Providence Hall Junior High
9/13-9/17
With Hope We Always Rebuild
I asked the amazing Mrs. Turely to share some of her thoughts on 9/11 this week.
Her thoughts are beautiful and well worth the read!
Enjoy...
Happy Sunday Patriots!
I hope you have had a good weekend full of football memories, rainstorms, and maybe a little bit of remembrance. It's hard to pass 9/11 and not talk about what that day means to our country. I'm not sure about you, but my social media feeds have been full of beautiful pictures, memorials, memories, and quotes from that awful day. I remember where I was when I heard the news, and my bet is that your parents, grandparents, and older family members do too.
I remember watching the news coverage in the days that followed as the slow realization that things would never be the same crept over the nation. Those days were dark, full of uncertainty, fear, and supreme sadness. In my youth and naivete, I thought that maybe the world was ending. And then, somehow, it didn't. The world kept turning and through all of the darkness, despair, and fear, we began to find hope. It was slow, and it was shaky at first, but we found our footing as a nation and vowed to unite and do better. We learned that even after unthinkable sorrow and tragedy, we can come together and support each other. We remembered how to hope.
I don't know about you, but the last 18 months have been an awful mixture of fear and uncertainty. There have been days where it has been hard to find hope in the darkness. I get that there's a big difference between 9/11 and the pandemic we've been living through, but from where I stand, they have an awful lot in common. We haven't endured weeks of news coverage, it has been months, verging on years. All the uncertainty, fear, and doubt that was concentrated after 9/11, we've had it sifted over us the last 18 months. And it's a lot. It feels like that point in the action movie when the hero is dangling from a cliff, facing a horde of enemy space ships, or facing certain death to save his friends. It's that deep breath when you think all hope is lost.
But if there is one thing that life experience has taught me, it's that you just have to hold on during those dark and scary moments. You put one foot in front of the other and do "the next right thing." Because the night does end, the dawn does come, and the day will start anew. 9/11 has changed our world irrevocably, that much is true. But it also brought us heroes and hope after the darkness and despair. So I choose to remember that lesson when the world seems to have been tipped on its end and nothing is the same, I choose to hope.
So when the world seems heavy and dark, Patriots, hope. That hope will lead you to good people, and opportunities to be kind. Hope will brighten the world and lift those around you. We will never forget 9/11, just like we will never forget living in "unprecedented times." And I would like to think we will never forget to keep hope alive.
Love you all!
Book Fair Starts This Week
Did you know that the library gets a good chunk of funds to get new books each year from our book fair? We really want to support reading and making sure our Patriots have access to the latest and greatest books. With that in mind, let's have a little contest...
- If we reach $700.00 in sales we will have one dress-down day for the entire school.
- If we reach $1,500 we will have TWO DRESS DOWN days for the entire school.
Books make great gifts for all occasions and are an awesome tool to keep in your backpack to help improve and meet your SRI growth goals score for our winter testing.
Book Fair Help
Thank you so much to everyone that has signed up to help! I am always amazed at how this community comes together to support each other.
We only have TWO more spots to fill!!!
Please click on the link below to sign up and be a part of this long-standing PHJH tradition.
Remember Picture Day Is September 14th
Cafeteria Corner
All Things Athletics
Girl's Volleyball is ON FIRE!!!
Way to go ladies!!!
PHJH Boy's Soccer For The WIN
The PHJH Boy's Soccer team beat Summit Independence 9-0!!! The team has not been scored on once this year, and according to coach Pontiff are "improving every single game!"
It is so amazing to see how the team has grown this year!
Way to go Patriots.
Thank you, Mrs. Stejskal for the awesome pics.
Cross Country News
Cross country is halfway done with their season and so far have been working hard and getting some fast times! This week they have 2 meets and Thursday's meet is a home meet. Come and support them as they run their home course at the high school starting at 4:30!
Making Mango Smoothies In Ms. Pepper's Class
Ms. Pepper and Ms. Carpenter were excited to work with our students this week to gain the skills needed to be able to independently make mango smoothies. They did an awesome job and were excited to enjoy the fruits of their labor together.
Thanks for the invite Ms. Pepper and Ms. Carpenter!
Charcoal Art In Mrs. Petrucci's Class
This week our Patriots had lots of fun learning how to work with Charcoal to create beautifully shaded spheres.
You can't help but feel the love when you walk into art class here at PHJH.