Pictured is “Yellow Mellow” with teacher Melanie Dashner, and (L to R) Charlie Leiby, Isabella Schaub, Audrey Smith, Nick Dashner, and Annabelle Ackley.

The first graders are happy to see that 8 out of their 12 baby chicks hatch from their eggs. Under the direction of teacher Melanie Dashner, the students learned about the life cycle of birds in their science class while using an incubator for twenty-one days in the classroom. The survival of the chicks was in question with the most recent power outage causing the eggs to be without heat for 7 hours.
Thankfully, most of the baby chicks survived.

Congratulations Joe Pendergast, Paul Bardenhagen, Nick Shaffran, Ian Duvall, J.R. Duvall, and Joel Sneed!!!

For all team and individual results, click here!!

Dozens of quilts from baby to king-sized will be available for purchase. Inquiries can also be made to the quilters about custom-made quilts and restorations. Don’t forget to purchase delicious home-baked goodies baked by many of our “famous” St. Mary bakers!

As always, the highlight of the show will be the Annual Quilt Raffle! This year’s prize is a queen-sized quilt hand-embroidered by Gen LaCross and her daughters and hand-quilted by the St. Mary Quilters. The lucky winning ticket will be drawn on Memorial Day at 1 p.m. in the St. Mary Parish Social Hall. You do not need to be present to win!

Tickets are $1/each or 6/$5 and are available now in Lake Leelanau at the St. Mary Parish & Development Offices, Dick’s Pour House, and East Traverse Catholic Federal Credit Union. You may also purchase tickets after weekend Masses at St. Mary Parish or from any of the St. Mary Quilters. For more information, contact quilter Ruth Kalchik at 256-2568.

The individuals who will be out golfing to raise funds for St. Mary School are: Avery Bunek ‘95, Chris Cornell, Jim Barley, Syrena Rexroat ‘05, Mike Kirt Jr. ‘92, Keith Coleman, Dennis Fleis, Tom Alflen, Tim Schaub ‘79, Sam Hearne, Pete Miller, Don Korson, Lori Schaub, Roger Schaub ‘83, Josh Lawson, Craig Sumner, Bill Schaub ‘88, Chris Hanford, Stephen Tarsa ‘83, Jesse Gulley ‘99, Jeff Korson ‘77, and Doug Rexroat.

While some of these individuals are alumni, some are St. Mary School parents, some no longer have children attending St. Mary School, they all have one thing in common, they have a love for and belief in St. Mary School. They believe that it is the best place to educate children.

You may get asked  by one of these individuals for your support as they reach out for pledges. The proceeds of this fundraiser helps with the general operating budget of the school. Thanks to the support of many generous people, the profit margin for this event is nearly 100%.

If you would like to pledge a golfer, please contact committee co-chair Doug Rexroat at 256-8893 or drexroat@suttonsbaynet.com or Jeff Korson at 256-7538 or jkorson@nwbank.com.

Thank you in advance for your support

Leah Darrow sharing her story with our students.

Leah Darrow, former contestant on America’s Next Top Model, spoke to students from Lake Leelanau St. Mary School on Friday, April 27 about her reconversion to the Catholic faith. After describing the many difficulties of being a fashion model, Leah left a life of making $8,000 a day, sometimes $16,000 a day. After facing too many situations where her dignity as a woman was being compromised, she decided to walk away from it all.

While being on the set of America’s Next Top Model, Darrow discussed how the cameramen would follow her around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There was no privacy. After the show, Leah continued with modeling until one day it hit her, she had to leave. She called her father and said to him, “If you don’t come and get me, I’m going to lose my soul.” Her father got into his car and drove from Missouri to New York to pick up his daughter.

Leah Darrow is the self-professed ‘Prodigal Daughter’. For Leah, her slow fade from her Catholic faith didn’t happen overnight; it developed with bad choices, missed opportunities and choosing a comfortable life versus an extraordinary life. All this changed during one special photo shoot in which God allowed her to see her soul in its current state. This extraordinary and supernatural grace gave her the courage to change every aspect of her life. Leah attributes her true conversion and fortitude to the power of the rosary and the Blessed Mother.

Leah graduated with honors from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with a BA degree in Psychology. She has since been traveling the country promoting the message of conversion, the rosary and the mercy of God. Leah feels called, especially, to remind and reawaken the virtuous gifts women can contribute to the world, therefore changing the world.

Ms. Darrow now travels across the world speaking the message of chastity and modesty. In addition to her talk on Friday with students from the Catholic Diocese of Gaylord, Leah spoke to students in Onaway, Petoskey and Gaylord.

WHAT:     Design a logo for St. Mary School to be used on all public relations, letterhead, website, etc. throughout our anniversary year.

WHEN:     DUE THURSDAY, MAY 24. Winning design will be announced on Tuesday, May 29.

WHERE:     mail to: St. Mary School, P.O. Box 340, Lake Leelanau, MI 49653
or e-mail to: Marie Hahnenberg, Development Director

WHY:     To help YOUR school/alma mater celebrate its sesquicentennial!

HOW:     The winning design will be selected by the St. Mary School Administration & Development Office staff.

Click here for the contest form and more details.

QUESTIONS? Contact the Development Office at 231-256-9670 or via email at mhahnenberg@stmarysll.org.

Pictured is Rev. Michael Janowski, Kelsie Cornell and Kelsie’s sponsor, sophomore Ariel Couturier.

St. Mary freshman Kelsie Cornell received the Sacraments of Initiation at St. Mary Catholic Church in Lake Leelanau on Saturday, April 7 at the Easter Vigil Mass. Kelsie received the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist.

Sophomores Kaelyn Tarsa (left) and Christina Amalfitano at the 2012 GTARTL Oratory Contest

St. Mary School had eight contestants in the 2012 Robert DeVol Memorial Pro-Life Oratory Contest which took place on March 15 at Kohler Auditorium at St. Francis High School. Sophomore Kaelyn Tarsa won $100 with her second place speech and Christina Amalfitano won a $50 prize with her 3^rd place speech. Both girls spoke out about the evils of Infanticide. Other subjects covered by St. Mary students were euthanasia (Shayna Sumner-10^th, and Nicole Falkiewicz-11^th) and human cloning (Maeve Alflen-10^th, Leif Mohrman,-11^th, Rachael Thon-11^th, and Michael Farese-10^th). All contestants received a T-shirt for National Pro-Life T-shirt Day compliments of Grand Traverse Area Students for Life. The prize money was partially funded by the local Knights of Columbus chapters and the contest was sponsored by the Grand Traverse Area Right to Life and the Grand Traverse Area Students for Life.

I am happy to report that because of our generous donors, in 2011, we saw a 30% increase in donations from the previous year, 2010. Even in difficult, financial times, God provides incredible people who are willing to support our mission!

Thank you for your prayers, because without your prayers, we could not do what we do. Our school would not succeed without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the intercession of Our Lady and all of your prayers.

Because of the incredible generosity of our benefactors, we were able to upgrade the technology in all of our classrooms and install a total of 12 interactive SMART Boards. In 2011, we saw an increase of tuition assistance requests and thankfully, because of our “guardian angels” donors, we have met our goal of providing tuition assistance to school families this school year.

May God bless all of you as we continue to work together to ensure the current and future success of our students at St. Mary School.

-Marie Hahnenberg (‘98 alum), Development Director