St. Louis Catholic School Newsletter

October 22, 2021 Dear St. Louis Families, Thank you for helping to make our annual Hawk-tober such a special one. Our 5K & Fun Run this year had its largest number of participants in the eight years that we’ve been doing this. That is a testimony to our wonderful community! I hope that you and your families had a great time and that you enjoyed the Pit Stop which was a new feature this year. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Mrs. Carlson and Mrs. Roman who chaired this event and helped make it such a special one. What a way to help celebrate our 65 years in Catholic education! Looking ahead I want to share a couple of changes. The first is a calendar change, because Bishop Burbidge has granted the diocesan schools a “Bishop's day off” which must be used before Christmas—St. Louis will use our “Bishop’s Day” for preschool-8th grade on November 29th. There will be no school for students on this day. The second change is actually an amendment to our travel quarantine for international travel in our opening plan. We will be adhering to the Virginia Department of Health and Fairfax County Department of Health recommendations which align with the CDC recommendations for anyone who travels outside of the United States. As November is just around the corner I did want to put on your radar that parent teacher conferences will be held November 11th and November 12th. This year we will be offering conferences virtually, and teachers will be sending out a Sign Up Genius for you to select a time that works best for your schedule. With conferences so close to Thanksgiving break, we feel for everyone’s health and safety, it’s best to continue with the virtual conference option this year. Remember that there is no school for students on Friday, October 29 due to diocesan professional development for our staff. Please keep them in your prayers this week most especially. Wishing your family a wonderful and peaceful weekend. God bless, Anne Dyke Principal

School Announcements

Yearbook News! Be a part of our 2021-2022 school yearbook! To order a yearbook or upload photos for the yearbook, visit Pictavo Community at commpe.pictavo.com. Use Google Chrome for best results. Please see the attached flyer for infromation on how to submit photos and order your yearbook.

Order Thanksgiving Lunch A Thanksgiving lunch will be served in the cafeteria on Friday, November 19. The feast will include chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, fruit, vegetable and Rice Krispy treat for $7.50. Place your order before Nov. 7th.

Hawk Tree House Student Store We are happy to announce the reopening of The Hawk Tree House Student Store, open every Friday during school lunches. We have balls, jump ropes, frisbees, pencils, erasers and more. Fellow students will be running all operations of the store, via applications submitted for sales, inventory, marketing, and banking positions. Proceeds from the store sales will be donated to a local charity. Friday lunch store hours: 6-8    11:20-11:40 4-5    11:45-12:00 K       12:00-12:20 2-3    12:20-12:40 1st    12:45-1:05

From the Counselor... Parenting is not an easy job, especially now. Please consider signing up for this AMAZING and FREE webinar workshop on October 27th from 9-10:30am. The StudyPro is putting it on with three premiere parenting experts in the greater DMV area. If you sign up, you will receive the replay so sign up now!! Here's the link with all the information to sign up and for you to read more about the speakers: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-panel-being-the-best-parent-we-can-be-amidst-the-turmoil-tickets-185966038427

Hawk Happenings - Week of October 25, 2021

Saturday, October 23 Yay Lunch! order before midnight! Monday, October 25 Tuesday, October 26 Wednesday, October 27 Thursday, October 28 4th Grade field trip (No Yay Lunch for 4th graders) Friday, October 29 - NO SCHOOL Tent-or-Treat, 4-6pm FULL SCHOOL CALENDAR Did you know you can subscribe to our school calendar for real-time updates, convenient links to SUGs and flyers, and more? Subscribe to auto-populate your iCal, Outlook 2007+ or Google calendar

Preschool Corner

St. Louis Preschool has been celebrating our wonderful Community Helpers during the month of October! Fairfax County Police Department—St. Louis alum, Melissa Wallace, and her husband, Mr. Joe Wallace (who are also school parents) – visited with our preschoolers and talked about the many ways police officers protect us. They shared important safety tips with our little ones, and they’ve shared some tips here for our parents as well. Our kindergarteners and preschoolers also received a special visit from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue – complete with a hook and ladder truck! The children learned about fire safety and life as a fire fighter. We are grateful for all those who keep our world a safe, healthy and happy place!

PTO

Round of Applause! Thank you to our Hawks 5K/Pit Stop Rockstars - Laura Carlson, Kelly Roman and Grace Cross!

St. Lucy Project Food Drive - LAST DAY MONDAY OCT. 25! Return your filled blue bags for the St. Lucy Project to the front office. See flyer included in race packet for donation needs.

8th Annual Hawks 5K|Fun Run and Post Race Pit Stop Thank you to all who came! We had over 530 participants! A HUGE Thank YOU to our Race Sponsors:

St Louis Level Sponsors Alexandria Electric Clear Expectations St Francis Level Sponsors CTSS Inc. Good Better Best Food and the Richey Family Kim Muffler, Realtor MEGA - Metropolitan Elite Gymnastics & Athletics Mint and Ivy 180 Therapy and Wellness

St Elizabeth Ann Seton Level Sponsors Balanced Legal Solutions Bishop Ireton High School The Buchanan Family Dandridge Woodwork Glory Days Grill The Holliday Family Hughes Orthodontics Dan Matheis, Realtor My Kissing Hands Nesbitt Realty Organized Q

Family Sponsors Aguilar, Aiken, Beier, Bergeron, Bucca, Buffaloe, Carlson, Cole, Conti-Dunn, Dennison, Dziobek, Inners, Jones, Khanijoun, Little, Lobo, Mazur, Parker, Parmiter, Reading, Rohde, Salamanca, Schwieterman, Suwandhi, Trombley, Velez, and Will Families

Thank you to the Spanish Ministry for the delicious pupusas and Trader Joes and Wegmans for the donations of “post race” snacks/waters. Thank you to our Hawks Cheerleaders and the Boy Scouts for supporting the water stops. A HUGE Thank you to Officers Melissa and Joe Wallace and the members of the FCPD and Penn/Daw Fire Co for their invaluable support.

The Fall Submission Deadline is November 1st! If you have unexpired Box Tops clips at home, you can either send them to school (Attn: Simon Ridenour 7-104) OR you can submit them yourself. Please check out the Box Tops 4 Education site for details. Submissions must be postmarked by November 1, 2021 to be included in the school's fall check. If you have questions, please email Shannon Ridenour (ridenour0619@gmail.com).

Halloween Tent-or-Treat "Sold Out" This spook-tacular event has "sold out." For those joining us on October 29th, a few friendly reminders... Please arrive within the window you signed up for on the SUG, 4-5pm or 5-6pm.  Parking is available at the school and church parking lot, proceed to the soccer fields behind McClunn Hall – the entrance to the festivities will be marked. This is not a drop off event, children must be accompanied by a grown-up. As this is and outdoor event face masks are optional.    We can’t wait to see all the kids’ costumes (no full-face masks or weapons ;)! Don’t forget to bring a bag to collect your treats!

Tickets on Sale Now! 2022 Casino Night & Silent Auction Get ready to swing into 1960s Las Vegas at the 2022 St. Louis Catholic School PTO Casino Night & Silent Auction on Saturday, May 21, 2022! Tickets are $50 per person or $100 per couple. This year, only individual or couples tickets are available for purchase as we are looking forward to charitable gaming and mingling! Tickets include heavy appetizers, soft drinks, beer, wine and charitable gaming chips. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to  http://www.stlouisschool.org/SilentAuction2022/   Questions? Contact hawktion.chair@gmail.com.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS Jannette Amedome jeawills2@gmail.com Juliette Theroux jmarchioli@yahoo.com Don't forget to log your volunteer hours! VOL. HOURS LOG

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES VIRTUS REQUIRED: Cafeteria Helpers - November/December Parent volunteers are needed to assist with receiving, sorting and distributing Yay Lunches AND selling ice cream. This is a 2-hour a week commitment from 11:00am-1:00pm. Sign up HERE. Recess Monitors - November/December We are in need of recess monitors during outdoor recess in November and December. It includes supervising all grades from K-8 between 11:30am and 1:40pm daily. Fill out and send in the interest form.

Extracurriculars & CYO

CYO Track Meet this Saturday! This Saturday, October 23, over 70 St. Louis athletes will be competing in the CYO fall track meet at Bishop O’Connell High School. The older athletes in grades 6, 7, and 8 will compete in the morning and the younger athletes in grades 3, 4, and 5 will compete in the afternoon. Admission is free and supporters of the team are welcome. We will have a designated section in the stands for St. Louis team members and fans.

4th-8th Grade CYO Basketball Registration Deadline October 22nd The Diocese CYO office has decided to go ahead with a basketball season this year and you can find more information in this letter from the CYO Director. In that letter, you will learn that there are a lot of variable and logistics involved with this season and that means that we need to get kids registered for basketball ASAP. We have a firm deadline of 6 pm on Oct 22nd and need to give the Diocese final numbers the next morning so they can determine how many teams will be able to play. Please follow the instructions on this document to register your kids to play basketball. It is imperative that you register them right away so we can also figure out how to best compose the teams. Please do not wait until the October 22nd deadline. Here is a flyer with information about the head coaches for each grade. If you have any questions, please contact the relevant coach for your kid’s grade or Judy Conti at jconti@nelp.org.

Cub Scouts Openings There are still several openings in Cub Scout Pack 680 for those boys ages 5-12 who may be interested in Scouting with their friends, classmates, and other members of the St. Louis Community. If you’re considering joining Cub Scouts or would just like to find out some additional information on our St. Louis Cub Scout Pack, please contact Cecilia Franceski, the Pack 680 Membership Chair, at cecilia.franceski@gmail.com. You can also find more great information at the Pack 680 website, which is located at Pack680.org. There are some great events planned over the next few weeks that you won’t want to miss, including the Rocket Derby, STEM Night, and Scouting for Food to name just a few! For more info., contact Bob Sander, Pack 680 Committee Chair, 484-213-6694 (c).

Parish & Community

Youth Day at Bishop O'Connell H.S. October 30 We welcome K-8 grade families to come to our home football game @ 12pm. Register in advance to receive a free ticket and an O'Connell spirit gift. See flyer for details.

‌ ‌ ‌

Love | Learn | Lead