November Highlights 2018 All Saints Day – Nov 1 Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints! What a beautiful solemnity last Thursday as we celebrated the reality of God’s good work in the lives of His holy ones – the Saints – with our all-school Mass and Family Groups. What does Heaven look like? It’s a feast, a family reunion, a procession of saints to worship our Lord. Heaven touches down to earth each time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated. That reality was very evident while we watched our littlest Bulldogs dressed as saints in our chapel. It’s often been said that the Church is not a Museum for Saints, but a Hospital for Sinners. Very true – but it sure does us sinners good to learn from the healthy ones! Special thanks to Mrs. Krueger’s 4th Graders for their Saints Museum and to Mrs. Pickering for organizing our Family Group activities.

Faculty Retreat - All Souls Day – Nov 2 Jesus arrived early at our teacher retreat on the feast of All Souls! Special thanks to Fr. Tim Sullivan of Immaculate Conception for offering Mass, Adoration, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and leading two faith-filled discussions about the parables of Christ and prayer for our faithful departed. Also, special thanks to our Saint Joseph veteran art teacher, Mrs. Gae Sharp, for the use of her beautiful facilities at the Estate of Grace in Corryton. Visit her website for more information. http://www.estateofgracefarm.com/

Veterans Day Celebration – Fri, Nov 9 Our 5th Grade students put together a wonderful celebration to honor veterans this past Friday. After an all-school Mass offered for veterans in our community, everyone traveled to our Gymnasium where the class put on a military-themed play that they wrote themselves. Patriotic songs were sung, and Mr. Mike Gates shared some words and a poem with our school to cap off the day. Many thanks to Mr. Gates and the rest of our veterans and to Mrs. Stephens and her 5thGraders for a great day!

Thanksgiving Baskets Thank you to all who gave food for our Thanksgiving Baskets service project. We delivered 700 lbs. of canned goods and other non-perishable food items to the Ladies of Charity Food Pantry last week. SJS feeds the hungry!

Fantasy of Trees The Saint Joseph School Choir, Art Department, and Middle School Service Club were all well-represented at the Fantasy of Trees this holiday weekend. Mr. Lovelace and 27 students from Grades 1-8 sang a selection of songs from the upcoming Christmas Program. Ms. Erin Quigley and 7th Grader Maria Wilson decorated the SJS Christmas Tree with folded paper creations from our Art classes. The Tree had already sold for $400 by early Wednesday! Special thanks to Mrs. Vicki McLean for organizing our Service Club. Numerous Middle School students helped run the children’s activities, which entertain little ones and raise money for East TN Children’s Hospital. Go Bulldogs!

iGiveCatholic & Giving Tuesday Congratulations to Saint Joseph School for winning BOTH iGiveCatholic incentives on Giving Tuesday! SJS had the most individual donors during the days leading up to Giving Tuesday and on the day of - thank you for the strong support from our extended Bulldog Family! With the addition of those two $500.00 prizes, SJS has now raised over $16,500.00 for the next phase of our campus improvement plan, which includes relocating our playground and adding security fencing. Thank you so much to our community and to Mr. Sompayrac for getting out the good word about Saint Joseph School!

Spelling Bee Champion = Claire Gratz! Congratulations to 7th Grader Claire Gratz for winning the 2018 SJS Spelling Bee! It was quite a Bee this year with so many great spellers that the competition as forced to go into overtime - literally! With dismissal looming, we decided to keep the remaining handful of spellers in the Gym and send the student body back to homerooms! The difficult words kept coming and our last three spellers emerged - 7th Grader Ines Chognika, 8th Grader Bryson Harris, and Claire, the soon-to-be champion. The winning word? E-X-O-R-D-I-U-M, Noun, "the beginning or introductory part, especially of a discourse or treatise." Congrats to Claire and to Ines, our runner-up and to all our Bee participants. Special thanks to Ms. Julie Duncan, Bee administrator, Ms. Melanie Wilck (Groseclose), Bee moderator, Mrs. Rita Cook, Bee judge, and to Mr. Aboumoussa, Mr. Whittingham, and Mr. Franklin for assisting with setup and audio for the event. T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U!

The Gift of the SJS Uniform SJS recently donated discontinued uniform items to a charity called, TO THE NATIONS, which provides for the bodily, spiritual, and educational needs of poor children in Uganda, Haiti, and Columbia. Many of the children cared for by this ministry are orphans. A Christmas card of thanks recently included this message: "Thank you for helping to make every day of the year a time to share Christ's love!" Special thanks to the Home & School Association for keeping our Bulldog Boutique Used Uniform Store in order and to the McLean family for finding a holy purpose for our discontinued items!