Walkathon and Greek Olympics make a thundering return to STMC! |
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Message from the President |
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Easter is a time for reflection and renewal. I hope everyone had an opportunity to relax and re-energize as we now prepare for the final segment of our school year.
On April 6th the STMC Board announced that I had decided to retire when my current contract as President expires. I congratulate Mr. Steve Garland on his appointment as incoming President effective August 31st; and also congratulate the other incoming appointees to the Administrative team: Mr. Joe Adams as Principal, and Ms. Cassie Lauang and Mr. Ethan Shoemaker as Vice Principals. These strong internal appointments from within STMC faculty are a testament to past and current leadership who have focused on mentorship and staff development. I am confident that with your support the leadership team will continue to advance excellent opportunities for students and staff to LEARN, LEAD, and SERVE.
It has been a privilege to serve as President and I look forward to supporting the transition of leadership in my final 4 and a half months at STMC. I was attracted to STMC because of its faith foundation, mission focus and values based culture. I have been inspired by the vision, and dedication of all the staff; the achievements of our students and the commitment and hard work of our entire community of parents, alumni, volunteers and donors.
As one demonstration of our commitment to 2-way communication and to ongoing improvement we sent out a survey to all Parents on April 25 with a request to submit it by May 6. This is your opportunity to provide us with constructive feedback. I urge you to complete the survey and I thank you in advance for providing input. The survey link is provided here for your convenience if you have not already responded.
Thanks again for the trust you place in us to partner with you in the development of our Knights. I also want to express gratitude for the active engagement and generosity of our parents, volunteers, alumni, donors and partners. We could not provide excellence, or advance our priorities without the support of our entire community.
April 25th is Volunteer Appreciation week, so a special shout out to all the volunteers including our volunteer board.
Lastly, congratulations to Darrell Hall and John Spanjers on receiving a 40 year service recognition at the Catholic Educators Conference!
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Live Jesus in our Hearts... Forever!
Dianne Doyle
President, STMC
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May
6: Mother's Day Mass and Tea
16: Spring Knight of Music
19: Graduation Mass
20: Founder's Day (School closed)
23: Victoria Day (School closed)
31: New Parent Knight
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JAZZ BAND
The bands have been working hard and doing some great work at Festivals these past several weeks! On February 25, our JAZZ KNIGHTS 'B' band participated in the Vancouver Kiwanis Jazz Band Festival at the VSO School of Music in downtown Vancouver. They played very well and achieved a GOLD Standard for their performance! They also had an excellent workshop with renowned bassist, educator and clinician Jodi Proznick, watched a few other groups' performances, and received an invitation to the prestigious national "MusicFest Canada" in Niagra Fall, Ontario, for 2022 or 2023.
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Not to be outdone, JAZZ KNIGHTS 'A' also recently received an invitation to "MusicFest Canada" for their earlier performance at the Surrey Schools jazz Festival. In addition, Jazz 'A' tenor sax player Cameron DeWith received an award for "Outstanding Social Responsibility" from that festival!
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CONCERT BAND
On April 11th, our SENIOR CONCERT BAND participated in the Vancouver Kiwanis Concert Band Festival held at the Vincent Massey Theatre. They also played well and received a very respectable SILVER Standard for their performance! One of their selections, Arturo Marquez's amazing "Danzon No. 2", was conducted by one of our fine music teacher candidates, Ms. Sofia Avelino. Our students also received an excellent clinic by former University of Victoria Music Director, Dr. Jerry King.
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STMC Sr. Concert Band at Kiwanis Concert Band Festival |
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This weekend (April 28-May 1), our Sr. Concert Band and Jazz Knights 'A' Band, along with our choirs, are participating in the excellent Whistler Con Brio Music Festival where they will receive adjudicated performances, workshops, rehearse and play in a Massed Band with hundreds of young musicians from the 21 participating schools from across BC and Alberta!
Coming up on May 19th, our GRADE 8 CONCERT BAND and JAZZ KNIGHTS 'B' will be going on a performance tour to St. Michael's, St. Francis de Sales, and Our Lady of Mercy Elementary Schools to introduce the young students to band and the instruments.
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We hope to see many of you at our SPRING MUSIC KNIGHT featuring all our Bands and most of our Choirs on Monday, May 16th, as well as at our exciting JAZZ KNIGHT featuring both of our Jazz Knights bands and Vocal Jazz groups on Saturday, June 4th! Both events will take place in the STMC Gymnasium, more details to come soon!
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SCIENCE
Any students interested in keeping up to date on extra-curricular science opportunities is encouraged to join the Google Classroom where things are posted. Code: xtyotzj
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Student on the Beamlines
Our Students on the Beamlines Team is hard at work preparing their project, to be conducted virtually in mind May. The team will be using X-Rays to study the changes that occur in Lithium-Ion batteries after repeated charging. They have been working with Tesla to design their experiment and secure samples (through STMC alumni Andrew Pires). They have also been working with Burnaby battery company Nano One for advice and samples. On April 21st, Nanon One’s Chief Technical Officer, Stephen Campbell visited the school to talk with the team about how batteries work and to offer advice on the team’s planned experiment.
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Stephen Campbell talks batteries with our team in the physics lab |
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Advanced CanSat Team
Our advanced CanSat team is away this weekend, taking part in the Canadian CanSat competition in Lethbridge, Alberta. The team has designed their CanSat to look for ionizating radiation during descent and hope to relate it to the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Over the past weeks they have done significant testing of their design. This morning they completed their pre-launch presentation with their CanSat set for launch on Saturday.
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NIGHT OF KNIGHTS
We are cautiously optimistic we will be able to host the STMC Night of Knights Awards Ceremony once again at STMC. The event is scheduled for 6:30pm on Monday, June 13th. The awards portion of the evening will take place in the gym with a reception to follow in the cafeteria/courtyard. More details to follow in the May newsletter but please note the new date and time.
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ULTIMATE
The Ultimate season began in early April with our Grade 8, Junior and Senior Ultimate teams hitting the field at locations around the Lower Mainland. The senior team has had some good early tournament results, finishing in the top four of the Myles Winch Invitational, the VUL 5 on 5, and Pull for Parkinson's. The junior team finished third at Pull for Parkinson's and the grade 8 team has been getting stronger each week. All teams are hard at work getting ready for the zone tournaments in the first few weeks of May, with hopes of competing at provincials in late May.
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Grade 12 Gabe Piano looks for open cutters against a zone defence against Burnaby Mountain earlier in the season |
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St Thomas More Collegiate is hosting our Annual Summer Basketball Camp designed to introduce players to the fundamentals of basketball in a fun and competitive atmosphere. It is open to boys and girls going into grades 3-8. Dates are August 22nd to the 26th, 2022 from 9am until noon. See link for brochure and registration details.
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GRADE 8 GIRLS
Congratulations to Demicah Arnaldo, Class of ’26, on being named to the Gilas Pilipinas Woman’s basketball national team selection training pool. The final roster will be selected at the end of training as the team prepares for the FIBA Under-16 Woman’s Asian Championship in Amman, Jordan at the end June. Demicah will look to join her national team in Los Angeles in May for a chance to make it onto the final roster in June.
As a coach who has had to privilege of coaching some of the best point guards this province has seen, I believe Demicah has the skills, talent, drive, and character necessary to be an amazing player. An opportunity like this one is not only well deserved but is one that will positively shape Demicah as both an athlete as well as a young adult. I’m excited for her and wish her all the best.
- Coach Winston Brown
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VOCATIONS VISIT
Last month on Tuesday March 8th, STMC students and staff had an opportunity to visit both Westminster Abbey and St. Claire's Monastery for a vocations visit. This was a very rewarding experience as we had the opportunity to listen to men and women who have dedicated their life to faith and service. Our next visit will be in the fall of 2022.
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Plant a Row - Grow a Row
STMC has been a strong community supporter of the Plant A Row – Grow A Row initiative for many years. This year’s give away event in support of the initiative is just around the corner.
Please save the date for our ‘Plant A Row-Grow A Row’: DRIVE BY event!
When: Sunday, May 1st, 2022, 11am to 1 pm
Where: STMC school parking lot | 7450 12th Avenue, Burnaby
Please join us at our ‘Plant a Row - Grow a Row’ DRIVE BY event! Simply drive into the school parking lot and our volunteers will direct you to the curbside, near the gym, for garden giveaways, seeds, vegetable transplants, containers of plants and potting soil to get your garden growing!
We gratefully accept cash donations, and donations of non-perishable food items for ‘Plant a Row-Grow a Row’, Ryan’s Rainbow Emergency Food Outreach in Burnaby, and Union Gospel Mission in New Westminster.
Thank you to Brian Minter and Claude LeDoux for plant donations, the Compost Council of Canada, Premium Soils, and local suppliers for garden items for our event.
Please Note:
Our ‘Plant A Row-Grow A Row’ food collection 2022 season starts each Sunday, June 12th – October 2nd, 8:30- 9:15 am, at the front entrance of St. Thomas More Collegiate.
Each Sunday we collect fresh garden grown or store bought fresh or non-perishable food for donation.
We’re looking forward to seeing you May 1st, 11am – 1pm, for our ‘Plant A Row-Grow A Row’ DRIVE-BY event!
God bless,
The Plant A Row – Grow A Row Team
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SPEECH NIGHT
Speech night will be commencing after a 2 year hiatus and will be on May 5th at 5:30pm here at STMC. If you'd like to come and see our students at all grade levels compete for gold, silver and bronze please come and support!
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MOTHER'S DAY PLANT SALE PICK UP
The STMC Parents Association ended their Mother's Day plant sale earlier this week. For all those who ordered online, please be reminded that the pickup date is Friday, May 6 at the STMC parking lot.
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HOUSE OLYMPICS
On April 28, 2022, we had our first annual House Olympics! The day started with our Grade 11 and 12 advisory leaders who lead their advisory groups through tying togas and a house cheer. We then moved into the gym where multiple houses entered with rowdy applause, cheering, and drums! In the gym, our Student Council organized numerous events including a house cheer, whack-a-mole, trivia, and running through a punch wall that was largely dominated by the houses currently in last place. A consistent strong showing through all the events by Dublin lead to huge win that will surely push them up the rankings.
Congratulations to Dublin for taking the win!
A special shoutout goes out to some of our mascots: Marcus Malinowski, Suamy Reyes, Varun Kothary, and Andre Dayo for dressing up and keeping the energy high!
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GREEK OLYMPICS
The return of Greek Olympics had the entire school buzzing! School spirit was at a high after the completion of House Olympics and the grades were ready to represent. The Grade 11's started strong, and our rookies, the Grade 8's and 9's were really trying to compete cheering very loudly for all the students that were taking part in the events. However, at the end of the day, the Grade 12's were prepared to dominate. They worked together, cheered loud, and supported one another as they won event after event after event! For next year, the competition is already brewing as the Grade 10's devastated by their last place finish, and the Grade 11's, feeling slighted in second, look to redeem themselves.
All in all, it was a wonderful day of classic STMC spirit and we are extremely grateful to be able to celebrate our school culture.
Congrats to Grad 2022! This year's Greek Olympics will surely go down in school history.
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WALKATHON
Thank you to all the students who took part in the Walkathon this year and for all the volunteers that worked at our checkpoints. The walk was much needed after the high energy of House Olympics and the weather definitely cooperated.
We have currently raised $24,147 which will definitely be enough for a new school mascot costume and concrete foosball and ping pong tables for the courtyard. We will keep our fundraiser open for the next two weeks, so keep on fundraising!
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Over spring break, the New West Royals A1 ice hockey team went to Osoyoos, BC to compete in the Tier 3 Provincials. They fought hard and won Gold!! Congrats to Aaron Sutherland and the NW Royals A1 Team! |
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We'd love to hear about all the wonderful and exciting things in which our Knights are engaged! If you have something you would like to share on our social media feeds or in the monthly newsletter send an email to communications@stmc.bc.ca
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