Portae (newsletter) for 26 Sept 2013

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•••• Updates for 26 September 2013 ••••

Comal Co. Fair Float! Friday, 27 September 2013 – NO SCHOOL, Comal Co. Fair Day

This Friday, our school will be participating in the Comal Co. Fair. We really need students, parents, & families to participate on the float & walking with the float; this event counts as service hours! Please sign up at the school office.

Note: the theme will work off our Homecoming Theme, and so students will be asked to be in ’50’s dress: rolled up blue jeans, white shirts; the group is looking to borrow/use JPII letter jackets as well.

Please bring the letter jackets to JPII & Mrs. Haney will make sure they get back to the owner after the parade.

Those participating will need to meet Friday morning at 8 a.m. at the between West Cross St. on S. Sycamore Ave.; pick up will be at the Schlitterbahn parking lot on Union Street around noon.

Please contact Beth Haney at 830.708.3885 for additional information.

Get service hours for attending!

Catholic Life Sweepstakes - Thank you for the great start to the Catholic Life Sweepstakes! Students sold $2,440.00 worth of tickets the first week and Sarah Feider won the trip to the school spirit school. Today, everyone who has sold up to 10 tickets will be a winner, earning a Free Dress Pass to be used any Friday of the school year. Here are the next 3 weeks worth of incentives:
09/24/13 Sell 10 tickets Every student selling 10 tickets received ONE FRIDAY FREE DRESS PASS.
10/01/13 Sell 15 tickets Every student selling 15 tickets receives a donut in the morning.
10/09/13 Sell 20 tickets Every student selling 20 tickets gets ONE FRIDAY FREE DRESS PASS.

Day of Adoration: Annually, on 29 September, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Archangels, which is a Sunday this year. For a whole host of reasons (the Feast of St. Michael, our mascot the Guardian, our Guardian angels), we are planning a day of adoration on campus on Monday, 30 September. Students and teachers will have the opportunity to sign up for time slots during the day; we will end the day with a short benediction. Parents are invited to sign up for time slots, if interested. It will be a way to offer prayers for this community, for those within it, and for blessings received. (It will be a Travis shirt day as well.)

Home football game: This Friday, our varsity hosts Marble Falls Faith at 7:30 p.m. at the Judson grey campus. This is a no school day, so there won’t be a fan bus. Please plan on attending the game to support Guardian football.

Football team photos: Monday afternoon, 30 September 2013 @ 3:45 p.m. – Photo order envelopes were given to your athlete on Tuesday. Please bring the envelope with payment by Monday afternoon.

Academic Team: Over the last two weeks, Ms. Phelan has had up in the hallway, across from the library, sign-up sheets for the academic team. The academic team is the school organization that competes in academic meets through the winter semester, culminating with the TAPPS District Academic and Fine Arts Meet hosted here at JPII on Monday, 24 February 2014. The academic team organizes students to compete in a variety of events: math (3 different areas), science, spelling, current events, history, literature, and speaking events (like dramatic interpretation, prose, duet acting). Ms. Phelan will be our moderator this year, and she has enlisted help from all of our subject level teachers. We plan to have our academic team compete in a few “warm-up” meets hosted by area public schools, as lead up to the district meet. For 9^th grade families, academic team is like PSIA. For students interested in competing, they should see Ms. Phelan for more information.

Volunteering: Over the past number of years, we have had a major volunteering event for students on the last Saturday in February. On that evening, we assist the Knights of Columbus in New Braunfels with their event, Knight with the Seminarians. On that evening, they raise money for area seminarians and host them for a nice evening out. Our students have helped each year with serving the meal and with the entertainment (the choir sings at the 5 p.m. Mass). We will again be helping this year: Saturday, 22 February 2014, 5 p.m. Mass at Sts. Peter & Paul, followed by the event at 6:15 p.m. at the Knights Hall in New Braunfels. Last year, over sixty-five freshman, sophomores, & juniors answered the call to serve. Of course, that was far more than necessary.

In order to simplify this year, we are going to ask only our freshman to serve at the event. They will act as the catering staff, arriving at 4:15 p.m. to help with the setting of places and then serving and cleaning plates through the evening. Sign-ups will come in early January.

As was the case last year, our seniors will be invited to the event as special guest, be sure to save the date!

8^th grade tours: October is a big recruiting month for our school where we host area middle school 8^th graders. We welcome JPII parents of these parishes to be in attendance these mornings to greet our visitors, attend Mass, & help serve refreshments after Mass. Please plan on attending as many as your schedule allows: (We have a few more to schedule as well.)
Wednesday, 2 October – St. Monica
Wednesday, 9 October – OLPH
Tuesday, 15 October – Sts. Peter & Paul
Wednesday, 23 October – Rolling Hills Academy, Blessed Sacrament, & St. Thomas More

PSAT: The PSAT will be Wednesday, 16 October (Note: no Mass this day as it will be on the 15^th when we host our middle school visitors). This is a very important day for our freshman, sophomores, & especially juniors. Please make sure that your student gets to sleep early & eats a hearty breakfast.

4^th Annual Guardians GALA: Save the date: Our annual Guardians Gala will be held Wednesday, 20 November 2013. This year’s event honors Tom Peterson of Catholics Come Home. Please refer to the link: http://johnpaul2chs.org/?load=page&page=260 for additional information.

Upperclass retreat: Just a reminder -- we are looking for a few dads and a few moms to help with food/kitchen/site work at the upperclassmen retreat on Wednesday-Friday, 4-6 December 2013 at Camp HEB in Kerrville. Please contact Mrs. Harkins at pharkins@johnpaul2chs.org if you can volunteer.

Founders’ Day: Saturday, 9 November 2013 – 4^th annual chili cook-off at 10 a.m. with Powder Puff to follow. Please contact the school office if you are interested in volunteering for this year’s Founders’ Day events. The

Open House: This year we are planning on having our Open House during Founders’ Day. The hope is that this will be a well-attended event where prospective families can meet our JPII community and learn more about the great things that our school offers.

JPII Robotics team meetings! Meets every Wednesday, 3:45 – 4:45, Room 105