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Fast and Female Fast and Female’s mission is to keep girls healthy and active in sports because it sets them up to succeed and lead in life beyond sports. On January 23, Fast and Female put on a Champ Chat at St. Helena, involving grade 7 and 8 students. The girls worked with fifteen athlete ambassadors - women with various elite sporting backgrounds - who took them through circuits of exercises that were suitable for all in the pursuit of furthering physical literacy skills. In the afternoon, the girls attended leadership workshops. Throughout the day, the girls participated in inspirational chats from the ambassadors, and finished with a dance party.

Bishop McGrattan visits Canadian Martyrs Parish and partner schools Each year Bishop McGrattan engages in pastoral visits to parishes within the Diocese. Recently, as part of his visit to Canadian Martyrs Parish, he toured St. Francis and St. Margaret schools. During these visits, our schools are always very pleased that Bishop McGrattan wants to learn about the school community while connecting with both staff and students. It is a gift to be able to showcase the excellent communities of faith within our schools in this special way.

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

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Importance of play Over the past three weeks, diverse learning teachers that work at ELL preschools have been busy working with the parents of the preschoolers, teaching them ideas to encourage less screen time and more play time. Presentations were well attended in each preschool. The images below were taken at St. Henry School.

St. Monica ELD students visit Pastoral Centre On January 23, students from St. Monica’s English Language Development Program visited the Pastoral Centre. They toured the centre and visited the archives where they saw a letter written by Bishop Carroll. While on tour, they met Bishop McGrattan and delivered letters they had written to him in person. Two of the boys were excited to meet a visiting sister from the Philippines who was from the same region they had come from. These boys had been a little homesick and it brightened their day to speak their dialect and receive hugs from home.

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Don Bosco’s Breakfast Program On January 15, Member of Parliament for Calgary Midnapore, Stephanie Kusie visited Don Bosco School to learn more about their breakfast program. Trustee Mary Martin, Ryan Baker and Amanda Boadi from Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC), CCSD Consultant Barb Duncan were also present for the visit. Teacher and school breakfast coordinator Pamela Piques showcased her amazing talents in the kitchen by offering “eggs in a basket,” milk and orange slices to grateful students. It was a wonderful experience for both MP Kusie and Trustee Martin to see the valuable impact breakfast funding from BCC has on the lives of so many of our district students. There are almost 50 CCSD schools who receive funding from BCC and/or President’s Choice Children’s Charities to run daily breakfast programs.

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Mikayla’s cakery Mikayla is a Grade 12 student at St. Timothy School with a passion for decorating cakes and cupcakes. A self-taught cake decorator with the attitude that practice makes perfect, she was challenged in CTF to develop a business plan, design marketing materials and hone her baking and decorating techniques. She regularly shared her talent at school, providing hundreds of cupcakes at a time for school events. Her talents are now in high demand in Cochrane where she is busy filling orders on evenings and weekends for birthday and wedding cakes. She also takes special requests from her customers as she prepares to enter university next year. One of her highlights is decorating the cake for Jann Arden’s Order of Canada celebration. Just recently she entered a city-wide cake decorating competition capturing second place. You can find her on Instagram @mikaylascakery.

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St. Clare Faith Day On January 30, St. Clare came together to celebrate a beautiful Faith Day event. The event started off with a presentation and short video featuring our current district Faith theme. Right after, staff and students enjoyed a special musical performance by the St. Clare Music Ministry and finished off with a Feast Day Liturgy. Afterwards, staff continued their day with a delicious hot lunch and later broke out into their homerooms for engaged class activities. Both students and staff had a great day and had the chance to reconnect with their Faith.

2019 Mayor’s Food Drive – A record breaking success The Mayor’s Food Drive wrap-up event took place on Feb. 4 at the Nickel School where Mayor Nenshi announced the record-breaking campaign total of $1,269,263 in food and funds. The Calgary Catholic School District collected 3,300 lbs. of food and raised $615 in funds at four participating schools. Our involvement is greatly appreciated and helps feed more than 20,000 Calgarians.

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Central Office art display Self-portraits, animals, fruit, landscapes – these are the subjects of some of the artwork, which is currently on display at Central Office, thanks to the talented junior high students at St. Helena. Grade 7-9 students created works of art using pen and ink, gesture drawings, mosaic compositions and more. The students were invited to Central Office for a recognition ceremony on February 4, where their work was framed and displayed in the lobby and on various floors of Central Office. The students were presented with certificates from Chief Superintendent Gary Strother, Trustee Pamela Rath and Supervisor for Fine Arts, Kevin DeForge. Thank you to all the artistic students and supportive staff at St. Helena School that took part in this event, which is a long-standing tradition at Calgary Catholic. As Chief Superintendent Strother says, “Seeing the art in our hallways at Central Office is a visual reminder of our students and why we do the work we do.”

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Sruprise visit from Olympians at Holy Name School Grade 5 and 6 students at Holy Name School recently learned to speed skate. Then on January 30, they received a surprise visit from some of the fastest speed skaters in Calgary – Gilmore Junio and Denny Morrison. The two Canadian Olympians are set to compete at the 2020 ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Calgary at the Olympic Oval on February 7-8, 2020. They said speaking to the students got them excited and “pumped up to speed skate and accomplish more.” Denny and Gilmore spoke to the students about chasing dreams, overcoming challenges and the importance of teamwork. The pair also led the students in a series of exercises in the gym to demonstrate the importance of being active and healthy. CTV Calgary came to the event, which was featured on the news and online.

Give it a Shot! Calgary Flames discuss the importance of reading at St. Philip School Calgary Flames players Michael Stone, Dillon Dube, Andrew Mangiapane and even Harvey the Hound visited St. Philip School on February 3 to encourage reading. They were there as part of The Educational Partnership Foundation’s Reading…. Give it a Shot! Program. The program encourages students in K-6 to develop a love of reading, improve their reading skills and have some fun. Students are rewarded for reading by keeping track of their reading minutes and can collect 24 Calgary Flames player collector cards. The Flames players answered questions from students followed by autographs and a photo. CTV Calgary attended the event, which was featured on the news and online.