Eagle's Edge
St. Therese Family Newsletter - April 14, 2021
Power of Prayer
This morning I was really struggling with the weight of the world, and a voice spoke to me. Actually, the voice spoke to the entire school on the intercom as Nelly, one of our incredible 8th graders, read our morning prayer.
"Dear Lord, through your death and resurrection,
you taught us that good comes from suffering.
Help us see that you're still present even when we suffer.
When things are hard for us,
help us be strong like you.
Help us see that we can look to you,
knowing you're sad for us too.
Thank you for always being with us,
offering your love and strength to hold us up
and bear all things. Amen."
Prayers Before the Bell: Inviting Christ Into the Classroom
By, Betty Manion
We all have crosses to bear, and you only have to look around or watch the news to witness suffering. Christ gives us all hope, love, and support. Pray for our school. Pray for our students, staff, and families. Pray for our city, state, and country. Pray for the world. Our Lady calls us to the rosary as a pathway to our Loving Father - pray the rosary with your children and as a family.
Through it all, God is love. He is forgiveness, light, and truth. He is GOOD.
God bless you all,
Rosemarie El Youssef
Principal, St. Therese School
503-253-9400 ext. 122
APRIL 16 - INSERVICE DAY NO SCHOOL
Interfaith Prayer Service for
From the St. Joseph the Worker website: https://www.stjosephtheworkerpdx.org
ST. JOSEPH FRONT LAWN, SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 2:00-3:30PM
Leaders from the Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim, and Jewish faiths as well as senators and representatives plan to attend a prayer service for the political situation in Myanmar, the country where most of our Zomi Community have immigrated from.
The country has once again been taken over by the repressive military, threatening many lives and the freedom of people who live there, including family and friends of our Zomi Community. Our Zomi Catholic community, members of other refugee communities, and Catholic Charities of Oregon are planning an Interfaith Prayer Service to be held on the front lawn of St. Joseph the Worker, weather permitting. (It will move inside the church if needed.)
You are welcome to join them in prayer and support of human rights and democracy. For more information on the situation in Myanmar (Burma) go to https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55902070
Track & Field at FMES
Fridays are BACK and better than ever!
Our first FULL WEEK of school will be April 19th - 23rd.
To make it fun, and ease the burden for families, these Fridays will be FREE DRESS.
We will also have MASS in person on Fridays! Not all of our students will be able to attend at the same time, but we will schedule a rotation of classes through so that they are able to attend in person every other week at least. The rest of the student body will experience mass via livestream in their classrooms at 10 a.m.
Adding Fridays puts an additional strain on our limited staffing, so please be patient with us! We are grateful for your support.
SchoolStore Fundraising
This safe and easy fundraiser is 100% online so there is no face-to-face selling, collecting money, or delivering products. Participation only takes 12 minutes, and your child will win fun and exciting prizes. Every student will receive a valuable Wild Republic Hugger or earbuds, just for participating. More prizes will be rewarded when goals are reached. Please help now. It really will make a difference.
Go to https://www.schoolstore.net/sid.t?119532 to learn more about how this program can support our school!
Updated Case Rates 4/10/2021
Please continue to wear masks and be safe so we can see our numbers start falling again.
Remember to keep students home when they have symptoms to keep our community safe!
We will watch the data and keep you informed as things change.
Travel and Quarantine
UPDATED GUIDANCE COMING
If you or anyone in your household travels, you won't meet our health requirements and will need to learn from home for 7-10 days following your return. St. Therese staff follows these same safety rules and will likewise quarantine at home following any travel outside of Oregon.
Please call the office as soon as possible to notify us about any plans for travel that will include your student accessing distance learning for a period of time so that we can inform teachers and make arrangements to get you the necessary learning materials.
We appreciate all that you do to keep our community safe, and our students learning at school with us.
FACTS Financial Aid and Enrollment - IT'S WORKING!
FACTS IS FIXED! Please try to complete your enrollment packets now - you should be able to complete without issue. You'll know your packet is complete if you see a message that reads "submitted". PLEASE give us a call if we can help you. We can schedule a zoom, make an appointment for you to come in, or help over the phone.
Thank you for your patience as we work to make our enrollment process better - it isn't without bumps in the road, but I have faith it will be worth it.
Now enrolling preschool and pre-kindergarten!
If you have any questions, please give us a call! You can find information about tuition for our programs on our website, https://www.stthereseschool.org/little-flower-preschool - we look forward to a full group this fall!
Enrollment Opportunities
We have so much to offer children and their families - please help us get the word out!
St. Vincent de Paul - UPDATES
QUILT RAFFLE. St Therese St Vincent de Paul is raffling a quilt. It is queen size and multi-colored. You can purchase tickets after the weekend masses or call Shasta Hatter at 503-253-7566. The drawing is June 9th. Thank you for your support.
Volunteer opportunity: St Vincent de Paul is in need of delivery drivers. We need substitute drivers for Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Drivers on a rotating basis are needed for Saturday morning. Usual start time is around 9 am and shifts are 1 1//2 to 2 hours. Training provided. Must be able to carry 25 pound boxes up stairs. Please call Shasta Hatter at 503-253-7566 for more information or to volunteer.
If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please contact Shasta Hatter at the SVdP office 503-253-7566.
BottleDrop Thursdays
We are so grateful for your generosity! With your donations we purchased a Distance Learning T-shirt for each student and staff member to wear on Fridays, prizes for spirit week, and the pumpkins for our St. Therese Pumpkin Patch. We recently purchased an eagle mascot costume and our new mascot will soon be visiting classrooms to learn what it means to be a St. Therese Eagle!
The school budget is tight this year, but there are some things that we believe students shouldn't go without - your can and bottle donations make this happen!
Parents' Club Corner
Here is the Parents' Club schedule of meetings for the rest of the school year. We will meet on the 3rd Wednesday of the month from 6-7pm via Zoom. Our last meeting was on Wednesday, February 10.
4/21
5/19
Proposed Agenda for 4/21:
- Plant sale update
- Teacher appreciation week
- Jog a thon
- Schoolstore.net
- Amazon Smile
- PC open positions for next year (vote at the May meeting)
Please contact Melanie Reyna at 503-467-1805 or via email at melanie.reyna@usbank.com with any questions.
Parent Obligations for the Year - Fair Share and Fundraising
If we all work together, we can make this happen!
Rather than having MANY events with specific obligations, we have one financial obligation for each family.
Dual-parent household - $500 (fundraised or donated)
Single-parent household - $300 (fundraised or donated)
This replaces the auction basket obligation, auction project obligation, jog-a-thon, and raffle.
If we make our goal of $36,000 and everyone pitches in, there is no reason to bill people for what they aren't able to fundraise.
Our goal is to have one BIG fundraiser in the spring - if we can generate enough money to fulfill our obligation to the school our tuition won't go up. Jog-a-thon seems doable with the changing of the metrics and there are MANY ways we can get creative to make it happen.
The key to making this happen is ALL of us working together!
You are not expected to figure out how to fundraise on your own - but come to Parents' Club meetings and share your ideas. We are always better together! Our next PC meeting on January 20th will be focused on brainstorming ideas for fundraisers.
School Office Hours 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
St. Therese Catholic School
Email: elyoussefr@stthereseschool.org
Website: stthereseschool.org
Location: 1260 Northeast 132nd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: (503) 253-9400
Facebook: Facebook.com/StThereseSchoolPortlandOrFamilyPage
Twitter: @sttherese_pdx