Come join us for a FREE family fun event on Sunday, November 23 anytime between 10:00 am - 2:00 pm in the St. Teresa School Cafeteria. There will be family craft-making, face painting, food & drink, attendance prizes and more as we celebrate the beginning of the Advent season! 

Attendees are encouraged to bring a canned good or two for the local food pantry. If you would like to volunteer to help or have any questions, please contact Lizzie Lehde at (618) 593-1654 or [email protected]. Hope to see you there!

St. Teresa School

• Each Monday of Advent except December 8, the students will go to the gym for the lighting of the Advent wreath and an Advent prayer service. On December 9, there will be a wreath-lighting ceremony before the Penance service.
• On Fridays December 5 and 12, the students may have a non-uniform day if they donate $1 each of those days to the Anne Marie Fraser Foundation.
• Each class will be given a paper heart to decorate with a theme for their class.
• Age-appropriate activities will be given to each teacher to use in their class during Advent.

Thank you to everyone who made our fall Book Fair a big success!! We earned $2,300 in FREE books for the library! Thanks to all the parents, grandparents, and students who volunteered to bring the Kingdom of Books to life!

Gracias,

Mrs. Fries

Thanks to everyone for their support of the Everything Under the Sun sale. We netted $1,900 for teacher/staff projects and needs. Thank you so much to parents, parishioners,and students for all of their help and generous donations.

Thank you,

Nilufer Fries and Kerry Maguire

We're doing it again! 

It's time to share some joy! 

After great prior success, we are going to Share the Joy again!

What is Share the Joy? Well, everyone brings about $5.00 or so and we get into cars and go around town paying for others food or drink orders. There are a lot of (*free) acts of kindness we can do too!...

Last time, we had a lot of shocked recipients. Some just stood there; speechless....

It goes to show you how a simple act of kindness can mean so much!

For instance, one of the meals we purchased on our last outing, was for a woman who stopped us and told us that her house just burned down the other day. With tears in her eyes, she told us that we have no idea just how much that act of kindness meant to her.

We all had goose bumps....

You just never know how important an act of compassion can be to someone else who may be having a bad day

or going through a difficult time in their life.

So, if you haven't joined us before when we go "Joy Riding", please consider going with us this time.

It's an amazing and rewarding experience!

Sunday November 23

Let's meet in the church parking lot 

at 2:00 pm. 

We will return around 4:00 pm.

Please call if you'd like to join us! Claire Donato at 444-6045

The Bethlehem Journey 2014

Welcome to The Bethlehem Journey, an interactive hands-on experience for you to walk through the city of Bethlehem during the time of Christ's birth. Your family will experience what it was like to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem encountering Roman Guards, wisemen, shepherds, angels, the markets in Bethlehem, and the Christ child laying in a manger.

Please note that much of the time will be spent outdoors on a mulched trail, please dress accordingly. Don't forget to stop for hot chocolate and homemade cookies at the end of your evening.

Admission is completely free. The Donato's plan to go Friday, December 5 at 7:00 pm if anyone would like to join us! We go every year, and it's amazing! It's a great way to truly experience what happened and be a part of it!

Dear Parents,

Student Council will be selling Santagrams from December 1 -12.A Santagram is a special note attached to a candy cane delivered from one student to another; they are $0.50 each. Santagrams will be delivered at the end of the day on December 19.

All grades are able to purchase the Santagrams and they may send them to anyone in the school, including the ECC Pre-K Center. Students in grades 3-8 will have the opportunity to purchase the Santagrams at lunch during the two weeks. Students in grades PreK-2 will have the Santagrams sent home with them. If they would like to purchase them, they need to return them filled out, with the money, to their teacher.

The funds raised by selling the Santagrams will be donated to the Belleville community. Thanks for your help!

                                  Student Council

EXAMPLE:       To: Sarah (5D)

From: Julie (PK-M)

Thanks for being a great friend!

For The Ladies Of Perpetual Help

Annual Christmas Party

Where: Elks Lodge #664 

             9480 Old Lincoln Trail, Fairview Heights

When:  December 2, 2014 from 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

             Dinner served promptly at 6:30 pm

Cost:    $16.00 per person (includes dinner and tip) 

             * Prepays only *

Activities: Secret Santa's are revealed, Rob Your Neighbor gift exchange (please bring a $10 gift if you want to join in the fun)

RVSP:   By November 24 to Kara Brandt 257-2212

 Absolutely no reservations accepted after date listed above.

The holidays are fast approaching and with your support there are 3 easy ways to earn free money for our school.

Schnuck's eScrip card:  if you have one use it each time you check out just hand it to the cashier before using coupons and paying.  If you don't have a card, please send Mary Ellen Ache an email for one to be sent home or stop by the customer service desk at Schnuck's and pick one up.  Schnuck's has donated $1,719.55 Jan-Sept this year.  The more we shop the more we earn up to 3%.  So please take a few minutes to sign-up or remember to use your card each time, even if you only shop at Schnuck's occasionally it all helps!

Farmer's Market:  Every time you shop at either Belleville location just tell them you are from St. Teresa as you check out they keep track of all of our purchases and send us checks yearly. 

Dollars for Tigers:  This is the  program where we sell gift certificates to hundred's of retailers (more than 40 in stock regularly) who give us a 1.5-20% percent back.  A few retailers (see order form) offer smaller denominatios for the holiday's, but they are in limited supply so order soon!  An order form is in the white envelope and a complete list of all retailers can be found at www.glscrip.com/, please note as Christmas approaches we will be ordering weekly.  Gift certificates will be sold the last day of our school week in the gym and after the 5:00 pm, 9:00 am & 11:00 am Masses each weekend.

If you have any questions please call or email Mary Ellen Ache 234-0238, [email protected] or Julie Mastroianni 277-1678, [email protected]

Save the Date!

St. Teresa Teacher's Trivia Night

Friday, January 16, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Reservations (tables of 8) will be accepted starting December 1

Click Here for More Info!
 

Excitement is building as details are falling in place  for the 15th Annual PTO Dinner Auction on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at Fischer's Restaurant. Please be sure to like our Facebook Page, St. Teresa School Dinner Auction  to keep up to date on information! 

Joint committee meeting are held at 8:30 am at the Pie Pantry downtown Belleville. Please join us to discuss details and ensure this years auction is a success! Future meetings will be held on December 13, 2014 as well as every Saturday in January 2015. Thus, January 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31.

Volunteers are what make the auction the great event that it is and we look forward to seeing you there!  Many more details to follow!

BASKET HELP:  The Dinner Auction is just around the corner and we are in need of basket donations. You can put together a themed basket yourself, or donate money and we will do the shopping for you! There will be lots of sales during the holiday season, so this is a great time to browse and get a good deal. Donations can be left in the front office. We greatly appreciate your help!
 

Parents and Grandparents,

We would love to have you as guest readers in the library for grades Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd. The sign-up is online with Volunteer Spot. Please click on this link:

Save Time. Plan online with VolunteerSpot Today!

Login in with your email and create a personal password. Then choose your student's class and select which dates you would like to read. Volunteer Spot will send you an e-mail reminder before your selected date.

See you soon in the library! Gracias!

November

 21 - Holiday Game Night

 24 - PTO

 25 - Lip Sync

Remember!

• Take a moment to click on the links in red. If you cannot open the links, please click on the "Can't open the links? Click here" located above this newsletter. Thanks!
• Purchase your  Dollars For Tigers certificates after Mass.
• Did you know this newsletter is also on the Parish Website?
• You can always find the latest news at  The School Website.