October 31, 2025

Dear Holy Name Families,

Thank you to our students for showing their spirit and celebrating a friendly rivalry yesterday. We'll give the casual day victory to Mr. Reilly and BC.

While rivals on the field as the only two Catholic schools to compete in FBS football, both schools unite to actively support Catholic schools nationally. Each university has a center devoted to that pursuit, BC's Roche Center and ND's Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE). Yesterday the directors of the respective centers, Dr. Melodie Wyttenbach (BC) and Dr. Matt Kloser (ND), discussed the richness, current state, and future of Catholic education during a panel discussion. Their conversation highlighted how Catholic schools like ours provide a holistic education that educates, the head, heart and hands.

Both centers also impact Holy Name. We partner with the Roche Center and Dr. Wyttenbach is a former School Board member; we have also consulted with ACE on science and STEM education. We are grateful for the support of both schools and happy to show it with a little bit of fun yesterday.

In addition to Halloween celebrations and traditions, this week the 6th grade students created an altar to loved ones as part of a Spanish project to learn about the tradition of Dia de los Muertos. They honored their loved ones and members of our school community.

We enjoyed our annual Halloween Parade today and seeing our nursery, K1, and K2 students dressed up for Halloween. We're glad the rain moved out for trick-or-treating and we hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

Enjoy the weekend. Go Irish!

Best regards,

Mr. Chisholm

Announcements and Reminders

• As a reminder, there is no school on Monday; it is our fall faculty professional day. There is no school on Tuesday, November 11th in observance of Veterans' Day.
• Tuesday is an election day. There is voting in Parish Hall.
• There is an upcoming VIRTUS Training being held at St. Mary of the Hills. It is scheduled for on November 11th at 9am. This training is open to Holy Name parents. Click here to register. The link shows all available upcoming sessions including ones being held at Boston College and St. Columbkille.

• November 3rd: No School - Professional Day
• November 4th: Election Day - Voting in Parish Hall
• November 11th: No School - Veterans Day
• November 17th: 5th and 6th Grade Math Fair
• November 25th: Mass of Thanksgiving, 8:45 am

EAGLE AWARDS

Congratulations to K2-5, 2-4, and 4-8 for being recognized with classroom Eagles. The following students also earned Eagles this week:

• Joanna B., 1-1 (Responsibility)
• Caroline D, 2-4 (Respect)
• Paulo T., 2-4 (Respect_
• Christopher L., 5-10 (Responsibility)
• Cyan P., 6-11 (Creativity)
• Lila M., 6-12 (Creativity & Responsibility)

Dia de los Muertos is a special celebration to honor and remember loved ones who have passed away. This tradition is observed in Mexico, Latin America, and many other countries around the world. For this celebration, the students in Ms. Lopez's 6th grade Spanish classes created an ofrenda (altar) and decorated with papel picado (cut paper decorations) and vibrant marigold flowers called cempasuchil. They also brought in photos of loved ones and pets who have passed on. Together along with Father Ferme, we gathered to say the Dia de los Muertos prayer and shared heartfelt memories of those we cherish in our hearts.

Yesterday's Casual Day was in celebration of filling our bulletin board with earned Eagles representing respect, kindness, responsibility, and more! To mark the occasion, we celebrated the rivalry between Boston College and Notre Dame with a casual day—everyone wore the colors of the team they want to win on Saturday. It was a festive day filled with maroon and gold for BC, and blue, gold and green cheering on Notre Dame. Good luck to both teams! Go Eagles :) !

🎃👻 Happy Halloween from Holy Name! 👻🎃

What an exciting day filled with spooky fun, many delicious treats, and a fun Halloween parade! Our students had a fantastic day celebrating the magic of Halloween together.

Have a safe and spooky Halloween!