École Our Lady of the Rosary School – Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap is a collaboration between students and residents at the Sylvan Lake Bethany Care Centre. The goal is to help improve the well-being for all those involved by showing that regardless of age, everyone can make a difference in another person’s life. This project was given $1,400.

Testimonial

The project enhanced Catholic education by providing students with the opportunity to participate in a community ministry that impacts many people. Seniors at the local care centre looked forward to visits from our students, especially since many do not have regular visitors. This initiative also gave the residents a chance to provide a meaningful contribution to others. This project exposed children to the eight characteristics of Catholic identity by having a strong focus on humanness, community and sacramentality. This project also helped to prepare students to live as Christian leaders who promote the moral teachings of Jesus Christ.

 

Faith Leadership Team and Youth Ministry

In conjunction with youth ministry, Grade 8 and 9 students will get the opportunity to partake in a middle school faith day. This event allows students to grow in the Catholic faith and become leaders in their schools. This program has been allocated $4,000.

Testimonial 

We are grateful to the Red Deer Catholic Education Foundation for funding our second annual Grade 8 and 9 Faith Day. This event was held on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. The event was held at the Prairie Pavillion at Westerner Park.  We needed to move to this venue as St. Joseph’s was holding a tournament in their school that week.

Our students will be inspired by two remarkable speakers – APeX Ministry. APeX is two Catholic men (Brad Farmer and Gene Monterastelli) who have made it their lives’ work since 1996 to criss-cross North America sharing the Truth and Joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They have crafted a unique style (they call it “Christian Vaudeville”) that engages an audience and creates rapport through death-defying juggling, sketch comedy, and personal testimony. In other words, they are evangelists, they throw things at each other, and they are funny.

Here are some feedback gathered by the teachers who attended with the students.

  • “The Apex guys were really good. The event was fun. It was good that they added in some fun with the juggling but with a good faith message as well. Much better than a boring talk.” Josh K
  • “Apex was really funny and the audience involvement made it fun.” Camille
  • “Thank you for bringing us to Faith day. They were really fun, and it was also fun being there! It was nice seeing other schools there.” Christine
  • “It was entertaining to watch.” Alyanna
  • “I enjoyed being able to see my friends from other schools.” Eden
  • “It was very fun and I enjoyed how they taught us in a fun way.” Simon
  • “I really loved the comedy that came with the religious message. Really awesome!” Ashlee
  • “I really enjoyed my time there and a lot of hard work was put in.” Lily
  • “Something that I liked was being able to interact with other students from other schools. Also, it was nice being in a different environment and learning in a more interactive way.” Molly
  • “They were very funny and entertaining.” Cora
  • “I enjoyed meeting up with other schools.” Tommy
  • “I liked that the guys from APEX were funny while giving a good faith message at the same time.” David
  • “It was fun to be out of school in a different environment with our friends.” Madi
  • “I liked seeing all my friends from different schools. Also, the presenters were funny.” Jayden
  • “I enjoyed the messages hidden behind the awesome, funny acting stories and scenes.” Jordana
  • “I really appreciated the effort put into the faith day and I liked the interactiveness!” Ty

Holy Family School – Living the Faith Retreats

Grade 1 -5 students will get to experience retreats at Our Lady of Victory Camp to focus on building sacramental consciousness and awareness to care for God’s creation. This initiative has been allocated $4,000.

Testimonial

We were truly blessed this year to have Ryan and Daniel from Face2Face Ministries join us at Holy Family School. We had originally planned to have our grade retreats at Our Lady of Victory Camp but unfortunately, they were closed for renovations for our planned retreat time. However, God works in mysterious ways as we were able to call upon Face2Face Ministries to bring the retreat to us and as busy as they were, they were able to find time for us! They joined us on March 22, 2019 for a whole day where they brought our Catholic faith to life through music, keynote talks, activities, and prayer. The retreat that was comprised of whole school praise and worship as well as separate grade range focus sessions. The energy and enthusiasm that they brought to our school were palpable throughout the day.

 

Father Henri Voisin School – Servant Leadership

Grade 5 students will get the opportunity to be servant leaders in the school. Students will each take on a leadership role to serve the school community, through projects that align with authentic learning and the Eight Characteristics of Catholic Identity. This initiative has been allocated $1,000.

 

Testimonial:

One of our themes for this year was humanness. We strived to teach students that they have talents they can use to help others. Students were able to choose a leadership group where their talents would be showcased. The groups included one for faith, spirit, active living, school assistants, STEAM, and drama.

  • The faith group was responsible for leading prayer every Friday morning in the gathering area and during assemblies. They also raised money for the Ronald McDonald House with an ornament raffle at Christmas.
  • The spirit group picked theme days during the year for students and staff to dress up.
  • The school assistants helped with library pick-up, milk sales, bringing sand toys out during recess, and delivering hot lunch.
  • The STEAM team designed and organized math and science challenges for classes to do.
  • The active living group made led recess games.
  • The drama group led carolling at Christmas.

Students learned to give back to their community and that even at 10 years of age, they can make a difference in someone’s life. We talked with some of the grade 5 students about their experience with leadership and here is what they had to say; Student 1: Leadership is a lot of fun. We helped the community. It was nice to have options to decide, and we grew in teamwork. Student 2: We were helping our school to be better. Student 3: It was fun because of all the responsibilities we had. We got to show kids what they can do in the future and we could both reflect on the learning.

Maryview School – Faith Retreat for Grade 3-5 Students

Students will attend a one-day Faith Retreat to participate in activities including crafts, singing and bible study. This initiative has been allocated in $1,440.

Testimonial

This session was led by Jeannette Manser and Peter VanKampen (RDCRS youth ministry team) with high school students from their Edge Group. It was a full day of songs,
skits, teaching, prayer, games, peer mentoring and much more. The students were engaged and active participants for the whole day at St. Mary’s Parish Hall. This program supplemented and
enriched their individual faith journeys and school curriculum. Each student lived a day full of inspiration and faith-building activities.

Maryview School – Passionate Leaders

Grade 3-5 students who have leadership potential and excel in their studies will be invited by their teachers to take part in a variety of community activities with experts to develop a passion for an area of study. This could include students spending the day with faith leaders, newspaper reporters, engineers, architects, dignitaries, farmers, criminologists, scientists, bakers, etc. Also, students will get to choose a non-profit organization to work with, such as Medicine River Wildlife Centre, Ronald McDonald House, the Lending Cupboard, etc. This project has been given for $3,120 to use over two school years.

Maryview School

Testimonial

This program’s goal is to allow students with high potential and those achieving excellence to develop passions and leadership skills. It has become a highly desired program within our school. Through it, students have the opportunity to work with experts in different areas, go on field trips of interest, and lead the school in Social Justice projects. In these social justice projects, the students are involved in all aspects, from initial brainstorming to final decisions as to how the money will be spent. This program helps the students develop the skill of humanness since each student’s experience will be unique – the sessions they take part in are selected just for them, and no two students will be in all the same sessions. The funds have been used to pay for buses to take the students to places off-site (Kerry Wood Nature Centre, Red Deer College), pay admissions and program fees, and to pay for substitute teachers when the lead teacher must be away from her class.

Having completed one year with this project, we have seen immense growth in students in terms of their confidence and understanding of who they are. Students with high ability often feel “different” than others and unable to connect with their peers. This opportunity to be with other like-minded students is invaluable. Students know they are not alone in their ways of thinking.

Holy Trinity Catholic School – Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten Faith Resources

The school will implement introductory starter kits for the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes to assist teachers in helping students grow in their faith. In the kits, the lessons are geared towards discovery and exploration to connect students with the Eight Characteristics of Catholic Identity. This project has been given $265.

Holy Trinity Catholic School

Testimonial

  • Funding was used to purchase Allelu!, which is an early childhood program for Catholic children with innovations that make it easy to engage every child and build their faith.
  • Kindergarten classes have worked on learning the characteristic of Humanness by focusing on kindness and how we treat each other.
  • Our school goal “Allow students to have opportunities to experience humanness and sacramentality within our school building, as well as begin to share their understanding with the greater community” is being reached through this resource in this classroom through the mini-lessons that are being taught with it.
  • EA’s in this classroom lead students in a reflection or activity about our faith.
  • Students have been impacted through this because it is giving them exposure to concrete materials that they can use to explore their faith.

St. Francis of Assisi Middle School – NET Ministries Retreats

Grade 7 and 8 students will get the opportunity to participate in a three day retreat with NET Ministries. This event will expose students the love of Christ through activities, sessions and prayer. This project was given $2,150.

St. Patrick’s Community School – Faith Retreats

The school will offer four grade-specific retreats throughout the year. The Grade 6 -9 retreats will be with NET Ministries to engage students in a meaningful dialogue about their faith. The other retreats will be at Camp Kuriakos to give students the opportunity to explore God’s gift of nature and their own faith journey through games, skits, music and prayer. This initiative has been allocated $5,600.

Testimonial

  • This funding served students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 by enhancing Catholic education by igniting the faith in each of our students regardless of where they are in their personal faith journey.
  • School retreats bring the Catholic faith to life through music, keynote talks, activities, and prayer.
  • Elementary and Middle School students each had their own day of with Face2Face Ministries with the yearly theme of, “Purpose.”
  • Elementary students learned about how God has a purpose and a plan for each of us that far surpasses anything we could ever imagine for ourselves.
  • Leaders explored how students can stay close to God and live the awesome plan He has for them using their “GPS.”
  • Middle school students learned how to use the time God has given us “on purpose.”
  • Students considered how they use their time and were challenged to find a healthy balance by offering the truth that the joys in life are a gift from God, but are only a “free sample” of the actual joy and purpose that can be found in Him.
  • All students and staff were engaged in times of reflection, prayer, and community.

St. Teresa of Avila School – Bucket Filling for Jesus Brigade Retreat

The Bucket Filling for Jesus Brigade is a group of Grade 4 and 5 students who choose to be leaders in the school community to support mental, emotional and physical health initiatives. These students will get the opportunity to attend a retreat at Sacred Heart Parish. There will be a mass in the morning and the afternoon will be filled with training and planning sessions encompassing faith. This program has been allocated $900.

 

Testimonial

The ‘Bucket Filling for Jesus’ Leadership Club members chose to change their name to ‘Health Champions’ at the beginning of the school year. Though the name has changed, it did not shift the priority of the group but rather allowed for student voice. Our club members were encouraged and supported to grow in their faith journey through our offsite retreat, acts of service and leadership opportunities throughout the school. All students attended a Leadership Retreat early in the year at Sacred Heart Parish where they participated in faith-filled activities. The retreat focused on leadership qualities, conflict resolution, new games to share with students and food preparation.

Our Health Champions also worked hard to help our school counsellors promote ‘Food for Mood’ by leading classroom discussions about how to nourish our bodies so we are spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically healthy. Student Leaders have monthly commitments, one being to help at our monthly Bucket Filling Assemblies to create excitement by leading certificate recipients in with signs/pom poms. Their second monthly commitment is a job that requires them to demonstrate leadership skills around the school in a variety of ways, such as creating a bulletin board to promote healthy life choices, providing outdoor equipment for each grade to use during recess, helping our kindergarteners during lunch, organizing and running games at recess. Leaders model our virtues and promote these through their work in our school all year long. The funding from the Education Foundation was used for supplies/food for our off-site retreat at Sacred Heart, supplies for school activities and our Halloween candy exchange program thus far. Typically in the spring, we use the remainder of the money to purchase supplies for our outside PLAY program to encourage mentorship with our younger students.

A big thank you to the Education Foundation for supporting our programs at St. Teresa of Avila School!