Thunder News Flash – March 27, 2021

We are about to enter Holy Week, and for Christians this is the most important week of the year.  The week begins tomorrow with Palm Sunday, where we mark Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  We would usually celebrate this day by processing into church with our blessed palms, and hopefully as a family you will be able to find a way to make this day special at home.  We then focus our attention on the Easter Triduum beginning on the evening of Holy Thursday, followed by Good Friday and ending on Easter Sunday, where we celebrate the passion and resurrection of Jesus.  While we have just learned that churches may open for small groups of the faithful to celebrate Mass in person on special holy days, not all of us will have the opportunity to participate.  Even if we are at home, let’s try to focus on the special meaning of each of these days, with an understanding that this is the culmination of the entire liturgical year.  Even if we are at home, we need to spend these days suffering with Jesus and bearing the cross so that one day we may be worthy of rising with Him.

St. Ann’s Pre-School registration is taking place on Tuesday, March 30th from 10:00am to 2:00pm.  Registration forms can be picked up from the Parish Office, JoAnn Nixon or online.  To register you need the following:

• Registration form completely filled out and signed by both parents
• Emergency card
• $40 registration fee
• Copy of your child’s birth certificate
• Copy of your child’s Baptism certificate
• Immunization records
• 10 post-dated cheques payable to St. Ann’s Parish dated July 1/21; October 1 – December 1/21; January 1 – June 1/22

Fees are $175 for 4 year olds and $145 for 3 year olds.  For more information call the St. Ann’s Office at 604-852-5602.

Over Spring Break quite a bit of work was done on the construction project at St. John Brebeuf.  This included the paving of a portion of our staff parking lot on the south side of the portable, as well as a portion of the St. James’ Parish parking lot.  Please note that parking on the south and east sides of the portable are still reserved for our school staff to park, and any parents who need to park at the school should use the parent parking lot, or park on the street where parking is allowed.  Work on the parking lot is still not completed, so some additional work will be taking place after school hours – please be careful around any of the large construction equipment.

The purpose of the “Traveling Chalice” is to promote a “culture of vocations” (Pope St. John Paul II) through the prayers of families in their homes.  A Catholic family may request that the Chalice and the accompanying materials be loaned to their home for a period of one week.  Prayers for each day of the week (found in the loaned materials) are meant to foster the habit of praying for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, and to dispose family members to be attentive to God’s call.  “The Traveling Chalice” is an initiative of the Serra Clubs of Fraser Valley-West and Vancouver.  The Chalice and all accompanying materials are jointly owned by the same.  For you to have “The Traveling Chalice” visit your home, please phone 604-832-5802.

Please note that there will be no school on Friday, April 2nd for Good Friday and Monday, April 5th for Easter Monday.  The school will reopen on Tuesday, April 6th following the Easter long weekend.

Just a reminder that our next early dismissal day for our monthly staff meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 7th.  Please send your child to school with a snack and lunch, and they will be dismissed at 12:55pm.  

The next Work Bee will take place at the school on Saturday, April 10th from 9:00am – 2:00pm.  Please bring gloves for inside and outside work, and any cordless gardening tools to help with some landscaping work around the school.  As always, your hard work is most appreciated!

We would like to introduce our biggest fundraiser of the year:  Zumbathon 2021, which will be held on Friday, May 14th!  Due to the pandemic restrictions, we have decided that this year we will change our Annual Walkathon into a Zumbathon.  This event will be held with all the necessary protocols in place.

This year we are returning to a Prize Raffle for the Zumbathon Prizes.  Students will earn 1 raffle ticket for every $10 that they personally raise in pledges.  The students can then use these raffle tickets to put into the prize raffle of their choice.

The PFA has already started asking many businesses to donate prizes.  We are also asking the school families and businesses if they would consider donating a new item or cash to purchase a prize, so that we have a variety of prizes for all ages and interests.  If you are interested in donating a prize, please contact Juana Veters by clicking here.  Thank you for your consideration!

We look forward to sharing more information about Zumbathon with you after Spring Break, including what specific project we will be raising funds for this year!

The Province of BC has created a new Daily Health Check App for parents to use each morning to assess the health of their child before they head off to school.  This is a fun and interactive way to find out if you should stay home until you feel better, or get further health information by calling 811.  To use the Daily Health Check App on your desktop computer, please click here.  To download the app on your mobile device, please click here.

Parents are asked to complete a Daily Health Check of their children each morning before they come to school.  Please assess your child for the following symptoms:

• Fever
• Chills
• Cough or worsening of chronic cough
• Shortness of breath
• Loss of sense of smell or taste
• Diarrhea
• Nausea and vomiting

If your child has one of those symptoms, excluding fever, they should stay home for 24 hours from when the symptom started.  If the symptom improves, they may return to school when they feel well enough.  If the symptom persists or worsens, seek a health assessment.  If your child has two or more of the symptoms, or they have a fever, you should seek a health assessment for them.