THANK YOU to everyone who has shared their blessings to help us raise over $100,000 so far towards our VERY IMPORTANT PLAYGROUND CAMPAIGN! Our #1 Fundraising Team has a message for YOU...and FOR EVERYONE who can help us raise the remaining $200,000 we need by January 1st! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

• Tuesday, December 6th - Parents in Prayer (details below); LAST CALL for Coat & Shoe Donations!
• Wednesday, December 7th - Coffee with Mr. Cruess for JK & K Parents, 8:30am - Cafeteria - click here to RSVP by Monday night!
• Wednesday, December 7th - Feast of St. Ambrose - Ambrose wears House shirt.
• Thursday, December 8th - School Mass: Feast of the Immaculate Conception 8:30am
• Friday, December 9th - SANTA SHOP! (See below for details!)

• Comet Sports! Check the schedule here for your team.

• Club Activities this Week! - Click here!

PLANNING AHEAD...

• Tuesday, December 12th - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (see info below)
• December 12th, 13th and 14th - MIDDLE SCHOOL EXAMS (Middle School students ONLY have 12:30pm Dismissal. ASE is available.)
• Friday, December 16th - Lessons & Carols Performance 11:30, Church
• Friday, December 16th - Early Dismissal at 12:30pm, NO ASE, NO LUNCH, NO AFTERSCHOOL ACTIVITIES
• Monday, December 19 - Christmas Break Begins! NO SCHOOL through Jan. 2nd
• Tuesday, January 3 - Students return. Classes Resume.

Parents in Prayer - Month of DECEMBER Prayers

ASE Reminder

ASE (After School Enrichment) is available M-F, 3-6pm for all of our St. Benedict Families. It is staffed by Mrs. Autry, Mr. Clary and Ms. King.  If you are not regularly scheduled, but would like to reserve a spot for your child, please email Mrs. Autry at pautry@saintbenedictschool.org by 9am daily, so we can confirm availability. 

Thank You for a Wonderful Day of Giving & Service!

I'd like to thank all of our families for the amazingly generous response to our #GivingTuesday campaign drive, and express our gratitude to everyone who shared the information about our campaign and spread the word to family and friends! We couldn't have been as successful without your help!! Please know that the campaign for our new playground continues - we still have $200K to raise to get to our goal! Click here for an important update on our playground!

We were also able to celebrate this past Tuesday as our Day of Service, which allowed each of our classes to give back to our school, parish and local community through a variety of service projects. It was a wonderful day and we were all blessed to participate! We...

👍raked the school garden

👍 picked up debris around our beautiful Church and neighborhood

👍made lap blankets for our friends in the memory care facility at Brookdale

👍created a spiritual bouquet 💐 for our foundresses @osbbristowva 

👍made Christmas cards for buddies at VCU's Children's Hospital, and

👍 made prayer cards for our friends at Richmond Friends of the Homeless that will go into our lunch bags for them in December. 

Upcoming in December

I encourage parents to keep a close eye on the school calendar the next few week, since we have a lot of important and exciting events coming up including: Parents in Prayer, Coffee w/the Principal for JK and K, Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (the patronal feast day for our nation), Santa Shop, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Middle School Exams, Lessons & Carols, and a variety of individual class activities. We especially hope that all parents will be able to join us for Lessons & Carols on December 16 at 11:30am. This program of Scriptural lessons and Advent carols is a beautiful way to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord at Christmas.

Celebrating Father Armando Herrera!

We are very excited to announce that Deacon Armando Herrera, who spent his pastoral year at St. Benedict with us, will be ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, December 10 at 10:30am at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. His first Mass will be celebrated at St. Benedict Church on Sunday, December 11 at 11:00am. Please keep Deacon Armando in your prayers as he prepares for this blessed vocation and we hope you can join us for his first Mass at St. Benedict!

DAY OF SERVICE COLLECTIONS!

TOMORROW IS THE DEADLINE! Please send in gently used coats and shoes for our service projects with Coats for Kids and Soles 4 Souls! You can drop them off in MORNING CARLINE or send in with your student!

Parents in Prayer is an opportunity to pray monthly for our students, faculty and staff. We meet the first Tuesday of each month from 8:15-9:00am in St. Anselm Hall. Our next gathering is Tuesday, December 6. All are welcome! 

On Monday, December 12th we will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 

An altar will be set up to honor Our Lady in the garden at the front of the school, weather permitting.

Our classes will visit the altar throughout the day to offer prayers and flowers in honor of Our Lady.

Want to learn more about Our Lady's miraculous appearance to St. Juan Diego? Click here!

Santa Shop is Coming!! THIS Friday, December 9th!

Santa Shop is a fun day that our younger students can shop with a middle school buddy to find Christmas presents for the family! Everybody LOVES our Santa Shop!! 

Parents - Clean out your gently used or new items around the house and donate them to our Santa Shop so our little shoppers have presents to purchase!

NEW THIS YEAR! Gift limit!

We need to limit the number of gifts that each student can purchase to 5 this year, to ensure that all grades (JK through 5th) have a selection of gifts to choose from. If your immediate family (parents & siblings) is larger than 5, then you may purchase additional gifts for immediate family members; we just ask that you donate as many items as possible to help ensure that we have enough gifts available for everyone. Please remember to include the name of all persons to receive a gift on your student's Santa shop list that will be sent home with your student, so the names on the gift tags will match.

Donations will be accepted through Wednesday, December 7th.

Items to donate should be gently used or new (clothing must be new):

candles, ornaments, decorations, new ties, new scarves, new socks, new gloves, new

hats, books, jewelry, card games, dice games, board games, puzzles, toys, kitchen

wares, craft items, craft kits, stationary, picture frames, drawing items (pens, crayons,

markers, coloring books, sketch books), play balls, and any item that might make a nice

gift for a child or adult.

Other items to donate would include wrapping paper, tissue paper, gift bags, sticker

name tags, ribbon to wrap gifts, and tape.

Please record all volunteer hours in FACTs before the Christmas break. Volunteer opportunities for the second half of the year will be posted after the Christmas break.

• Click here to go to Parentsweb on our website.
• On the left-hand sidebar, click on FAMILY.
• In the center of the page, click ADD+ in the SERVICE HOURS section to enter your PTO Hours.
• Please be sure to do this right after you volunteer for an event so you don't lose track of your PTO hours.

Update on Middle School Youth Ministry: This coming Wednesday, December 7, the St. Benedict Middle School Youth Group will embark on a trip to St. Francis Home to help them decorate their facility for Christmas. We will meet in the St. Benedict Church parking lot at 5:30pm on December 7 and shuttle over to St. Francis Home. We will be back at St. Anselm Hall by 7:45pm. Pick up will be at 8:00pm at St. Anselm Hall. 

You must have a completed registration form and must sign up through our Sign Up Genius to attend. For a copy of the registration form, please contact Ben Fleser at bfleser@saintbenedictparish.org.

To RSVP, click the link here: https://tinyurl.com/4bfm2txw

Families - whenever you are in need of basic school information, please check our website! We try to keep everything you need to know easily accessible there. Most information is located under our SCHOOL LIFE tab, but here are some ready links:

Calendar

PARENTS WEB 

FACTS

Past Issues of Newsletter

Uniform Guidelines

School Handbook

School Supplies List

Summer Reading & Assignments

Forms

Faculty & Staff Contacts

Online School Directory (log into ParentsWeb, select Directory)

And some other helpful info (non-website)...

Need to book Afterschool or Morning Care?

Need to pick up your child early from school?

Is grandma or someone else picking up your child?

Email Mrs. Autry: pautry@saintbenedictschool.org or call 804-254-8850

Tia Lukanova - School Counselor

And don't forget to follow us on Social Media!

Instagram

Facebook

Introducing Yay Lunch’s Give Thanks Gift Card Sweepstakes

Every time you order Yay Lunch, you’ll be automatically entered to win a $300 gift card — and you’ll get to select one teacher to receive a $300 gift card, too.

Yay Lunch is giving thanks for you! From November 14 until December 11, every time you order, you’ll automatically be entered to receive a $300 gift card. And that’s not all: Each winner will get to pay it forward and gift a teacher with a $300 gift card, too.

You can also enter by nominating someone to win a Yay Lunch gift card — which secures an entry for you and your nominee, too. You can nominate as many people, as many times as you want!

Two winners will be drawn once a week (that’s eight winners + eight teachers total!), and each entry will be eligible to win throughout the entire promotion period.

You can learn more about the sweepstakes here, and order Yay Lunch + submit a nomination to enter!

Executive Order Two requires that as of January 24, 2022 parents make the decision about whether their students wear masks in school.

ONLY COME TO SCHOOL IF….

• Your temperature is under 100.4 degrees.
• You do NOT have other symptoms of COVID-19, without an alternative diagnosis. Other symptoms include chills, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
• Please notify the school about a positive COVID test or possible exposure by sending an email addressed to pautry@saintbenedictschool.org, mmeadows@saintbenedictschool.org and scruess@saintbenedictschool.org.

Helpful resources for our families:

School Covid Guidance as of April 2022

COVID-19 Testing Information

Free At-Home COVID Tests

Richmond/Henrico Testing

Chesterfield Testing

How to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine

Richmond Health Department