The Business Professionals of America state executive council has selected senior Rachel Amalfitano as the 2012 National Anthem singer for the BPA Annual State Leadership Conference.

Rachel will perform the National Anthem at the opening session/parade of presidents on Friday, March 23, 2012 at the DeVos Place Convention Center Ballroom.

Congratulations Rachel!!

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On January 11, part of National Vocations Awareness Week, St. Mary School in Lake Leelanau hosted Colonel Victor Kuchar (pictured), a Michigan native, who has dedicated his life to serve the poor in India and Afghanistan. His visit to the school launched “2012 in 2012,” an initiative St. Mary School has created to raise $2,012 for an orphanage in India and collect 2,012 pounds of blankets, shoes, coats and clothing for Afghani refugees. Colonel Kuchar spoke about his work with the Sisters of Charity in India and how they care for babies just hours old to lepers, to those with cancer, to those with HIV and the elderly.

All community members are welcome to participate. Drop off location is Lake Leelanau Excavating beginning January 23, 8am-4:30pm, Monday-Fridays. The hope is to reach our goal by the end of February.

Click here for 9&10 News coverage on this story.

The Thanksgiving food offering generated 355# of food for the Leelanau Christian Neighbors Food Pantry, and $403.53 was generated through the jeans day collection and an anonymous donation.  Together that will provide almost two tons of food for needy families in Leelanau County.  Congratulations to the fourth grade, who contributed the most per student, and the most overall, to the jeans day collection.  Enjoy your pizza!  And a big thanks to Caleb Korson (sr), Kevin Schaub (sr), Nicole Falkiewicz (jr), and Leif Mohrman (jr) from Student Council, who organized and carried out the project.

The 2011-12 Faculty Council of the St. Mary Honor Society will be nominating high school students for membership in the school chapter, who will be inducted at a ceremony following Mass on December 14th. To be eligible, students must be in 10^th-12^th grades, have a cumulative gpa of 3.25 or better, and meet high standards of leadership, service, and character. Leadership is based on the student’s participation in community or school activities, including holding a position of leadership. To meet the service requirement the student must have been active in service projects in the school and community. Character is measured in terms of integrity, behavior, ethics, and loyalty to the school and to school policies.

This year’s officers are president Ashley Grant, vice president Sarah Popp-Trevino, secretary Nicole Falkiewicz, treasurer Kevin Schaub, induction chair Taylor Moore, and service chair Anna Mikowski. The members of the St. Mary chapter provide service to the school on a regular basis, including office coverage during lunch and friends of St. Mary Preschool at Wednesday Mass. They also volunteer at the DHS Holiday Store each December.

An earlier student wrote in an essay about membership in the chapter:

“The National Honor Society is made up of students with excellent academic records and extracurricular achievements.  However I believe the NHS is more than a reward for making the honor roll.  The National Honor Society is about being a good citizen, and helping those around you develop their skills and talents, even if they aren’t the best students.  You serve your community and lend a helping hand to those who are less fortunate, help others achieve their goals to become better students and people….”

The Annual St. Mary School Auction brought in approximately $68,000!! Four couples joined together to get the “Dinner with the Bishop, Father, and Friends” for a whopping $13,000 at last weekend’s event—the highest winning bid for any item at a St. Mary School auction!!

The next highest item was a painting done by local artist, speed painter Martina Hahn. In the middle of the live auction, the room was darkened and inspirational music played while Martina put on an awe-inspiring show, creating a five foot square painting of the Face of Jesus (pictured). The audience was silent for those seven minutes and was so moved that four couples put their hearts and wallets together to bid $12,000 for the painting which they then donated to the school. The picture will be hung in the school gymnasium in the near future.

Rounding out the top live auction items were:

3. an authentic Italian dinner hosted by Josh Lawson, Jim Menna, and Dale Boone for six to eight guests—$6,000

4. a one-week stay in a condo on beautiful Sanibel Island, FL, donated by Mary Jo Schuld & Sr. Colette Jolie—$2,100

T5. framed photo of our four bishops of the Diocese of Gaylord, signed by each of the bishops—$2,000

T5. a soup cooking class for eight or soup tasting evening for sixteen (bidder’s choice) by soup chef Janet Alpers—$2,000

7. & 8. two reserved pews for a Christmas Mass at St. Mary Parish—$1,500 each

9. a one-week stay in a condo in Cancun—$1,300

10.”Trust in God” quilt courtesy of the 3rd Grade class, quilter Cheryl Bunek, and helper Jozell Rexroat—$900

11. a clay manger set made by the 5th grade class—$625

The class “baskets” were a big hit as always. The top two baskets are listed above. In all, the twelve class entries brought in $4,200 bringing the live auction total to over $51,000!

Thank you to everyone who donated the many items that were available for bidding! Thank you to everyone who attended the auction and especially to everyone who bid on the items, making the 2011 auction the most successful to date!

Thank you to the student athletes for providing free child care for parents attending the auction. A special thank you to Julie Thon, and Tom & Paula Alflen for providing the adult supervision this year!!

A very special thank you to second year chair Sonja Morton and her many, many helpers who helped in ways too numerous to list—you have once again done a fantastic job hosting this event.

Thank you to Grand Traverse Balloons
for the wonderful hands-on science lab on our campus!!

This morning, students learned about ballooning history, the physics of a hot air balloon, saw how the burners work, and some students even helped with the logistics of inflating the balloon.

Have you always wanted to take flight
over the beautiful Grand Traverse Bay Area
in a seven story tall hot air balloon?!!

YOU can enjoy the sunrise and view of East Bay and West Bay, the Chain-O-Lakes,
and the beautiful Northern Michigan landscape from as high as 2,000 – 3,000 feet.

Come to the St. Mary School Auction this Saturday and bid on the “Up, Up, and Away” package on the live auction. Good for two passengers Monday thru Friday from May through September 2012.

All children 5 and younger are welcome to join us along with their parents at Growing with God! We meet every Tuesday from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the St. Mary School cafeteria. For the month of November we are exploring the theme, “Giving Thanks.” We are learning new songs and Bible verses. Please join us! For more information contact the Development Office at 256-9670, ext. 500.

2010 St. Mary BPA Regional Winners

Business Professionals of America students are holding their annual sub sale.
The subs are assembled with all the freshest ingredients by the students and are DELICIOUS!!
They also freeze very well!!

A package of five subs is $20.
A single sub is $5.

Contact any BPA student to order yours now!! 

Proceeds of the Annual Sub Sale benefit the St. Mary School Regional competitors.

You may also contact Mrs. MaryAnn Korson, BPA Advisor,
mkorson@stmarysll.org or 256-9636 ext. 302

St. Mary School has installed nine SMARTBoards in the Kindergarten through 6th grade classrooms and the MS/HS math and science rooms. With 18 classrooms in the school, we have reached the half-way point of our goal to install SMARTBoards in every classroom. Thank you to ALL our generous donors!!

To see what a difference this can make for our students learning, watch this video:

YouTube SmartBoard Ease of Use Video

If you would like to make a contribution toward this important technological advance at St. Mary School, please contact the St. Mary School Development Office at 256-9670; mail your donation to St. Mary School, P.O. Box 340, Lake Leelanau, MI 49653; or make a contribution online via PayPal (Click on “Donate” in the upper right corner of the page to donate online).