Dear Families,

Walk-A-Thon – Friday, May 12th, 2023

We are so excited to be kicking off the Walk-A-Thon this week! The Walk-a-Thon is one of our required annual fundraisers and this year has a goal of raising $42,000. The Parents' Club uses these funds to pay for student enrichment assemblies and curriculum additions, to sponsor parent education classes and family social events (that will be resurrected next school year!), as well as providing the faculty and staff with treats throughout the year. We can only make this goal if every school family takes time to contact friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers and ask if they will donate in the student's name. Thanks for helping your child do the asking, as it creates more of a buy-in with the child and is more impressive to the donor. 

Tomorrow, April 28, you will be receiving an email with your child’s personal fundraising website information from the 99 Pledges website – the company we use to track donations. You can send this link to your family and friends and start gathering pledges! The 99 Pledges website will be live and accepting donations beginning tomorrow and running through May 12.

A fun part of the Walk-A-Thon is Spirit Week which runs the week of the walk – May 8-12. Each day will have a different theme with some days having free dress and others a fun Walk-A-Thon Activity. More details for each day are listed below and also in the Parent Information that is you will receive in today’s Red Envelope.

• Monday, May 8 – Crazy Hat Day
• Tuesday, May 9 – Poster Day & Favorite Sports Team Dress
• Wednesday, May 10 – Grade Level Colors Day
• Thursday, May 11 – Cheer Day
• Friday, May 12 – Walk-A-Thon Day!!

Please read through the Parent Information Packet so you understand the how's & when's to go about collecting donations. You'll see that there are some fun prizes set up for those kids and classrooms which do the best job in raising funds and/or in running loops around the playground.

The Walk-a-Thon is a fantastic event that raises funds, raises spirits, and raises heart rates! Thanks in advance for your support and your children's participation! 

All parents are welcome and invited to the fun event to root students on as they circle the track!! 

Nominations Needed – Volunteer Extraordinaire

We have wonderful volunteers at St. Louise School, and each June we honor 3 of them with the Volunteer Extraordinaire Awards. I am asking both you and the faculty to nominate volunteers to be considered for this award. Nominees should have a history of dedicated, positive volunteering for the St. Louise School community. Past recipients of the award (who are still current school parents) include: Rebecca Nightingale, Joni Hoffman, and Ingrid Flaat. Do you have a fellow parent(s) to nominate? If so, please send your nomination to Mr. Fuerte, along with an explanation of why the person deserves to be considered. Thanks for your help! 

Auction Theme for 2023-2024 – A Grand Affair – Saturday, November 4, 2023, at The Golf Club at Newcastle

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Auction 2023-2024 kickoff party last Friday and to everyone who signed up for volunteer roles. If you would like to sign up to help with this fall’s Auction, please contact Amy and Laura at auction@stlouiseschool.org Be on the lookout for procurement information coming soon. This year’s procurement deadline will be June 9th and we are looking forward to securing lots of fun new items!

Grandparents’ Mass – Friday, May 19th, 2023 – SAVE THE DATE!

 Our Annual Grandparent’s Mass will be Friday, May 19th at 9:00. Please invite your Grandparents and special guests to join us. Afterwards, there will be donuts and coffee served in the main school lobby, and guests will be able to visit their grandchild’s classrooms. Please see the flyer below where you can sign up to have an invitation mailed to your child’s grandparents.

Have a Blessed Weekend,

Mr. Mike Fuerte

Announcements

Fundraisers

Parish

Dear Friends, 

I was struck by the power of these simple words that we heard from the Gospel for the Mass on the 2nd Thursday of Easter: “[God] does not ration his gift of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:34) These few words express the lavish love and mercy of God, poured out on those who were baptized at the Easter Vigil, on the children who will soon receive their First Communion, on the young people and adults who received Confirmation on Monday, and on all of us. God is generous beyond measure; and he calls for us to be generous in return. 

There are many ways for us to imitate God’s generosity. We grow spiritually, in our personal relationship with the Lord, when we are generous in the time we give to prayer, first together at Sunday Mass, and then individually in our daily commitment. We can be generous in showing mercy and forgiveness – in fact, we put the gift of God’s mercy for us at risk if we are not merciful in return (c.f. James 2:13). From the story of the Good Samaritan we know that the neighbors God commands us to love may be strangers to us or even enemies, and that we are called to be generous in the love we show them; this story makes clear that “love” includes the monetary gift the Samaritan left to cover the expenses of the Jewish stranger he found in the ditch (see Lk. 10:25-37).

One of the ways that we show our gratitude to God is through the stewardship of treasure. Each Fall everyone (myself included) is asked to prayerfully plan their charitable giving for the whole year, with the suggestion that the first half of our total commitment would go to our own parish and the second half to other charities. I would strongly encourage you to commit some of that second half of your annual giving to support the many ministries of our Seattle Archdiocese through the Annual Catholic Appeal. The resources we all give through the ACA provide an umbrella of support that benefits all our parishes throughout the Archdiocese – for instance, HR and Benefits services for all the employees in the Archdiocese, the Catholic Schools Office, Property and Construction, CYO summer camps, and of course the Office of the Vicar of Clergy, just to name a few. 

Our parish goal for this year is $263,274. The good news is that any monies that are collected over our goal will be rebated back to the parish. We plan to use the rebated monies this year for “sprucing-up” the liturgical furniture in the church, which is looking a little worn from the many years of use it has seen. 

Next week one of the chancery employees, Edwin Ferrera, Director of Hispanic Ministry, will speak at the Masses about the importance of this ACA collection. Thank you for your generous expression of thanks to God, whose mercy endures forever. 

With gratitude, 

Fr. Gary Zender

"I shall love You, I shall love You always; when day breaks, when evening turns into night, at every hour, at every moment; I shall love You always, always, always."

-St. Gemma Galgani

Parents’ Club collected nearly $700 in donations in the book sale! More importantly, they gave away LOTS of books to our teachers so that they could build their classroom libraries and ALL the leftover books were donated to the Book Fairy Pantry Project.📚

Mrs. Hoffman’s class (PA) used balloons to paint the earth and make flower pot art to celebrate Earth Day!

🌎💕

The 5th grade classes came together to present their history projects.

Boots & Beauties Father & Daughter Dance! ♫ 

Widodo Karli Family

Morris/Herber Family

Antezana Garvizu Family



Coles Family