Special Connections - April Update

Staying up to date with JPII

Our Faith Community Staying Connected

Message from Mary Adams, Principal of JPII

As the pandemic continues John Paul II remains connected to our staff, families and friends. It’s very comforting to know everyone is staying safe and healthy. Nothing is more important than our health.

Teachers are providing work packets, on-line resources, and videos for our students to watch and follow. All staff, students and adults are coming together for Friday Morning prayer circle through a Zoom meeting. They are a lot of fun! It’s wonderful to see and hear from our family community. It brightens everyone’s day to be able to connect with those whom we care for so deeply. Our Facebook page is full of pictures, videos, tips and resources for everyone to tap into. Please follow our page and you can see first-hand what we’re doing.

This crisis is just another temporary stumbling block. We have faith we’ll get through it and be better because of it. We have many challenges at JPII as I’m sure you do too in your life. We pause, reflect and think how can we make the best out of this situation? Move forward, make it work. Make that lemon-aide!

Gala Update

While we need to wait a few more months to gather for our 10 ^th Annual Legacy Gala, we believe it is important to share our gratitude with everyone for being supportive and understanding about changing the date. We are grateful to our sponsors who replied to our rescheduled email notification by saying that they supported the decision and looked forward to being with us on August 22. We are thankful that our auction item donors have been willing to extend expiration dates or provide us with new items for those donations that would have occurred during the summer. We are blessed to have an amazing committee who is willing to press pause on planning the event and will be ready to pick up the preparation details when we are able to meet again. We appreciate our JPII staff who are willing to work with us over the summer to finalize our entertainment and videos.

We realize that we are not the only nonprofit who had to make the difficult decision to reschedule an event or the more difficult decision to cancel it. In doing so, we’ve heard from so many of you who look forward to celebrating with us on August 22. We, too, look forward to gathering again, this time to kickoff the beginning of a new school year and to celebrate our students and adults.

Please visit our website for more information on the rescheduled event and thank you for continuing to support this important event.

Social Connecting while Social Distancing

We're not social distancing online! Stay in touch and up-to-date! Every day we post informational and uplifting content to keep our students, adults, staff and family engaged and connected. Find us here !

Holy Week Activities

Christ is Risen! Visit our Facebook page next week for ideas on how to celebrate Holy Week at home with your family. In the meantime, here are a few activities to try now:

Palm Sunday ideas

Resurrection eggs

Holy Week in handprints

Symbolic Lenten Lunch for Good Friday

Please consider supporting the restaurants who provide help to JPII. Click here for a Facebook link to locations who should be open for take out.

Supporting Our Supporters

During these difficult times, we're supporting those who support JPII. If you have enjoyed the duck served at our Legacy Gala , here's a tasty way for you to support Joe Jurgielewicz and Sons and have it shipped directly to your home - no cooking needed.

Home and shopping online?

Support JPII with Amazon

Are you home and ordering more of your necessities online from Amazon? You can now set JPII as your desired charity on Amazon Smile! After making qualifying purchases, Amazon will automatically donate 0.5% of the purchase price directly to JPII. Click below to quickly set it up.

Shop Amazon to Support JPII

Business & Individual Tax Credit Program Extended

A tax credit program made available through the Eastern Pennsylvania Scholarship Foundation (EPSF) for businesses and individuals has been extended until April 10 . Many of our families endure financial hardships and challenges to enroll their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities at John Paul II Center for Special Learning. Unfortunately, the demand for financial aid far exceeds the resources available. The good news is that the Special Purpose Entity (SPE) tax credit program is a game changer for our school.