Author: admin

The tradition to help families in need at Christmas is still alive after more than twenty years at St. Charles College.

This year almost twenty-five families will have gifts to put under the tree for their children thanks to the Cards.

Homerooms pool money together in the weeks leading up to Christmas and then go shopping with the child’s pre-made list in hand.

Deacon Steve Callaghan, the school Chaplain spearheads the initiative yearly, “Each homeroom essentially adopts a child or children within a family attending one of its feeder schools and supplies gifts for the children.” To keep annonymity and respect the families privacy, Deacon Steve delivers the parcels to the parents in the days leading up to Christmas through the help of the feeder school Principals.

Principal Patty Mardero says “The initiative falls in line with the Ontario Catholic Graduate Expectation five which focuses on students becoming collaborative contributors inside of the walls of the school but also helping students beyond that in the greater community.”

As part of a letter writing unit in Literacy studies, students in teacher Sarah Bock’s grade seven class at St. Charles College are writing war veterans. 

The students are writing the letters in an effort to show veterans why there are valued. The unit ties in nicely to the Remembrance Day theme. 

Bock says in the past, her students have written troops in combat but she thought it would be an interesting twist to write veterans who have served in the past. 

Once completed and assessed, the letters will be mailed out to veterans listed on the Veteran Affairs website through a campaign called “Postcards for Peace.”