Our 2016/2017 Sunday school year is quickly coming to an end. The last day of class is June 4th. This is also our graduation ceremony that will follow directly after liturgy.

I would like to give you an update on what we have accomplished this year with the program. Our main goal for Sunday school this last year was to try and organize ourselves in a manner that could bring more family participation. I have created an email list of all families that are registered with Sunday school and communicate all of the events that are happening at church throughout the year.

With this communication has come a tremendous response from our youth families. We have had a wonderful turnout for all of the events we have scheduled. Two youth months

1. Two coffee hours (the children helped set these up and serve)

2. Two Lansing City Rescue Mission Shelter Lunches. (This is a popular one with the kids. We make 50 Lunches for the homeless)

3. Building of the playhouse outside. Thank you Andrea Branoff and family for organizing this!

4. Palm folding

5. Egg wrapping

6. Easter egg stuffing. ( older children got together and stuffed every egg for the Easter Hunt this year)

Other things we have accomplished this year are

1. New Christmas pageant costumes

2. Old Christmas costumes were hemmed to fit the children. Thank you Jeanine Barks!

3. WiFi in the Sunday school wing. Thank you James Stajos!

4. A Roku TV so teachers can be more interactive with the children’s curriculum. Thank you Alex Brown!

5. Getting the Nursery cleaned out and organized

Mary Brown created a pre-school Montessori program for our youngest children this year that is quite spectacular. She also set up a completely new classroom with different prayer stations, learning centers and craft areas. If you have not seen it please stop by and check it out. Mary had a lot of help making this room what it is. Many parishioners helped to make this room special. Sam Vosovic and Ted Samra made most of the furniture in the room by hand.  Jeanine Barks sewed special vestments. Garry and Ann Grimm helped to stock the shelves with arts and crafts and donated all of the furniture that was not made by hand. A deep thank you to all who helped make this happen. We could not have done it without you. Mary has the largest class this year with 12 children between the ages of 3 and 6.

It takes an army of helpers and teachers to pull off a successful Sunday school program. Thank you to every helper, high school and college student and parent who made this year a success with all of our classrooms. A special Thank you to our head teachers Shelley Lahanas, Jan Munk and Mary Brown for dedicating your time and love to our kids.

Thank you to every member of our parish that has donated money towards the education of our children. Everything we have accomplished this year was made possible by your generous donations.

-Dana Gavrilides