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May 2021 E-News
A mission project of the
Southern Illinois District - LCMS
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2020-2021 School Theme:
Walking Together In Christ
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Happy Spring! What a JOY it is to report to you that we have been OPEN and IN CLASS all year so far! God is GREAT! Also, how exciting to tell you that on May 20, we will be graduating our TENTH class of 8th graders! WOW! What a TREMENDOUS BLESSING FROM God to be able to watch this group of 8th graders walk the stage.
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Many of these students came to us 11 years ago in our Pre-K3 class! They will join the other 141 Unity graduates and move on to high school this fall. We have had 76 of these 141 finish high school already, and the remaining 65 are working hard in various high schools in the area. We have had 100% of our 8th graders graduate from High School, which is a statistic we are VERY
proud of! GO, EAGLES! Many have gone on to college and trade schools and some have graduated and are into their careers. Others are serving in our US military. Unity has been making a difference in the lives of these students and families since 2003, and we thank YOU for your support to keep this
momentum going!!! THANK YOU!!!
Click here to see the Share in the Miracle Video highlighting many of
our graduates and their stories!!
Click here to see the mission and ministry of Unity School!
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Thank you for
your Support!
The Zoom Call
was lots of fun!
We are at $165,000 towards our $250,000 Goal!!
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We had a great time on the SITM ZOOM Call and if
you were ON the call,
thank you for your support!
If you missed it, you can watch the replay of it here
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And if you still want to give, you can donate online: Donate here
Or mail a check (see end of newsletter for details)
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Chapel Speakers
We are so grateful for John “Sparky” Hemenway from Camp Wartburg for
coming to lead chapel. The students always enjoy his FUN music!!!
We also enjoyed a message from Pastor Johnathan Craig Lewis from
St. Matthew Lutheran Church, in St. Louis, MO,
and Pastor Doug Nicely from Jerusalem Lutheran in Collinsville.
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John “Sparky” Hemenway -------- Pastor Lewis ----------- Pastor Nicely
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In our Belong to Jesus Time, our students lead every Thursday.
Here is Ms. Hamrick's Kindergarten class telling the "Resurrection Story."
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Below is Mr. Wiesbrock's 6th grade class acting out the story of
Peter and John helping the lame man.
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Congregation Visits for April
I enjoyed speaking at the LWML group at Zion in Belleville this month. What a FUN bunch of ladies! So enthusiastic about serving God and wanting to help our school!
They will do a service project for us next year. Thank you, ladies!!
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I also had fun speaking at Good Shepherd School in Collinsville for their 2 chapel services. I talked about Proverbs 3:27 "Do not withhold good from those to whom
it is due, when it is in your power to act" and how we can lift each other’s heavy weights and burdens and how their school can help Unity School! What a great
group of students they have there.
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April was a busy month!
April 22 -
Happy Earth Day
from Pre-K 3
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We thank Mr. Greg Waters, who is the area operations manager for
US Steel in Granite City, IL, for coming to speak to our middle schoolers!
He gave an awesome presentation about hard work, setting goals, and
faith in God. We so appreciate his time and energy! And we thank
Mr. Glen Wildermuth for setting up our speakers.
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Our 2nd graders used
geometric shapes
to make these
cool creations
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Our Eagles did great at their first Track Meet of the season
bringing home LOTS of ribbons!!
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Praying over the SITM letters that went out in April |
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So proud of our 3rd Quarter Honor Roll and High Honor Roll students!
Way to go, Eagles!!
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Happy Birthday to these APRIL Birthday students!
They enjoyed their Birthday Bags, so thanks to all our donors!
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Our wonderful Principal, Rev. Dickerson, celebrated his birthday!
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We also celebrated Mrs. Gully’s birthday, who is our AMAZING Administrative Assistant! She holds this place together in so many ways.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Gully!
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THREE CHEERS FOR OUR VOLUNTEERS! |
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Thanks to these FUN volunteers who hand-addressed over 2,000 envelopes for our Share in the Miracle campaign AND stuffed the envelopes! We thank: Alice Moore,
Bev LeMaster, Carol Knight, David and Rhonda Leach, Diane Hoerchler,
Donna Sprengel, Ednorleatha Long, Jackie Haberl, Jean Kirk, Kathy Bohnet,
Lisa Johnston, Luci Washburn, Margo Wolf, Marilyn Snider, Mary Neher, Nancy Radentz, Ruth Bush, Sandy Roessler, Susan Stemler, Teresa Hancock, Toni Perrin,
Wanda Gross and Zenda Burns. YOU ALL ROCK!!!!
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Mary Neher sometimes gets OUT of the library and tends the flower beds for us. Thanks for your Green Thumb, Mary! |
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The library ladies finally finished entering the 10,776 book titles and so Mary Neher hosted a cookie party for us to celebrate this amazing feat! Thanks to all the ladies who typed during this year to restore the library system online! |
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Donors make the DIFFERENCE!!!
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These ladies from St. Paul’s Lutheran in Columbia, IL, have just been a HUGE help to us this month! They donated these shelves AND helped us assemble them! The library ladies were excited to get 2 of them for book storage and other staff members got the rest. Thank you, ladies!
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We thank Rev. Doug Nicely from Jerusalem Lutheran in Collinsville and his sweet wife, Vicki, who NEVER lets him come to Unity empty-handed! Thanks for more school supplies, lots of books, fun stickers and snacks for Birthdays! We appreciate you!! |
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Our picnic tables in the garden area were in need of repair, and so Jacki & Gene Harbel and Marilyn and Paul Snider of St. Paul’s in Columbia, IL, bought us 2 new tables! Thank you, sweet families, for your support of our students! They love being able to sit outside on nice days and study. |
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We thank the donor you brought us these hygiene kit bags! Thank you! |
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Wish to donate?
LOTS of ways to help us!!!
You can donate online by
going to
www.unityesl.org
Or you can.....
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Do you have any STOCK you wish to donate to Unity??
We'll take it!!! We have several safe and easy ways to transfer your stock to us, so just call me, Nancy Stallard, at
618-874-6605 or email: Nstallard@unityesl.org
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Thrivent is here to HELP!!!
If you are a Thrivent member, you can help us in 2 ways!!!
1. Apply for an Action Team Grant
to apply for an Action Team Grant. Every Thrivent member has TWO grants a year. If you don’t use them, you will LOSE them! Some ideas would be books for our library, bookshelves for teachers' rooms, more outdoor playtime equipment (jump ropes, skip ropes, soccer goals, sidewalk chalk), a plan to beautify our playground asphalt top and paint “games” on it like 4 square, hop scotch, etc., beautify our garden area with picnic benches and landscaping.
2. Thrivent Choice Dollars
Remember, you can apply your Thrivent Choice Dollars to Unity! To do that, simply go to www.thrivent.com and scroll down and click on “Generosity”
Click on “Direct Choice Dollars” and find us at “Unity Lutheran Christian Elementary School.”
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Join AmazonSmile
and get free money for Unity! Whoo-hooo!!!
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You can still shop Amazon, just log into your Amazon Smile account first and they give Unity .5% of every purchase you make! We can generate a LOT of money for Unity for FREE!!!
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Log onto Smile.Amazon.com.
- Click get started to create an account.
- Type in Unity Lutheran Christian Elementary School, East St. Louis. & we pop up.
- You then click on the link to save the charity.
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Just log into smile.amazon.com to make your purchases. It is the same as logging into Amazon.com, but if you don't log into smile first, your purchases won't count toward Unity.
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Our staff spotlight this month falls on our wonderful Pre-K4 teacher, Miss Keyera Dickerson, who is Rev. Dickerson's daughter. She started teaching in 2011 at Unity, after receiving her degree from SWIC. She says she loves teaching at Unity because “We get to teach our students about the love of Jesus as well as focus on their academics. At Unity we not only get to minister to our students but also their family as well. For most of our students, Unity is the only place they get to hear about Jesus.” She loves teaching Pre-K because she daily sees the joy that her students get when they learn something new.
She loves to teach them God’s Word and also taught each student to sign his or her name using sign language!
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Click here for a cute video:
Keyera’s favorite Bible passage
is Psalm 23, and she believes
Unity is important to this
community because we are making
a difference in the lives of our students and their families. She thanks God every day for generous donors and their families whose support gives our students
a chance to be successful in life.
Click here for Ms. Dickerson's Video:
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To donate, please make checks out to "Unity Lutheran School"
and mail them to
Questions? Call us at 618-874-6605 or Email Nancy Stallard at Nstallard@unityesl.org
😊 All donations are TAX-DECUCTIBLE 😊
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We're Now on Facebook and Instagram!
For regular updates on activities at school.
Just click the links above for Instagram or Facebook.
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