job easy and fun.  If interested, contact Helen:  206-935-0358.

Summer Film Festival 

Join us for our 4th Annual summer film event.  Our first film is “Romero” on Tuesday, June 9 at 6:30 pm in the Walmesley Center.  It is the true story of Archbishop Oscar Romero who lived in El Salvador during the political unrest in the 1980s.  He was a powerful supporter of the poor and marginalized which the government authorities saw as disloyal.  He was murdered while celebrating Mass and was recently declared a martyr by Pope Francis.   Rated PG-13.  Bring your favorite movie treat…popcorn and lemonade provided.

Vacation Bible Camp

VBC Crew Needed

Jennifer Ibach

Pastoral Assistant for Outreach

Help Deliver Meals to Neighbors in Need

Did you know that OLG has been a meal drop-off site for Chicken Soup Brigade for the past 8 years? This program helps our homebound, aged, and chronically ill neighbors to get groceries and nutritious meals. Food delivery is currently being done by the organization’s staff, so we are looking for some drivers and volunteers who can help them expand their reach in West Seattle. Would you be able to pick up groceries/meals at their distribution center in Georgetown on a Thursday afternoon?  Could you be at OLG between 4-5pm on Thursdays to hand out meals to the 5 local clients?  Would you have an hour or two on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon or a Saturday morning to deliver food to 4-7 homebound or ill neighbors?  We are looking to form a team so that pick up and delivery could rotate, making it possible to serve just once a month.  Interested?  Contact Jennifer Ibach at 206-935-0358 x.120.

Congratulations to the 2015 Boys’ CYO Champions from OLG!

Click here to: Find out the latest CYO News!

CONTENTS

Important Info May 2012

Last Day of School
NOON Dismissal
June 12, 2015
Friday
Mass at 9:00 am
Full Dress Uniform“Praised Be” event celebrating the Papal Encyclical on the Environment
June 18, 2015
Thursday
7:00 pm
Church

Nimo Patel event
June 25, 2015
Thursday
6:30 pm
Walmesley Center
 
Banner Painting for WS Parade!
July 12, 2015
Sunday
Noon

West Seattle Grand Parade
July 18, 2015
Saturday
10:00 gather time
44th & Lander

School Supply Drop-off Evening & Ice Cream Social
August 26th
Wednesday
5:30 – 6:30 pm

First Day of School for 2015-2016
September 1, 2015
Tuesday
NOON Dismissal

Friday before Labor Day
September 4, 2015
Friday
NOON Dismissal
 

Labor Day
September 7, 2015
NO School

For a safe, healthy and fun summer for all of our students, staff and families.

Please pray for a speedy recovery for Isaac Trius. He is sick and in the hospital.

Please pray for David Pedras, for he snapped his achilles heel and had surgery.

Please pray for Fr. Phillip Kramer, uncle of Margy Joe. Fr. Kramer recently died.

Please pray for Minnie Cardenas, grandmother of Cora Cardenas. Minnie recently died.

Please pray for Steve Stabe. Steve is the uncle of Cooper and Marek Hall. He recently went to Heaven.

Please pray for Jovie Samson, aunt of Kaila Lim, and for the Lim family. Jovie recently died.

Please pray for Judy Fowler, mother of Chantille Henry and grandmother of Wyatt Henry. Judy is experiencing health challenges, and prayers are appreciated!

Please pray for Lisa Booth, OLG parent, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is optimistically undergoing treatment. The Booth family appreciate the support and prayers of our OLG community.
Lisa’s sister has set up the following website which shows how folks can specifically help and also gives details on Lisa’s cancer, treatment plan, etc.