28 March 2024

Saint Armogastes and Companions

Griffin Families,

After nearly 40 days of penance and preparation, we have almost reached our goal. Now is the time for rejoicing.

Easter, the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection. This is the single most important feast day of the Church. In the words of the Eastern church calendar this is "the sacred and great Sunday of the Pasch, on which we celebrate the life-giving Resurrection of our Lord and God, the Savior Jesus Christ" (Francis X. Weiser, S.J., The Easter Book). With Christ's death and resurrection, Christ has conquered sin and death, the gates of heaven are now open to man. This is the Feast of Feasts, the Solemnity of Solemnities, the highest Feast of the Church, the holiest day of the year.

Yearbook Query - New Students

We have had a lot of questions regarding new students and whther their pictures would be in this year's yearbook. Mrs. Gumbert has confirmed that every student will have their headshot in the school yearbook for the 2023/2024 academic year.

8 Weeks of School

There are only 8 weeks of school left in this academic year. We politely request that you keep a close eye on communications during April and May as our weeks are FULL of many things which have deadlines, dates to remember and more. We will do our best to keep you in the loop through email and the school website!

Enrollment

If you have enrolled for 2024/2025 please remember that enrollment is only confirmed with payment of the enrollment fee. Everything is digital this year so please make sure you have completed the forms too.

Scholarship Applications

A separate communication will be sent out explaining how scholarship applications will be handled this year. In short, please note that in order to be considered for the St. Andrew Fund you must apply for the ACE Montana scholarship. You apply for both from the same login by toggling between the Institution at the top of the FACTS application page. Details may be found HERE (under Financial Aid).

Uniform Policy

There are NO CHANGES being made to the jumpers and skirts from Dennis Uniforms for the 2024/2025 year, so please go ahead and order new ones if needed. Any other changes to the uniform policy will be communicated to families at the end of April, after the April St. Andrew Board meeting.

Art Show

Next week is our Annual Art show. This is a prestigious event for our students with guest judges. Please consider attending to art from EVERY grade. Our judges this year include:

Artistic - Mrs. Janice Bogy , Mountain Sage Gallery
Montana's Finest - Montana Legislative Representative Zach Wirth, Wolf Creek
Devotion - Ms. Laura Fix, Benefactor, Island Liquors, Helena MT

And one of our awards has been donated by the Montana Historical Society.

Montana Youth Outdoors Experience

On Saturday, April 13th, the Montana Youth Outdoors Experience will be held at theLewis and Clark County Fairgrounds from 10 am to 3 pm.
They have reserved the Multi-Purpose Building, the promenade, an adjacent spacious lawn area, as well as the larger pavillion.
This event is free and open to the public.

Food will be available on site with cash/credit card payments. Youth, ages 7-17, and parents can join 30 to 40 outdoor wildlife and conservation-based organizations as well as agencies for a day packed with outdoor education, prizes, and fun. Activities such as archery, a climbing wall, marksmanship, backcountry mule packing, bear aware spraying, and many more will be offered. The kids and parents will also have the opportunity to learn about the many amazing summer camps featuring archery, marksmanship, rafting, fly casting, backpacking and sign up for their favorite one to attend.

These camps are free to families. These will be funded by the Montana Conservation Elders and the First Hunt Foundation. The camp expenses are funded by the First Hunt Foundation and Montana Conservation Elders through generous individual donors, grants and fundraising banquets. The goal of the Montana Conservation Elders is to get our youth engaged in outdoor fun and recreation that explore Montana’s beautiful public lands and wildlife.

They strive to teach the glorious history of conservation in our state.
For further information please visit www.mtconservationelders.org.

Helena Symphony Kids

It's the final Symphony Kids of the season. “The Bears’ Picnic” is a brand-new concert featuring Brahm’s Hungarian Dances. A family of bears goes on a picnic and ends up in a three-legged race against some haughty flamingos. This story will teach that music tells a story by itself as all of the actors will not have lines! Featuring the largest cast they’ve had so far with seasoned Grandstreet actors, this one will be super fun to attend!

The concert is on Saturday, April 6 at 10:00am.

Tick Season

This week we found a tick on the boot of one of our younger Griffins, which of course adds to the always exciting, never dull days at our school. Now that we have had offical confirmation, please remember that tick season has arrived.

Ticks are most prevalent during spring through fall. The tick bite tracker shows the majority of tick bites are from April all the way until the end of July. Try to limit exposure to ticks by using insect repellent. Make sure to inspect yourself, your clothing, your gear, and your pets for ticks after being outdoors.

3rd Grade Seminarian Visit

Thank you to Ms. O'Donnell and Mr. Kosiewicz for arranging visits from multiple Seminarians this week. Pictured here we see Ms. Cavalli's 3rd Grade class enjoying their time with Anthony Olmes.

Eucharistic Congress

Some of our upper school students visited the Eucharistic Congress this year and can be seen pictured below having deep and meaningful conversations with other visitors about their experiences and student-life at St. Andrew Catholic School.